Evaluation and Improvement of Screening Methods Applied to Asphaltene Precipitation

This study aims to evaluate the performance of the four most known screening methods used to predict the risk of asphaltene precipitation in crude oil employing a large database from the literature. The selection of these methods was based on the amount of property data required for their application. Most methods reported in the literature use saturate, aromatic, resin, and asphaltene (SARA) analysis as the property to monitor the stability of the oil with respect to asphaltene precipitation. Other methods require the temperature, pressure, and oil density data to indicate the risk of asphaltene precipitation. Results showed inconsistency for two of the four screening methods selected, and improvements were proposed and successfully validated.