Meeting Archives

COQA
Chicago, IL, June 7, 2007, at the Millennium Knickerbocker Hotel 

Subcommittee Meetings, 8:30 – 11:30 a.m.

 Canadian Crude Oil Quality Subcommittee

Convened by Bill Lywood, Crude Quality, Inc., and Ron Fisher, BP

Meeting Overview – a “new” format 

The meeting was convened at 8:30AM under the joint direction of Ron Fisher and Bill Lywood. The Canadian Crude Subcommittee experimented with a different format for the morning meeting. With the intent of creating smaller, interactive focused groups, the room was divided into four topic sections – namely Branding, Processing, Synthetics, and Logistics. These topics were meant to be starting points only, and can be changed at any time subject to interest from COQA participants. 

There are many issues regarding the various aspects of transporting and refining western Canadian crude streams. At times in the past, it has felt as though the number and potential magnitude of the issues could cripple solution-based problem solving and industry level recommendations for improvements in quality related challenges. The goals of the meeting format change are to 1) determine which issues or details can and cannot be influenced, and 2) to develop action items that COQA can participate in directly, or provide resources for action items better managed by others. 

We would like to extend our appreciation to the volunteer(ed) group leaders, who were given the task of leading the discussions, preparing summary notes for presentation at the meeting, and for formalizing the notes into the linked versions noted below. 

We would sincerely appreciate your feedback regarding the meeting format in advance of the next meeting scheduled in San Francisco. RSVP your comments to either Ron (ron.fisher@bp.com) or Bill (lywood@crudequality.com).

Meeting Summary

The following are some of the issues that were highlighted by members in their respective groups. You are encouraged to review the group leaders' notes by clicking on the linked titles. 

Logistics Group

• Spearhead system subject to significant cross contamination of streams 
• Karl Fischer should be adopted universally for water determination 
• Biocide and DRA changes should require notifications to downstream 
• There have been sulfur measurement repeatability challenges 

Branding Group

• Drafted a five step action plan for a consolidated Canadian Crude Quality Database based on grades to be determined, pushing CAPP towards fewer, larger streams 

Synthetics Group

• Cracked stocks (info gathering requirement) 
• Batch-to-batch consistency 
• Cavern storage stability of synthetic crudes (and blended crudes containing synthetics) 
• Degradation by interface contamination and tank heels

Processing Group

• Discussions around crude incompatibility, organic solids, TAN, oilfield chemistries, batch-to-batch variability 
• Still to prioritize and develop action plan(s) 

Domestic Trading Center Subcommittee (DTC)

Convened by John Maurer, Valero

John reported that sample collection and testing is underway to determine typical values and provide data for the group to determine the acceptable variation level on parameters identified in the mission statement.  Sulfur and gravity testing is also being performed.  A brief overview of the existing data was presented with applied statistical charts to provide the group an example of how the data could be analyzed.  Clifford Mills indicated he was working with the lab to identify outliers.  The group discussed looking at the data at cut point temperatures on simulated distillations instead of percent yields.  Clifford will be sending the cut points to chart, and John indicated he would contact the lab to see if the data can be converted.  During the next meeting, we will propose the change to the mission statement to reflect this change.  The COQA director agreed to post the data on the COQA website and update the file as it becomes available.  John also presented a copy of the letter drafted to NYMEX to solicit a presentation to the COQA and involve NYMEX in the DTC discussions.

We group discussed soliciting a presentation on the facilities at Cushing from operating vendors:

·        ConocoPhillips:  Bill Brown Pipeline

·        Plains Pipeline: Jerry Monier

·        SemGroup: 918-388-8100  is the main number.

Several DTC members indicated they would attempt to contact these.  Absence of anyone from EPCO/TEPPCO at many of the subcommittee meetings was discussed and attributed to the company wishing to take a more passive role for now in the DTC.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

General Meeting, 1:00 – 5:00 p.m.

Following is a summary of the business transacted and the presentations made at the General  Meeting.  Links are provided for copies of the presentations in PDF format.

·        Report from the COQA Steering Committee.  Harry Giles, COQA Director.  The steering committee met on the evening of June 6, 2007.  Two new supporting members were welcomed – Haverly Systems and SGS.  Changes to the COQA Website were discussed.  Among these are updating and revising the listing of members to delete inclusion of e-mail addresses and provide only name, company affiliation, and telephone number. Also, it is planned to add a search capability to the site to facilitate finding information, especially in the meeting archive.

A number of topics for presentations at future meetings were considered.  Among these were:

o       San Joachim Valley, CA and Alaskan North Slope crude oil quality

o       Safe handling of crude oil containing hazardous substances such as H₂S

o       Crude oil valuation

o       Changing face of U.S. crude oil imports

o       New production coming on-stream from areas such as the deep Gulf of Mexico and offshore Angola

o       University/other research centers involved in issues related to crude oil production, transportation, refining

An ad hoc subcommittee has been formed to develop recommendations on how COQA can expand its membership so that it is more globally encompassing.

Next meetings:

• October 31, 2007, in San Francisco, CA in conjunction with the ASTM Crude  Oil Course.
• Early 2008 in New Orleans
• June 2008 in Calgary, AB, Canada in conjunction with CCQTA
• Late 2008 in Houston.

→     At future meetings, members of the steering committee will register attendees, and accept their registration fees and provide other assistance as necessary.  Registrar responsibilities will rotate among the various steering committee member companies at successive meetings.  At this meeting, Nancy Delhommer of Haverly Systems and Dennis Sutton of Marathon kindly provided their time.

Technical Presentations

·        Primer on Organic Chlorides and Their Control.  Sam Lordo, Nalco.  Organic chlorides have been an intermittent problem in refineries for many years.  Their presence usually results from contamination at some point in the supply chain.  The presentation included discussion of some of the more commonly encountered organic chloride species, their properties, and detection methods.  The impacts associated with refinery processing of crude oils containing these species and methods for mitigating adverse affects were discussed.

 

·        Organic Chloride – The Thread and the Challenge!  De-Yuan Fan, Shell Global Solutions.  Mr. Fan’s presentation provided further insight into the risks posed by organic chlorides, and discussed likelihood of occurrence and the financial implications of several monitoring scenarios.  These covered a “Do Nothing” base case, and “Good” and “Best” practices.  A number of prevention options covering production, transportation, and the refinery were discussed.  The presentation concluded with recommendations for process  monitoring and control.

 

·        Polydispersity of Heavy Organics in Crude Oils and Their Role in Crude Stability.  Invited presentation by Prof. G. A. Mansoori, University of Illinois and Chicago.  In this presentation, the polydisperse data of heavy organic fractions of various crude oils and their solid deposits were produced to investigate the causes of instability and deposition of heavy organics from crude oils. The oilfields of the study have experienced, for several years, shutdowns and decrease in the production ratios due to heavy organics deposition. Several measures such as mechanical cleaning and periodic aromatic washes have been adopted to maintain the production level; nevertheless the costs associated with these procedures are very high. 

The SARA method was employed to separate the samples into four distinct fractions, namely Saturates, Aromatics, Resins and Asphaltenes. The total asphaltene content of the crude oil samples was determined using n-pentane, n-heptane, and n-nonuse as the precipitating solvents.  Polydispersity and molecular weight of each fraction has been further characterized by Gel Permeation Chromatography (GPC). The presence of diamondoids in the solid deposits was also investigated by GC-MS.  This technique has been carried out on various crude oil samples collected from an oil field. 

The results provided useful information on the interaction between the various heavy organic species responsible for the deposition phenomena.  Solid samples from different wells resulted in similar composition concluding that these crude oils undergo similar deposition mechanisms. The asphaltenes contained in some of the crude oil samples displayed a rather strong tendency to self-associate; they also render the highest amounts of precipitation. While diamondoids and alkyl-substituted diamondoids were confirmed to be present in the crude oils produced no evidence was found of their occurrence in the deposits.

The polydispersity analysis procedure presented here provides a good understanding of the overall behavior of the species that precipitate and also of the interactions among these species.  It is concluded that while most of the heavy organics contained in these crude oils may produce precipitates, asphaltene is the major cause of flocculation of the precipitates.

Dr. Mansoori’s presentation was based on the following paper:  G. A. Mansoori, D. Vasquez, and M. Shariaty-Niassar.  Polydispersity of heavy organics in crude oils and their role in oil well fouling.  J. Pet. Sci. Eng. In press (2007).

 

·        Latest Refining Advances to Process HACs and BOB.  Invited presentation by Thomas W. Yeung, Hydrocarbon Publishing Co.  A refiner must be a low-cost producer in the refining business, which is known to be cyclical and at the mercy of many uncontrollable factors. Benefiting from the least expensive ("opportunity") crudes in the market, e.g. high-acid crudes (HACs), heavy sour crudes, and extra-heavy oil produced from oilsands and bitumen can keep refining margins consistently high and help refiners stay ahead of the competition. On the other hand, not every refiner can handle crudes with high acid contents and disproportionate amounts of bottom-of-the-barrel (BOB) fractions. The purpose of this presentation is to give an overview of the latest technologies in processing HACs and BOB. There are many concerns with HACs, e.g. corrosion, unit glitches, fouling, catalyst poisoning, product degradation, and environmental discharge. Solutions are available to mitigate these impacts on desalters, distillation units, hydrotreaters, FCCUs, and lube plants as well as to improve the refined product quality. A major concern with processing heavy crudes is blending and mixing. Catastrophic fouling in the desalter and coking in the preheat train are caused by crude oil incompatibility and the precipitation of asphaltenes. Using the oil compatibility model and tests is known to be very helpful. BOB upgrading can be undertaken using combinations of separations (distillation or deasphalting), thermal processing (coking or visbreaking), FCC, or hydroprocessing. Many advances in catalysts, process designs, and hardware have been observed. Several emerging heavy oil upgrading technologies have also been explored. Finally, crude selection is the most important decision refiners must make with criteria ranging from oil source reliability and term deals to product demand mix.

 

·        Managing Quality Variations.  Dr. Mukund Unavane, Spiral Software.  Spiral is a relatively new company, having been started in 1998.  Its crude oil software tools support assay work up and database and process maintenance.  One application is in helping clients optimize feedstock selection and use data to control risk and potentially benefit from cargo quality variations.  Dr. Unavane provided a brief overview of crude oil contamination and presented examples of managing “extrinsic” and “intrinsic” contaminates.  An on-line demonstration was used to illustrate their software’s capabilities for these two examples.

 

·        Crude Oil Quality and Pipeline Systems.  Aaron Dillard, ConocoPhillips.  Aaron summarized an invited presentation he made in April of this year at the API Pipeline Conference in Albuquerque, NM.  His presentation was based on one developed several years ago by the COQA Education Subcommittee.  This provided an overview of the crude oil transportation system from well to refinery, defined crude oil quality, and described what can happen in a pipeline system to degrade, contaminate, or otherwise alter quality.  Aaron covered the actions a pipeline can take to minimize adverse effects, which includes education, communication, and use of better analytical test methods.

 

·        Update on CCQTA projects and activities.  Tim Blackmore, Omnicon Consultants.  Tim reviewed status of the six projects currently active within the Canadian Crude Quality Technical Association (CCQTA).  These are 1)  Heavy Oil Manual, 2)  Iron Fouling, 3)  NGL Contamination, 4)  Phosphorus in Crude, 5) Oilsands Bitumen Processability, and 6)  TAN Phase III.

 

·        Bill Lywood, Crude Quality Inc. and John Maurer, Valero Energy Corp. then presented summary reports on their respective Subcommittee meetings that took place earlier in the day.  Detailed accounts of these meetings are provided above for:

 

The general meeting concluded with the following presentation.

·        Measurement of TAN at Devils Tower. Ken Sit, Dominion Exploration & Production.  Ken provided a brief update on the extensive study Dominion has devoted to accurately determining the TAN of its Devils Tower production (see COQA meeting archives for February 7, 2007, presentation by Clay Coe on Devils Tower (GOM) Crude – A Case Study in TAN Determination) 

Respectfully submitted,
Harry N. Giles
Director, COQA