American Oil and Gas Reporter - February 2022 - 65

SpecialReport: Oil Field Chemistry
Disney points to the example of hydrogen
sulfide scavenging. Because it
has become so challenging to obtain
MEA triazine, the industry is vetting alternative
chemistries. " In natural gas
pipeline applications where the scavenger
is atomized into the gas, several emerging
chemistries seem to be more effective
than MEA triazine, " he reports.
Once the global supply chain disruptions
ease, Disney predicts most traditional
chemistries will come back into favor.
" These chemistries have many manufacturers
and distributors throughout the
United States, which has driven efficiencies
that reduce costs, " he explains.
To prepare for future supply chain disruptions,
Disney urges chemical suppliers
and their clients to continue investigating
alternatives. " Given how much supply
chain costs can affect price and availability,
we cannot afford to be one-trick ponies
for a specific problem or application, " he
argues. " We need a variety of effective
chemistries that we can produce with different
precursors. Ideally, these precursors
should come from multiple industries so
we can shift our supply base in the event
of a hiccup in one industry. "
Testing's Importance
Developing a more resilient supply
chain will require help from operators
who are willing to try novel chemistries,
Disney notes. " If chemical suppliers want
operators to do that, we have to anticipate
their questions and do enough laboratory
testing to address concerns and validate
the new chemistry's benefits, " he says.
" We also need to be upfront about what
we can reasonably predict from lab tests
and any remaining unknowns. "
Disney says local laboratories can be a
powerful aid to innovation. While that is
partly because it's faster and less expensive
to send samples to nearby labs, there are
other benefits. " We can tell people, 'Our
lab is 10 minutes down the road from
your office. Why not come by and watch
some of the tests?' " Disney says. " When
operators know the people who perform
the tests and have seen the equipment we
use, they have a higher level of trust. "
Over the past several years, Disney
As global supply chain disruptions have increased prices for and limited availability of traditional
chemistries, chemical suppliers and operators have begun testing alternatives on
a large scale. According to Jacam Catalyst, a few of these alternatives are delivering such
strong performance that they may become the chemistry of choice in specific applications.
says operators have taken a much greater
interest in the science behind chemistry.
" They not only want to know what chemistry
we recommend, but why we selected
it and the testing we performed to confirm
it is the right product and to identify the
right concentration. In other words, they
want to make sure they are solving problems
without overtreating. "
Once the chemistry is in the field, Jacam
Catalyst uses chemical residual tests, corrosion
coupons and other tools to determine
if the concentrations have been optimized
fully and to spot leading indicators of potential
problems. Disney mentions that
customers increasingly want chemical treatments
to address several issues at once.
" In the past, a customer might have
been concerned primarily about corrosion
or scale, " he recalls. " Today, in addition
to minimizing corrosion and scale, they
also may want to address iron, paraffin
or other issues. In response, we are developing
more combination products that
solve three or four problems simultaneously
rather than focusing on one or two.
" These products are more complex to
create because we have to account for
interactions between their components, "
Disney notes. " However, the benefits can
be significant. For example, producers
often get better fluid separation and higher-quality
fluids, which can translate to
more efficient disposal. "
Long-Lasting Treatments
Even before supply chain disruptions
increased triazine's cost, there were strong
reasons to consider other scavengers, assesses
Deanna Callahan, technical engineering
manager at Tall City Exploration
III, a Permian Basin operator. " Triazine
is relatively inexpensive and readily available,
but it can pose environmental, health
and safety risks. Triazine and its byproducts
can be corrosive, so when we use it,
we have procedures and equipment in
place to keep people, facilities and the
environment safe.
" Triazine is short-lived and needs to
be continuously applied, " she adds. " Some
of the new chemistries are able to scavenge
more completely and remain active longer.
On top of being safer for the environment
and less damaging to casing, they can be
more effective. "
To increase their longevity, both new
chemistries and traditional staples can
be encapsulated in a coating that gradually
releases the chemistry. Callahan says Tall
City is working with LFS Chemistry to
test a coating that only releases the
FEBRUARY 2022 65

American Oil and Gas Reporter - February 2022

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