Mitigation of elemental sulfur deposition during production of hydrocarbon gases
AssigneeBP Corporation North America Inc.
InventorsDerry Eddy, Kean Zemlak
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Abstract
Methods of producing a sour hydrocarbon gas via production tubing intersecting a reservoir, are described, one method including contacting an underground reservoir with an aqueous composition optionally comprising an additive, the reservoir comprising hydrocarbons and sulfur compounds; displacing the composition into the reservoir by forcing a fluid (which may be a non-hydrocarbon gas, or inert gas, or nitrogen, or argon, or mixture thereof), into the reservoir, or into the production tubing; and producing at least some of the hydrocarbons and sulfur compounds from the reservoir through the production tubing, the composition wetting the production tubing and preventing substantial deposition of elemental sulfur thereon.
Claims21
A method of producing a sour hydrocarbon gas from a reservoir, the method comprising:
- a) injecting an aqueous composition into a well within the reservoir so as to contact at least a portion of the reservoir with the aqueous composition, the well having an annulus and production tubing, and the reservoir comprising hydrocarbons and sulfur compounds;
- b) injecting a fluid into the well to force the aqueous composition further into the reservoir;
- and
- c) producing at least some of the hydrocarbons and sulfur compounds mixed with the aqueous composition from the reservoir via the production tubing, the aqueous composition wetting the production tubing and preventing substantial deposition of elemental sulfur on to the production tubing.
12 The method in accordance with claim 1 wherein (a) comprises injecting the aqueous composition into the well through the production tubing, the annulus, or combinations thereof.
A method of producing a sour hydrocarbon gas from a reservoir, the method comprising:
- a) injecting an aqueous composition into a well within the reservoir so as to contact at least a portion of the reservoir with the aqueous composition, the well having production tubing, and the reservoir comprising hydrocarbons and sulfur compounds;
- b) injecting a fluid into the well to force the aqueous composition further into the reservoir;
- c) producing at least some of the hydrocarbons and sulfur compounds mixed with the aqueous composition from the reservoir, the aqueous composition wetting the production tubing and preventing substantial deposition of elemental sulfur on the production tubing;
- d) monitoring the hydrocarbon gas being produced for one or more indications of elemental sulfur being deposited on the production tubing;
- and
- e) repeating (a) through (c) after the monitoring in (d) indicates substantial deposition of elemental sulfur.
A method of producing a sour hydrocarbon gas from a reservoir, the method comprising:
- a) providing a production tubing string comprising one or more mandrels, the production tubing string intersecting the reservoir comprising hydrocarbons and sulfur compounds;
- b) contacting the internal surfaces of the production tubing string with an aqueous composition using the one or more mandrels;
- and
- c) producing at least some of the hydrocarbons and sulfur compounds mixed with the aqueous composition from the reservoir, the aqueous composition wetting the internal surface of the production tubing string and preventing substantial deposition of elemental sulfur on the production tubing string.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.