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Summary
Crude Oil Quality Association
Additives Subcommittee
Houston, TX
May 30, 2002


Automated Samplers for Additive Detection
- Pat Donahoe and Troy Baker of Brinkmann Instruments presented their Karl Fischer Oven Processor for automated sample processing. The Oven Processor saves considerable time in sample preparation and analysis. It also establishes a baseline, which is continuously monitored, eliminating instrument drift and possible operator error during calibration. The Oven Processor is currently primarily utilized for Karl Fischer testing but Brinkmann is very interested in expanding its use to any process that requires repetitive testing for minute amounts, such as additive tracking.

Typical Production Chemicals and Usage Rates
- The facilitator shared tables from a web site that show estimated usage volumes for production. Lynn Frostman of Baker Petrolite brought the tables to the Facilitator’s attention. The tables can be found on:
http://www.gomr.mms.gov/homepg/whatsnew/techann/01011.html.

Contacts for Survey Distribution - Each attendee was asked for an opinion on where the group should next proceed, especially in regards to the survey published by the COQA last year. Suggestions and comments follow:

  • Positive feedback on the survey
  • The COQA needs to develop a relationship with the producers
  • Sometimes the production companies are different from the chemical companies that manage the injection
  • Awareness of the problems that production chemicals could cause is growing
  • We should build an inventory or database of "cause and effect" that can be documented from our own experiences
  • Some areas of the world require a full disclose of all additives injected and in what amounts; precedent has been set for chemical disclosure
  • Investigate possible publication in an industry journal for better awareness
  • Can also utilize existing forums such as the API Pipeline Committee to foster awareness
  • Need to show producers an economic incentive for additive awareness, for example, what does an additive problem cost a refinery versus what is saves the producer
  • The additive tracking mechanism being worked on by the Canadians will be helpful in establishing what exactly in the crude might have caused a problem
  • Expanding the survey to include ranges of how much additive might be "allowable" would be very useful
  • Investigate collecting anecdotal stories of additive problems, maybe adding those to the cause and effect database
  • Anecdotal stories may already be available though API or the chemical suppliers

Specific contacts for producers, production chemical suppers, industry journals, etc. can be forwarded to the COQA Facilitator for further action.

Harry Giles, COQA Facilitator (TishBill@compuserve.com