Saudi Arabian Oil Company

The University of Western Australia

Chevron U.s.a. Inc.

Paul Louis Stanwix

Michael Leslie Johns

Einar Orn Fridjonsson

Mohamed Nabil Noui-Mehidi

Jana M Al-Jindan

Eric Freemantle May

Keelan Thomas O'Neill

Christopher John Kalli

Brendan Francis Graham

Matthew Roshan Joseph Carroll

Paul Steven Hofman

Masoumeh Zargar

Matthew Gaven Hopkins

Arman Siahvashi

An apparatus to directly detect solids formation in a fluid under known pressure and temperature conditions is disclosed. The apparatus includes a vessel having an electromagnetic resonant cavity defined by an upper portion, a lower portion and a gap defined therebetween, the gap having resonant properties sensitive to the presence of a solid phase therein. The upper portion or the lower portion may be provided with a passage extending therethrough in fluid communication with an inlet to allow ingress of a stream of fluid to the gap and thereby purge solids from the cavity subsequent to solids formation. The apparatus also includes one or more probes, one or more sensors and a signal processor operatively connected to said sensors and said one or more probes to directly detect solids formation in the fluid within the cavity in response to detected changes in the resonant properties of the cavity.

Apparatus to directly detect solids formation

A multiphase flow metering device may have a conduit through which a multiphase fluid can flow and a structured packing insert positioned in the conduit. The structured packing insert may have a water-wet packing structure zone and/or an oil-wet packing structure zone. The multiphase flow metering device may also have a Halbach pre-polarizing magnet array positioned around the conduit, an RF coil, an electromagnet, an NMR console adapted to detect NMR signals from the multiphase fluid, and a control system configured to vary a polarization of the Halbach pre-polarizing magnet array. The Halbach pre-polarizing magnet array may be positioned or positionable over one or both of the oil-wet and water-wet packing structure zones. In some embodiments, the structured packing insert may include immobilized radicals, providing for dynamic nuclear polarization of the multiphase fluid.

Liquid NMR signal boost during NMR flow metering of wet gas flow using enhanced signal relaxation and/or dynamic nuclear polarisation using immobilised radicals

Techniques for measuring fluid properties include circulating a mixed-phase fluid flow through a fluid flow circuit; circulating the mixed-phase fluid flow through a pre-polarizing magnet; polarizing at least a gas phase of the mixed-phase fluid flow to an initial polarization; measuring fluid induction decay (FID) values of the polarized gas phase with the EFNMR detector; determining a velocity of the gas phase based on the FID values of the polarized gas phase; producing a pulsed magnetic field gradient to suppress one or more signals acquired by the EFNMR detector with a first electromagnet; measuring FID values of the liquid phase of the mixed-phase fluid with the EFNMR detector simultaneously with the production of the pulsed magnetic field gradient; producing a homogeneous polarizing field to polarize the liquid phase of the mixed-phase fluid with a second electromagnet; and determining a velocity and content of the liquid phase based on the FID values of the polarized liquid phase.

Determining fluid properties

Techniques for measuring liquid properties include circulating a mixed oil-water liquid flow through a fluid flow circuit; polarizing the mixed oil-water liquid flow with a pre-polarizing magnet to an initial polarization; circulating the polarized mixed oil-water liquid flow to an EFNMR detector that includes a radio-frequency (RF) coil and a surrounding electromagnet; further polarizing the polarized mixed oil-water liquid flow with the surrounding electromagnet; measuring fluid induction decay (FID) values of the additionally polarized mixed oil-water liquid flow with the EFNMR detector; transforming the measured FID values to an effective adiabatic transition from the Earth's field to the polarizing field; determining a velocity of the oil in the mixed oil-water liquid flow and a velocity of the water in the mixed oil-water liquid flow based on differences in NMR signal relaxation properties of the transformed FID values; and determining an oil content and a water content of the mixed oil-water liquid flow from the transformed FID values.

A method for analysis of hydrocarbons in water, the method comprising the steps of: extracting the hydrocarbons from a water sample; introducing the extracted hydrocarbons to a solvent system; determining the relative concentrations of the hydrocarbons in the solvent system and at least one solvent in the solvent system by 1H NMR analysis, wherein the solvent system comprises at least one solvent with a 1H NMR signal distinguishable from a 1H NMR signal of the hydrocarbons.

Method for analysis of hydrocarbons in water

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Darlington, Australia

Paul Louis Stanwix