Phenomena, factors of wax deposition and its management strategies

Flow assurance is one of the main concerns of oil industry both in the upstream and downstream operations. Among various flow assurance problems, wax deposition is a major one that may take place in reservoir, subsurface, surface facilities, pipelines and storage tanks. In order to prevent wax deposition, it is necessary to understand the mechanism and associated factors that contribute towards this problem. Knowing the importance of this matter, worldwide researches were carried out regarding this subject. In this paper, a detailed review is presented covering all aspects including wax and its types, mechanism, effect of factors: temperature, pressure, composition, and velocity of fluid; wax deposition rate and mitigation strategies of wax deposition. The review also contains the advantages and limitations of treatment methods.