Introduction More questions than information typically accompany oilfield samples submitted for material identification testing. Depending on the extent of information provided with the samples, the laboratory analyst’s typical response to these requests may include a return list of questions including: “Where, when, and what?” The more well history and information about the sample origin and well history that is provided along with the sample, the better will be the chance of correctly identifying the material and helping to resolve any potential problems. Experimental Current laboratory material identification for oilfield samples increasingly involves a variety of laboratory techniques. As the complexity of what is pumped into a well has increased in recent years, material identification analyses have also become more complicated and often requiring the analytical tools which are more specific and have lower detection limits. Our work focuses on a few case histories where a variety of analytical instruments and techniques were applied to identify the materials, their origins, and assist in making recommendations for treatment remediation, disposal of the material, or prevention of a re-occurrence. In the first case, a hard, rock-like material was recovered from an offshore well and submitted for identification. Using multiple techniques including Ion Coupled Plasma, Fourier Transform Infrared, XRay Fractionation , and Elemental Analyses, we identified the material as calcium naphthenate and recommended a removal treatment. In the second case, a black, “foam like” material was submitted from a south Texas well. Cleanup and analysis of the sample resulted in identification of that material as Styrofoam (light yellow) with chunks of elastomeric rubber (black) embedded. Conclusions This work describes the application of current analytical instrumentation and techniques to the identification of oilfield unknown materials.

What is this “stuff”, where did it come from, and how can we get rid of it? Case histories of analytical laboratory methods and instrumental analyses applied to requests for identification of oilfield “unknown material” samples

249th National Meeting (2015)

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