Performance Evaluation of Surfactant and Demulsifier in Crude Oil Emulsion Treatment

The Oil and Gas Industry is faced with problems caused by the formation of water-in-crude oil emulsions and crude oil in water emulsion resulting in the loss of a huge sum of money to treat and for the market specification. The existence of water along with the crude oil that is being produced is undesirable because of problems directly correlated to foaming, corrosion of pipelines and tanks, higher power consumption, and increased volume and viscosity. Several methods have been employed to solve these problems, but still, open due to inefficiency and divergence of views. The choice of surfactant and what concentration have been a challenge for proper dissolution of the emulsion. Hence, this project work covers Chemical treatment of Crude oil emulsions which occurred in AGBD2 063T & OBGN 007L using different concentration (1, 2, 3 & 4ml) of Texapon (Surfactant) and 10ml of Hexane (Demulsifier) and repeated using different concentration (5, 7, 8 & 10mls) of Hexane (Demulsifier) and 1ml of Texapon (Surfactant). It was observed that after 4 hours at an increasing concentration (5, 7, 8 & 10mls) of Demulsifier and constant concentration (1ml) of Surfactant the percentage (20, 13, 35.6 & 37.7%) of water/crude oil recovered is minimal compared to the percentage (45.7, 41.2, 39.4 & 28.1%) of water/crude oil recovered at an increasing concentration (1, 2, 3 & 4ml) of Surfactant and constant concentration (10ml) of Demulsifier for AGBD2 063T crude oil sample. Also, it was noticed that after 4 hours at an increasing concentration (5, 7, 8 & 10mls) of Demulsifier and constant concentration (1ml) of Surfactant the percentage (10, 42.6, 40 & 48.6%) of water/crude oil recovered is minimal compared to the percentage (47.1, 41.2, 39.4 & 40.6%) of water/crude oil recovered at an increasing concentration (1,2,3 & 4ml) of Surfactant and constant concentration (10ml) of Demulsifier for OBGN 007L crude oil sample. Therefore, lower concentration (1ml) of surfactant and higher concentration (10ml) of demulsifier yields (37.7, 45.7, 48.6 & 47.1%) an efficient water/crude oil recovery percentage for both AGBD2 063T & OBGN 007L. Hence, it is recommended that different surfactants and demulsifiers should be used to carry out the same research to ascertain the validity of the conclusion.