Africa Oilfield Chemicals

As opposed to fuel or product additives added to petroleum substances in the midstream and downstream industries, oilfield chemicals are added to petroleum reservoirs and produced fossil fuels at the upstream level (i.e. the oilfield or around the well). Significant innovation and diversification in the oilfield chemicals market has proceeded with the rising demand for petroleum (“oil”) and natural gas, which has put a premium on ensuring the optimal volume of lifetime production from a field or reservoir and ensuring efficient operations with the production of the most marketable crude oil and natural gas. Regions with declining oil production and mature assets or oilfields represent the most significant markets for oilfield chemicals. For example, in order to meet sustained and growing national demand, U.S. producers have turned to oilfield chemicals to maintain production at aging oilfields.

Sustained oil production from national oil companies (NOCs) and national industries is also an effective form of political capital and a well-regarded economic indicator, making oilfield chemical use paramount to maintaining product from flagship fields. Several Latin American countries, including Mexico and Brazil, and others in the Middle East are increasingly reliant upon chemicals for enhanced oil recovery (EOR ) and heavy oil recovery such as polymers, surfactants and alkalis; downhole corrosion inhibitors (such as “oxygen scavengers”); other drilling fluids (defoamers, degassers); biocides (to kill bacteria in produced water and oil streams); emulsifiers (separate oil from water); scale inhibitors; dispersants (to prevent accumulation of paraffin and other solid/semi-solid petrochemicals); and coagulants to treat and separate produced water volumes.