Gas Hydrate Phase Equilibria at Extreme Conditions

Gas hydrate phase equilibrium and hydrate formation kinetics in the presence of high salt concentration (near saturation in solution) is investigated to study the interplay of hydrate formation and scale deposition. There are selected data for hydrate phase equilibrium with high salinity systems, but there are no data for these systems at ultra-high pressures (> 15,000 psia). These data are increasingly important and offshore oil production moves to more challenging production environments. This study is focused on the development of the equipment and measurements of gas hydrate phase equilibrium at extreme conditions, that is, high salt concentrations and ultra high pressures. It is also necessary to verify the existing prediction models for hydrate phase equilibrium in high salinity systems, and assess whether improvements must be considered in the models incorporated for each of the available tools, such as CSMGem, Multiflash^®, PVTSim^®, DHR Hydrate^®, and HydraFLASH^®.