Key Takeaways:
- Ben Bbosa, PhD., SPL Flow Assurance Scientist, presents this research in two sessions at the 2026 Deepwater Technical Symposium in New Orleans, August 25–26
- SPL’s Flow Assurance Lab in Katy, TX led research showing pipeline surface texture, not material, is the dominant factor in wax and asphaltene deposition
- Laser surface modification changes wettability, hydrophobic surfaces suppress wax buildup, hydrophilic surfaces reduce asphaltene deposition
- Deposition risk concentrates at elbows, riser bottoms, and manifolds rather than spreading evenly along a flowline
- Targeted treatment of those high-risk points can cut deposition risk without the cost of full-flowline replacement
Wax and asphaltene deposition inside a subsea flowline is one of the most expensive problems in deepwater production. A blocked riser or a fouled manifold doesn’t just cost money to clear. It costs downtime, intervention risk, and in the worst cases, an unplanned shutdown on an asset that was never designed to be easy to reach. Operators have spent decades managing this problem with chemical inhibitors and pipeline insulation. SPL’s Flow Assurance Lab in Katy, TX is working on a different question: what if the surface of the pipe itself could be engineered to resist deposition in the first place?
That question sits at the center of new research from Dr. Ben Bbosa, a Flow Assurance Scientist at SPL who holds a Ph.D. in Petroleum Engineering from The University of Tulsa and has spent more than 13 years working across production chemistry, subsea hardware design, and digital oilfield analytics. Ben will present this work at the 2026 Deepwater Technical Symposium in New Orleans, August 25–26, in back-to-back sessions on the Emerging Technology track.
A new framework for an old problem: flow assurance laboratory testing meets surface science.
Most flow assurance strategies treat deposition as a chemistry problem: pick the right inhibitor, dose it correctly, and manage the fluid. Ben’s research, developed through SPL’s flow assurance laboratory testing program, approaches it as a surface problem instead. Using precision laser surface modification, his team maps how a pipeline surface’s wettability, its tendency to attract or resist oil and water, governs whether wax and asphaltenes stick in the first place.
The findings challenge a common assumption in the field. Surface texture, not the underlying pipe material, turns out to be the dominant factor in deposition resistance. A hydrophobic (water-repelling) surface suppresses wax accumulation. A hydrophilic (water-attracting) surface sharply reduces asphaltene deposition. And critically, laser-modified texture patterns produce consistent anti-deposition behavior regardless of the base metal underneath, which means the approach isn’t locked to a single alloy or coating system.
Ben’s team built a “phobicity-philicity” evaluation plot that maps oil and water contact angles against deposition risk, giving engineers a quantitative screening tool rather than a rule of thumb. That plot is the kind of defensible data operators need when they’re deciding where to spend a limited treatment budget on a subsea asset.
Why targeted treatment changes the cost equation.
The practical payoff is where this research earns its place in a flow assurance program. Deposition doesn’t happen evenly along a flowline. It concentrates at elbows, riser bottoms, and manifolds, the high-turbulence, high-risk points in the system. Ben’s research shows that treating those specific locations with laser-textured surfaces can eliminate deposition risk there without the cost of replacing or coating an entire flowline, or relying solely on continuous chemical dosing.
For an operations or reliability team evaluating a new subsea tieback, that’s a meaningfully different cost conversation. Instead of a binary choice between full-flowline treatment and accepting deposition risk, targeted deployment offers a middle path grounded in where the data says risk actually concentrates.
Where the research gets tested.
This is the kind of work SPL’s Flow Assurance Lab in Katy, TX was built for. The lab focuses on deepwater production systems and subsea tieback systems, running the testing, consulting, and modeling that sits behind flow assurance decisions across wax and asphaltene behavior, corrosion, emulsions and separation, rheological studies, and umbilical qualification. It’s where a framework like phobicity-philicity moves from a laboratory finding to something an operator can act on in the field.
Ben’s second session at the Symposium builds directly on this work, walking through how to fine-tune internal pipeline surface textures at the specific subsea locations where deposition risk is highest. Together, the two sessions lay out both the science and the practical deployment strategy.
Catch Ben Bbosa, PhD. at Deepwater NOLA 2026.
Ben will present “A Novel Phobicity-Philicity Evaluation Framework for Mapping Wettability Against Subsea Flow Assurance Solids” on August 25 at 2:00 PM (Eglinton/Winton, Emerging Technology track), with a companion session, “Fine-Tuning Internal Pipeline Surface Textures at Critical Subsea Locations to Minimize Flow Assurance Risks,” on August 26 at 9:00 AM in the same room. The 2026 Deepwater Technical Symposium runs August 25–26 at the Hilton Riverside in New Orleans.
If you’re attending, this is a chance to talk through what targeted surface treatment could mean for your own subsea assets. If you can’t make it to New Orleans, SPL’s Flow Assurance Lab team is available to walk through the research and what it could mean for your flowline strategy.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is flow assurance laboratory testing?
Flow assurance laboratory testing evaluates how produced fluids behave inside pipelines and subsea systems, including wax, asphaltene, hydrate, and corrosion risk, so operators can design and operate systems that keep hydrocarbons flowing safely and efficiently.
How does surface texture affect wax and asphaltene deposition?
Yes, surface texture plays a major role. Research from SPL’s Flow Assurance Lab shows that a pipeline surface’s wettability, whether it repels or attracts oil and water, has more influence on deposition resistance than the underlying pipe material itself.
Where are the highest-risk points for subsea deposition?
Deposition tends to concentrate at high-turbulence points in a flowline system, including elbows, riser bottoms, and manifolds, rather than distributing evenly along the pipeline.
Can targeted surface treatment replace chemical inhibitors?
Targeted surface treatment is best understood as a complement to existing flow assurance strategies, not a full replacement. It offers a way to address the highest-risk locations in a system without the cost of full-flowline treatment.
What does SPL's Flow Assurance Lab in Katy, TX specialize in?
The lab specializes in deepwater production systems and subsea tieback systems, offering testing, consulting, and modeling across wax and asphaltene behavior, corrosion, emulsions and separation, rheological studies, and umbilical qualification
Talk to SPL's Flow Assurance Team
Whether you’re evaluating deposition risk on a new subsea tieback or troubleshooting an existing flowline, SPL’s Flow Assurance Lab can help you get to defensible data faster.