Shale Oils: Crude Preheat Train Issues

Conference:

Shale Crudes (Light Tight Oil) are causing significant fouling to occur in crude preheat exchangers, crude charge heaters as well as corrosion in the crude column and overhead system.

In this workgroup, the group itself decides on the issues to discuss and how to mitigate them. Refiners and suppliers share Lessons Learned and Best Practices. Topics may include:

1. The cause of the fouling from various contributing factors such as the paraffinic nature of the crude, unfilterable solids and deposition in equipment when the crude is blended with high asphaltene crudes
2. Crude unit reliability
3. Associated units and veseels such as heat exchangers, desalters, pre-flash drum and the crude charge heater.