Methods and reliability issues in the detection of mineral deposits in petroleum pipelines

A major problem in the oil and gas industry is the progressive deposition of scales, wax and hydrate deposits in the pipelines causing large production losses over a period of time. The composition and thickness of these deposits vary widely and cannot be reliably quantified in advance. As such, remedial treatment (such as chemical de-scaling) is largely based on guesswork, causing expensive chemical wastage and production shut-downs. Furthermore, these deposits could be highly radioactive and could also confuse expensive internal pipeline maintenance surveys, This paper looks at the problems of conventional detection methods affecting the reliability of measurements and presents work carried out in developing novel techniques to address these existing problems