Experimental determination of hydrate phase equilibrium curve for an Iranian sour gas condensate sample

Iran's proved natural gas reserves are the world's second largest. Mainly, because of climate changes and different reservoirs' characterizations, studying the behavior of production fluids and their transportation is essential. One of the main problems which occurs in the gas reservoirs is related to the hydrate formation while producing from a well, either in production strings or production lines (before and after choke).Effective parameters which influence the formation of hydrates are: high pressure, low temperature and water presence; and therefore, the high possibility of having this phenomenon in Iranian reservoirs is quite obvious especially in cold climates and for gas wells. Hydrate formation in production lines and equipment will also result in many different obstacles such as: complete or partial closure in production lines and heat exchangers, erosion of the equipment, pressure reduction, etc. In this paper, by the experimental data from one Iranian sour gas field, the conditions of hydrate formation, which will be helpful to determine the safe/unsafe zones by P–T curves, will be discussed. In addition, the final data will be compared to other correlations, as well.

► A fluid sample from one Iranian sour gas field has been experimentally tested. ► The P–T curve to determine hydrate safe/unsafe zones has been shown. ► The results have been compared with the references' models to verify test data.