When flow assurance consultants AsphWax, Inc. of Stafford,TX were looking for an on-line viscometer capable of dealing with high pressures, they naturally turned to Hydramotion.

AsphWax, Inc. provides oil and gas operators with innovative solutions to asphaltene, wax and hydrate problems.  The company offers technical advice, flow assurance simulation and laboratory services to industry engineers worldwide, while the KostaTech division manufactures and markets a series of state-of-the-art asphaltene, wax, emulsion and hydrate inhibitors, dispersants and solvents under the InSol brand.  In their highly specialised laboratory, AsphWax need to measure the viscosity of crude oils sampled in the field.  These measurements are important for flow assurance and for determining equipment specifications.  But the samples are taken at high pressure and the viscosity measurements have to be made under comparable conditions. 

For some years, AsphWax had been using the Hydramotion Viscolite® in its lab with great success.  Familiar with the company’s sturdy, reliable technology, AsphWax asked Hydramotion if it could supply an on-line viscometer capable of withstanding oilfield conditions.  The answer was an instant “yes”.

Hydramotion worked closely with the client to design a truncated, narrow-probe viscometer with a tapered metal-to-metal high-pressure fitting for installation in its custom-built pressure vessel.  “Hydramotion was the only company that could supply what we were looking for,” said Dr Kosta J Leontaritis, AsphWax President and CEO.  “With this viscometer we can now get the data we need to tune our mathematical models and correlations and increase the accuracy of our viscosity predictions.” 

High pressures present no challenge to the Hydramotion XL7 on-line viscometer.  The sensor's unique architecture imposes no theoretical limit on pressure.  Hydramotion has supplied numerous instruments to leading oilfield services providers, including the measurement of heavy crude at 5000 psi and 100°C (345 bar at 212°F).  The viscometer supplied to AsphWax is rated much higher, at 20,000 psi (1380 bar), and even higher ratings are possible.