Naphthenate scales and carboxylate soap emulsions have become increasingly evident issues as more marginal crudes are sourced and through greater awareness. These issues are not new but the potential severity and increased occurrence highlights the need for successful management and the importance to field development and expansion. This paper provides a comprehensive and up-to-date resource for successful management of naphthenate/carboxylate issues. The paper is aimed at development projects, during flow assurance assessments as well as existing operations trying to manage naphthenate/carboxylate issues, and attempts to bring together all available information to provide a holistic approach to management.

There is a number of different control approaches published in the literature and in the author's experience. No definitive solution has been identified but this paper provides a review of varying strategies for mitigation that if appreciated early or even later in production life, can result in successful management. Previously, operational problems caused by naphthenate/carboxylate have occurred in production facilities, which then require remedial efforts and significant chemical treatment. As more knowledge is available, effort has been applied to the development stage through new innovative system designs. These combine identification and understanding with process design, operational practices, chemical treatment and remedial efforts. No particular approach is more effective but should be tailored to the development and how the problem manifests itself. Equally there is no ‘magic-bullet’ currently to these problems but nevertheless, with good understanding and considered application of different approaches, these naphthenate/carboxylate problems can be successfully managed.

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