SUMMARY
The main variables that impact the crude oil desalting process were analyzed bydeveloping mathematical models that represent the variation of Alfulla crude oil density,conductivity and viscosity as function of different parameters. An increase or decrease of theseparameters has two opposite effects. First, a decrease in oil density and viscosity implies asignificant increase in the settling rate of water to be processed. This decreases equipmentdepreciation; on the other hand, crude oil conductivity increases exponentially with someparameters such as temperature, which implies a higher rate of power consumption. This studywas developed to determine the optimum parameters at which a maximum desalting efficiencyand a maximum economic benefit occurs. It was concluded that the optimum parameters are,Crude Oil flowrate is 80 % of the feed, Pressure is 1.1 MPa, temperature is 135 0C, amount ofwashing water is 3% of the feed, interface level at 580 mm, differential pressure is 60 MPa,amount of demulsifier is 70 ppm and distributed water is available capacity of the tanks.