SAGD Turnaround, Shutdown &
Process Cleaning Solutions
Efficient and effective chemical solutions to solve oil production issues
Production Optimization is Your Top Concern
There are many factors that negatively impact production rates, and every hour spent at sub-optimal performance—or in shutdown as you try to fix these production issues—is costing you. Your backup SAGD system is often underbuilt for your production targets, and the time it takes to switch over means yet more production lost. You need fast, effective chemistry to keep up with your competitors.
Effective, Customized Solutions to Keep You Competitive
Combining science & service for unparalleled solutions
Whether you’re cleaning heat exchangers or trying to mitigate issues caused by sand, you need more than someone who will simply fill an order. You want a chemical partner to investigate the unique hurdles you’re facing and create customized solutions that deliver on your expectations. With decades of expertise in the industry, Guardian Chemicals has built a strong reputation as a reliable partner in production optimization for SAGD operations.
Solutions
Cleaning & Degreasing
Oil & Gas Production Enhancement
Scavengers & Degassing
Metal Preparation
In preparing metal components for return to the field, efficacy and safety are of top concern. Parts washers and hot tanks require customized solutions to meet your needs. Our chemical solutions include innovative blends of high-performance surfactants, alkalinity boosters, water conditioning agents, and corrosion inhibitors. We craft solutions to meet your unique challenges and can also assist with application and disposal.
Sanitizing & Disinfecting
It’s more important than ever to ensure you’re taking steps to protect the health and well-being of your workers. Guardian’s wide variety of hard surface cleaners, sanitizers, and disinfectants are made to ensure the cleanliness of contaminated surfaces by tackling the visible and invisible bacteria, fungi, and other contaminants that can linger for hours or days in the right environment.
We’re Here to Help from Start to Finish
At Guardian Chemicals, we bring unprecedented industry expertise and service to transform your SAGD operations.
Our solutions help reduce operational costs at every step; from reducing the time needed for regular cleanings to reducing the cost of waste disposal. With our laboratory resources and industry expertise, we can also create customized solutions to tackle any issues you’re facing as an efficient, single supplier.
Some of these solutions include:
- Wax crystal structure modifiers to prevent paraffins from forming a deposit
- Solvents and dispersants which keep the wax solids suspended in produced fluids
- Pipeline and downhole cleanout surfactants
- Asphaltene removal products
- Formulations for the removal of iron sulphide that reduces system fouling and under deposit corrosion, without releasing hydrogen sulphide from the complex
- Flowline jetting and clearing solutions that reduce soil contamination
Guardian people are based in the Fort McMurray area: see oil sands chemical supply in Fort McMurray. For exchanger and produced water cooler cleans, see the BrightShield program.
We don’t believe in ‘deliver-and-done’. True benefits revolve around the consistency of program execution, which is why we’re there when you need us both for regular servicing and emergency support for life.
Our experts know your industry and will seek to understand the unique challenges of your business. Let’s talk.
Your systems and processes are interconnected. We’ll arrange a site visit to understand the bigger picture.
Frequently Asked Questions About Chemical Solutions for SAGD Operations
Produced water treatment chemistry through the de-oiling and softening train, cleaning chemistry for steam generators and heat exchangers, hydrogen sulphide scavenging and degassing, metal preparation for maintenance, and sanitation chemistry for plant and camp. The water circuit is where most of the operating cost and most of the risk sits.
Hardness carryover, silica, organics and iron deposit on the tube side, which drives tube metal temperature up and steam quality down. Fouling in a once-through steam generator is directly a production constraint, because steam is the recovery mechanism, so lost steam capacity is lost bitumen.
Usually a change in emulsion character rather than an equipment problem. Shifts in produced water chemistry, temperature, or a new chemical introduced upstream can stabilise the emulsion so the same residence time no longer separates it. It is worth checking what changed upstream before adjusting the equipment.
Through the softening and warm lime softening circuit, with treatment chosen for the silica level and the temperature you are operating at. Silica is unforgiving because it deposits as a hard, adherent scale that acid will not remove, so control on the water side is much cheaper than removal on the steam generator side.
Surfactants from the formation, from production chemicals, and from the emulsion itself. Foam reduces effective volume in skim tanks and IGF units and interferes with level control and interface detection. Low-dose defoaming is standard here, matched to temperature and the water chemistry.
By identifying the deposit first, then selecting chemistry and application conditions for it. Exchangers in this service foul with a mix of organic, mineral and iron deposits, and a single acid clean will address one component and leave the others. Our BrightShield process scopes this with an audit, lab screening and a validation report.
Often yes. Chemical cleaning with the right chemistry and adequate circulation time restores flow in many cases where the default assumption is mechanical cleaning, and it returns units to service faster. Whether it will work is decided by the deposit analysis, not by optimism.
With chemistry that converts the sulphide and strips the vapour rather than ventilation alone, and with a documented sequence before entry. Degassing a vessel with chemistry shortens the time to safe entry and reduces the exposure risk during the work, which is usually the constraint on a turnaround schedule.
Yes, going back to the start of commercial oilsands operations. We hold product approvals at major sites, have local representation in the Fort McMurray region, and our technical group includes people who have worked on site there for most of their careers.
Trust a chemical partner who can help you stay ahead of the curve.
