Oil Field Mineral Scale Control

Mineral scale deposition within onshore and offshore productions is one of the major flow assurance challenges in the oil and gas industry. Due to the complex nature of the scale problem, oil field scale control treatment is not a unit operation. A successful scale control treatment typically requires deep technical knowledge and extensive operation experience. This chapter covers mainly the fundamentals of oil field scale control, including scale formation mechanisms, common oil field scales, common scale inhibitors, scale inhibition treatment, and scale removal. This chapter also introduces some recently developed techniques in scale control. This chapter is intended to make the readers aware of the common problems and considerations related to oil field mineral scale control.