| | 
Oilfield chemicals from BASF help in extracting the sought-after raw material crude oil from the ground more efficiently. The global marketfor oilfield chemicals has now reached a volume of around 3 billion Euros with an estimated annual growth of 5 percent.
Prices for crude oil keep climbing to new record levels, brief phases of respite usually turn out to be the calm before the next assault on the summit. Bad news because the entire world economy depends on the black gold either as an energy source or a raw material for the chemical industry. Since the late 1960s, the volume of newly discovered oil deposits has declined sharply whilst consumption is continuing to rise. Another 50 years, estimates the Association of the German Petroleum Industry, is how long the currently known reserves will last. Admittedly, such estimates are contested among experts because no one really knows how muchoil the earth’s crust contains. The real question is how much of thesesubterranean resources can be brought to the surface at a justifiablecost using existing technologies. The pressure in the oil reservoir forces only the first 3 percent of a deposit to the surface, and 10 to20 percent can be raised with traditional pumping technology. But gaining access to at least part of the remaining oil requires the use of more advanced technologies and support from chemistry.
“From the first test drill onwards, BASF products accompany the entire production process and allow the deposits to be accessed much more intensively. Only with these materials can we achieve an oilfield yield of 30 percent and more”, explains Dr. Gregor Brodt, responsible for the development and applications technology of oilfield chemicals at BASF. Therange of products offered is as diverse and varied as the raw materialitself. Crude oil quality extends from viscid, almost tarry heavy oils to very light, tea-colored variants. Specially selected oilfield chemicals are used from the drilling to the production stage: the drill head has to be cooled and lubricated, the cuttings dispersed and flushed upwards; the technical process is optimized by additives to the drill flushing fluid circulating in the closed system. Other chemicals prevent the surrounding rock formations from swelling, which could otherwise trap the drill or even cause it to snap.
But drilling alone is not the whole story. The boreholes have to be stabilized as faras the oil-bearing stratum with a circular jacket of concrete. Additives are used to control the flow and setting time of the concrete. Oildoesn’t just lie around in underground lakes waiting to be pumped to the surface. Rather, it is enclosed in porous rock formations that onlygrudgingly yield up their riches. To promote the flow of oil, the tiny pores in the limestone are widened with the aid of hydrochloric acid. Unfortunately, this attacks also the valuable production facilities– so corrosion inhibitors are used to protect the sensitive equipment.To prevent the widened pores from closing again special support materials called proppants are required. These include special sands produced by the US company Engelhard recently acquired by BASF. This sand can be pumped like a liquid into the pores that have been created, whereit produces a maximum of hollow spaces through which the oil can. The inherent pressure within the deposit rapidly decreases, but is usually maintained by forcing water into the deposit through injection boreholes. The water then mixes with the extracted crude oil – a water content of up to 95 percent is not unusual. This is where the customizeddemulsifiers come in, special surfactants which greatly accelerate theseparation of oil and water.
BASF oilfield chemicals, specially developed to be environmentally friendly, therefore contribute inmany ways to utilizing more intensively the available crude oil reserves. “And this is still the best way of gaining valuable time in our search for alternatives to crude oil as an energy source”, comments Dr.Klaus Picard, Managing Director of the Association of the German Petroleum Industry. “Because every percent by which we can increase the yield from existing deposits meets a whole year’s global consumption requirements.”
| |
