SPE Romanian Section

Created in 1961 with just three lecturers, the Distinguished Lecturer Program is funded primarily by the SPE Foundation through member donations and a contribution from Offshore Europe. We also appreciate the companies that allow their professionals to serve as lecturers and the additional support from AIME. More than 450 presentations are offered each year.

On November 12th 2018, SPE Romanian Section had the privilege to have Mrs. Snezana Sevic, the first Distinguished Lecturer of 2018-2019 Season, who talked about inorganic scale build up and efficient systems for scale-control. We also met Mr. Zbigniew Labencki, Technical Sales Supper Manager, presenting few case studies describing the challenges to descale various elements of equipment and Mr. Ion Nicolae, Senior Engineer Flow Assurance at OMV Petrom, who presented a global view of inorganic scale formation and challenges in dealing with it.

Abstracts:

Snezana Sevic

Zbigniew Labencki

Ion Nicolae

Event Agenda

I.CP.T Campina – Walkthrough

Being one of the most advanced research center in Europe, we had the pleasure to have a walkthrough together with our guests and go through different laboratories connected to the scaling problems and water quality evaluation.

Welcome and Introduction

Mr. Ionut Dragoi, Head of ICPT Campina, opened the SPE Descaling Symposium with a safety moment and an introduction into ICPT Campina’s main objectives and vision. Describing different laboratories and works that are done in the research center.

Figure 1 – Mr. Ionut Dragoi, Head of ICPT Campina

The event continued with the introduction of the guests, done by Mr. Radu Patrascu, SPE Romanian Section Program Chairperson.

The first presenter was Mr. Ion Nicolae, Senior Flow Assurance Engineer at OMV Petrom, who talked about inorganic scale formation and challenges in dealing with it in OMV Petrom and worldwide.

Figure 2 – Mr. Ion Nicolae, Flow Assurance Engineer, OMV Petrom

Mr. Ion Nicolae discussed about Flow Assurance as the discipline dealing with the risks in oil and gas production arising from the properties and behavior of the transported fluids. Flow Assurance governs the success of the fluid journey from reservoir to point of delivery (sale). Inorganic scale is one of the key words of this discipline witch try to solve problems created by fluids produced from production wells.
Scale deposition can occur on tubular surfaces reduces the fluid flow by reducing cross-sectional area and increasing surface roughness and often cause fluid flow restriction within reservoir rock, due to blockage of pores. Scale can form on heat exchanger surfaces reduced heat transfer properties that cause declines in efficiency and can lead to hazardous conditions.
Control of scale deposition is a big challenge including operational measures, chemical methods, non-chemical methods and removal methods also.

The event continued with the presentation of Mr. Zbigniew Labencki, Technical Sales Support Manager at Schlumberger. Zbigniew Labencki holds MSc and MA from University of Gdansk (Poland) and MSc from University of Aberdeen (UK). He has more than 10 years’ experience in the O&G industry. The main responsibilities include technical and operational support of scale and NORM deposits removal activities, as well as overall management of DeScal team performance.

Figure 3 – Mr. Zbigniew Labencki, Technical Sales Support Manager, Schlumberger

Mr. Labencki presented few case studies describing the challenge to descale various elements of equipment, using a selection of proprietary scale dissolvers deployed on different scale, including NORM.
Mineral scale deposition causes leading to costly repair or replacement. Scale deposition build-up may be constituted of sulphide, sulphate, carbonate or elemental NORM (Normally Occurring Radioactive Material) scale. Dealing quickly, effectively and safely with downhole scale deposition is key for a maximum value of producing asset. Sometimes the scale is also NORM and here the safety factor is becoming crucial, due to the radioactive nature of the contamination, which demands all special precautions to be applied. The examples presented were from topside applications and also downhole deployments.

The last presentation of the event was held by our Distinguished Lecturer, Mrs. Snezana Sevic, Process Chemistry Specialist at PM Lucas Enterprise. Snezana Sevic is a process chemistry specialist at PM Lucas Enterprises. She holds BSc, MS, and PhD degrees in chemical engineering from Technological Faculty, University of Novi Sad. Sevic has 36 years` experience in the oil and gas industry. Worked in more than 50 projects in Serbia, Mexico, Kazakhstan and Russia.

Figure 4 – Mrs. Snezana Sevic, SPE Distinguished Lecturer, Process Chemistry Specialist at PM Lucas Enterprise

Snezana Sevic lecture was focus on describing an effective management system for Avoiding Inorganic Scale Problems, system that she developed recently in her activity. A Management System to Avoid Inorganic Scale Problems starts with a risk assessment to identify potential scale locations, probabilities, and magnitudes over the life of the asset. The next step is to develop a strategy for proactive scale control and establish a well-organized monitoring program to provide full insight into treatment performance. Validation of the applied mitigation methods, will lead to permanent optimization of the process and big savings in operating costs.

Mrs. Snezana Sevic presented two case studies describing the development of such scale management system:

– one using chemical injection with results showing a marked increase in the run life of installed ESPs in oil producing wells;
– the other which provided successful CaSO4 scale control in source water wells and reduced PCPs failures.

We want to thank SPE Foundation for the chance to have Mrs. Snezana Sevic as our Distinguished Lecture and ICPT Campina and Mr. Ionut Dragoi for hosting this event and all the support that was offered to make it happen.

Thank you to all attendees.