Adaptability of common heater to surface gathering system in oilfield

When heaters are in service, many problems may exist, such as tube fouling, tube bending, corrosion-induced leaks, condensation and bias flow in convection chamber, and low efficiency. This paper discusses the main structure, operating principle, technical features and existing problems of tubular heater, vacuum phase-variable heater and pressure-bearing phase-variable heater. Based on field application, it is proposed to select the heater depending on the physical characteristics of the heating medium. For instance, tubular heater should be used in heating systems of water mixing and coming fluid, pressure-bearing phase-variable heater should be used in heating systems of crude oil transportation and hot chemical dehydration. The results provide a valuable reference the gathering of crude oil in high pour-point heavy oilfield.