Oxidation, ignition and combustion characteristics of hydrocarbons for the safety of drilling and upstream oil and gas operations and IOR

上游石油和天然气作业，如钻探油气井、修井、清洁和增产、石油分离和加工以及基于空气注入的提高采收率(IOR)，可能涉及空气或在碳氢化合物存在的情况下含氧气体。在这种操作中，空气或含氧气体可能是故意引入的(作为过程的一部分)，也可能是不希望的(由于操作的性质)。因此，如果火源也存在，就有可能发生火灾和/或爆炸危险。在过去的几年里，发生了一些严重的油田火灾和爆炸，造成了工人的伤亡和设备的重大损失。在此期间，在加拿大和世界各地的此类作业中，空气或含氧气体的使用量有所增加。虽然有关于爆炸危险的规定，但没有明确的行业准则来处理这些井场作业中的空气-碳氢化合物混合物。这主要是因为对与这类行动有关的复杂点火过程缺乏基本了解。

Upstream Oil and Gas operations, such as drilling of oil and gas wells, well workovers, cleaning and stimulation, petroleum separation and processing, and air injection-based improved oil recovery (IOR), may involve air or an oxygen containing gas in the presence of hydrocarbons. In such operations, air or oxygen containing gas may be introduced either deliberately (as a part of the process) or undesirably (due to the nature of the operations). Therefore, when an ignition source is also present, there is a potential for fire and/or explosion hazard. Over the past several years, there have been a number of serious oilfield fires and explosions that have resulted in worker injuries and fatalities, and significant loss of equipment. During this period, there has been an increase in the use of air or oxygen containing gas during such operations in Canada and worldwide. While regulations exist with respect to explosive hazards, there are no clear industry guidelines dealing with air-hydrocarbon mixtures in these well-site operations. This is mainly due to the lack of fundamental understanding of the complex ignition precesses associated with such operations.