By Amy Wright


Today, petroleum fuels power the world. The fuels are mined from different areas worldwide. Among the regions that is most popular for its large oil resource deposits is the Middle East. Many economies in the area depend on oil a lot. Africa, the United States, and Russia are other countries with huge oil resources. This is what Paraffin Removal Oil Wells are all about.

There many challenges involved in the process of removing oil from its deposits. Formation of organic deposits inside and around the wellbore is among one of the most occurring problems. The deposits can be grouped into two major groups. The two are asphaltenes and paraffin. These deposits occur in the tubing or pores of reservoir rocks.

Three major groups of compounds are contained in crude oil. These compounds are resins and asphaltenes, aromatic hydrocarbons, and saturated hydrocarbons, which are also called paraffins. Paraffins and aromatic hydrocarbons make the highest composition in crude oil, while asphaltenes and resins make only a small percentage. Bitumens, tars, and other more degraded crudes on the other hand contain more asphaltenes and resins compared to paraffins and aromatic hydrocarbons.

Paraffins are high-molecular-weight alkanes that form in wellbores, feed line, and other spaces and components in boring arrangements. Usually, the thickness of the deposits increases over time and after growing to large sizes, they can cause a considerable reduction in the production of oil. After reaching this level, some remedial steps should be taken so that full production can be restored.

Deposits usually range in hardness from very hard to brittle deposits. The deposits usually get bigger and firmer as the molecular weight of the paraffins increases. In most cases paraffins and asphaltenes occur separately, but in some cases, they occur together. The deposition is usually caused by the loss of solubility of the crude oil involved. Loss of solubility is caused by several factors such as changes in content of the oils and change in pressure and temperature.

There are various techniques used in removal of paraffins. To make the removal process of paraffins faster and easier, new techniques have been invented in the course of time. As such, today there exist many methods. These techniques can be grouped into 3 major groups. The three include use of heat for melting and removing the wax, use of chemical solvents, and mechanical removal.

Mechanical methods involve the use of knives and scrappers to remove the deposits of wax in wellbores. Mechanical methods vary in the level of efficiency depending on the factors surrounding the deposits. These methods are relatively inexpensive to use. They are used a lot by many companies on their oil fields.

The second most applied method after mechanical is the use of chemical solvents. Under this technique, crude oil is smeared on the walls of the wellbore in order to remove paraffins. In order for the crude oils to work effectively they are heated to about 300 degree Fahrenheit. Gravity is then used in injecting or feeding the hot oils into the wellbore. The hot solution dissolves all the wax before it is pumped back to the surface.




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