Study on the composition of mineral scales in oil wells

The formation of mineral scales is one of the most common problems in oil wells around the world and despite great technological developments by engineers, this problem remains without an effective solution. The aim of this work was to investigate a methodological procedure that characterizes the composition of mineral scaling that occurs in wells from oilfields, assuming that the proper identification of these mineral scales is decisive for proper use of available technology resources in support of the oil industry. For this proposal we select the following thermal analytic techniques: thermogravimetric analysis (TG), derivative thermogravimetric analysis (DTG), and differential thermal analysis (DTA). These techniques are widely used for the characterization of mineral rocks, including those samples with complex chemical compositions. In order to complement the thermal analysis we used Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The samples employed in this work were collected from oil wells in the state of Sergipe, Brazil. Nowadays, Sergipe is the third largest producer of oil in this country.