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IPTC 11800

Feasibility Study for EOR by Polymer Injection In Deep Offshore Fields


D.Morel, A.Labastie, Total E&P, S.Jouenne Total Petrochemicals France, E. Nahas Total E&P

Copyright 2007, International Petroleum Technology Conference


- waterflooding is the preferred basic recovery
This paper was prepared for presentation at the International Petroleum Technology mechanism, for pressure maintenance and
Conference held in Dubai, U.A.E., 4–6 December 2007.
sweeping;
This paper was selected for presentation by an IPTC Programme Committee following review
of information contained in an abstract submitted by the author(s). Contents of the paper, as
- very often, the reservoir oil is rather viscous, as a
presented, have not been reviewed by the International Petroleum Technology Conference result of biodegradation which has occurred due
and are subject to correction by the author(s). The material, as presented, does not necessarily
reflect any position of the International Petroleum Technology Conference, its officers, or to temperature conditions; recovery by water
members. Papers presented at IPTC are subject to publication review by Sponsor Society
Committees of IPTC. Electronic reproduction, distribution, or storage of any part of this paper
injection is then adversely affected by an
for commercial purposes without the written consent of the International Petroleum Technology unfavourable mobility ratio, and can be
Conference is prohibited. Permission to reproduce in print is restricted to an abstract of not
more than 300 words; illustrations may not be copied. The abstract must contain conspicuous improved by injecting viscosified water;
acknowledgment of where and by whom the paper was presented. Write Librarian, IPTC, P.O.
Box 833836, Richardson, TX 75083-3836, U.S.A., fax 01-972-952-9435.
- the reservoirs are often turbidites of very good
characteristics, allowing an efficient propagation
Abstract of high molecular weight polymers;
Whereas on-shore polymer injection may be qualified as a - the wells are quite prolific, for both production
mature EOR technique, considering the hundreds of operations and injection; injecting a viscous solution should
that have been conducted all over the world, only one polymer not be an issue.
pilot has been implemented offshore, and none in deep Despite this long list of positive criteria there is still no
offshore conditions. implementation of polymer injection in deep offshore
A very thorough feasibility study of polymer injection has conditions and only one single off shore pilot operation [1]
been made on a typical deep-offshore high permeability (>1D whereas on-shore polymer injection may be qualified as a
as an average) sandstone reservoir containing medium mature EOR technique, when considering the hundreds of
viscosity oil (3 to 7cP under reservoir conditions). operations that were conducted all over the world.
The study has demonstrated that high molecular weight Several key issues have to be faced in deep offshore, that are a
hydrolyzed polyacrylamides could be used under a wide range major step out versus existing commercial onshore projects:
of salinities covering sea water and a mixture of sea water and - the range of salinities to be met over field life,
produced water. particularly if sea water is to be injected (most
Additional recoveries in the range of 5% can be achieved in existing -on shore- projects are injecting almost
this particular context of large well-spacing development of a fresh water)
medium viscosity field. - the larger well spacing: 500m to 1500m instead
Powder polymer supply is achievable for deep offshore fields of 150m to 400m
either with a specific bulk carrier or using standard - the facilities: multi-well injection through
international containers to transport big bags (250 kg). common subsea lines, FPSO with no/reduced
Even in the case where no room is left on the existing FPSO, room for additional facilities
marine options can be found to safely process the polymer on - the logistics to ship the polymer
a barge connected to the FPSO (depending on the sea - the incremental oil evaluation in fields with little
conditions), but the on-deck option is more simple. to no water injection history
The need for an injectivity pilot is compulsory to demonstrate A very thorough feasibility study has been achieved on a
the operability of the facilities, and the injectivity of the typical deep offshore case, which demonstrates that
polymer solution 1. high molecular weight hydrolysed polyacrylamide
The design of a pilot that would demonstrate the efficiency of may be used with sea water and produced water
the polymer is a more difficult and open question and may 2. based on detailed simulation work, large well spacing
lead to a phased development as single well injection using a still brings significant additional oil
dedicated semi-submersible rig may be too expensive for a 3. powder polymer solution is viable offshore, different
long duration. options being still under further investigation (mainly
HSE issues) including a compact skid to be added on
Introduction the existing FPSO
Deep offshore reservoirs may be good candidates for EOR by 4. Realistic options can be proposed for the logistics to
polymer injection : ship the polymer powder on site .
- they are generally shallow (below sea floor),
which means rather low temperature;
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Basic field data -Polymer stability (temperature, biodegradation….)


Most successful polymer injections have been achieved on low -Gels issues
temperature, high permeability sandstones viscous oil -Polymer price
reservoirs. Based on these criteria a typical deep offshore -Industrial scheme from polymer plant to FPSO
turbiditic field has been selected as a good candidate for -Timing
polymer injection. -Risk
The field permeability ranges from a few hundreds of Table 2 gives an overview of our ranking.
milliDarcies to several Darcies, with an average permeability Polyacrylamids Xanthan
above 1 Darcy. The reservoir temperature is 50°C .The oil is Industrial availability 520Kt/y +++ 30Kt/y -
less tolerance to
slightly undersaturated with medium viscosity ranging from Performance as viscosifier + +++
salt
3cP to 7cP under reservoir temperature and pressure. Water Thermal stability
not an issue at
-
not an issue at
+
50°C 50°C
viscosity is in the range of 0.5cP under reservoir conditions. Biodegradability stable + biocide required -
The base-case development plan is through water injection, Gel issues may require filters -- no experience +
using subsea wells and flow lines. Desulfated sea water is
7 to 10$/kg but
injected at the start , and produced water is to be reinjected Prices 2 to 4$/kg ++ market size could -
after water breakthrough. Table 1 provides a description of the change?
requires on site
desulfated sea water and formation water. Reinjected water is Industrial scheme proven process +
plant
--
estimated to have a maximum salinity of (52g/l).corresponding Timing available ++ challenging ---
large industrial
to a mixture of 30% of formation water with desulfated sea Risk
projects
++ small pilots --
water Table 2 – Ranking of polyacrylamides versus
biopolymers:xanthan
Salt Formation Desulfated
(g/l) water sea water The balance of advantages and drawbacks is in favor of
polyacrylamides. The major concerns for xanthan are the
Divalent 21,3 0,3 industrial availability as such a project would represent a 50%
Monovalent increase of world xanthan consumption, and scheme (Plant
(global) 96,4 24,6 investment), its price (double the price of polyacrylamides)
NaCl 93,9 23,6 and the risk to be out of timing for a mid term project.
Total salts 117,7 24,9
Polyacrylamide qualification
Table 1 – Water salinities The key issue in designing a polymer injection is to select a
polymer that will develop enough viscosity under the current
Scope of work for feasibility study salinity conditions of the field, be easily dissolved (quick,
Four main tasks have been identified to demonstrate the homogeneous and repeatable), with no problems of injectivity,
feasibility and potential benefits of injecting polymer in such a will propagate viscosity in the reservoir (minimum
case: degradation and adsorption), and ultimately will not impair
1. Viscosification: a dedicated laboratory program has production facilities when being back produced.
been launched to select a polymer and acquire the A specific laboratory program has been set up to address these
basic data required to perform a sound evaluation of different issues, in parallel with simulation work to evaluate
incremental oil brought by the polymer. the incremental oil and optimize the injection strategey, and
2. Resources estimation: simulation with and without architecture study to define the additional facilities and
polymer with a specialized software and laboratory logistics required for the polymer project.
input parameters, including the design of the injection
strategy (start date/slug concentration/post slug Viscosity
concentration/ partial or fullfield injection) The molecules of hydrolyzed polyacrylamide in solution can
3. Pilot: objectives, design, be considered as miniature coils. At low salinity, the coil tends
4. Architecture: additional facilities required – logistics to expand because of the electrostatic repulsion between the
Polymer selection negative charges all along the chain. The more expanded the
Assuming a massive fullfield polymer injection, with 300 000 chain is, the higher the viscosity. When the salinity increases,
bwpd of injection, and concentrations from 700ppm to the negative charges of the polymer are screened due to the
1500ppm (reasonable range based on literature survey), 12 to increase of the ionic strength. Thus, the coil contracts,
30ktons/year of polymer could be required. Therefore polymer reducing the viscosity of the solution. The viscosity being
selection must focus on polymers largely industrially strongly dependent on the molecular weight of the chains, it is
available. Two main types of industrial polymers were possible to achieve a high viscosity even with high salinity
retained for screening: biopolymers such as xanthans and with the use of high molecular weight polyacrylamide.
polyacrylamides.
The criteria used for selection were the following: The expansion state of the molecule in a solvent is measured
-Industrial availability by its intrinsic viscosity which is defined as:
-Performance as viscosifier [n]= lim (η / ηwater-1)/ c
cÆ0
IPTC 11800 3

where ηwater and η are the viscosity of the brine and of the •
The dissolution facilities: specific static mixers and
polymer solution respectively. C is the polymer concentration pumps have to be used
in cm3/g. • The injection lines: and particularly the well head
Measurements have been achieved on a serie of increasing chokes
molecular weight polyacrylamides (Table 3). 18MDa • The well bore entry
molecular weight was selected for further detailed From this analysis it appears that the highest shearing device
qualification. would be the well head chokes.
A set of experiments has been realized to measure the
Polymer A B C evolution of the viscosity versus shear rate using capillary
Mw (106 g/mol) 18 12 8 tubes and rotating devices, and check that the viscosity losses
%hydrolysis 28 27 18 in the wellhead choke were not a killing factor. A viscosity
loss of 25% to 50% was observed in the shearing conditions of
%active 89 88 91 the choke, at respective polymer concentrations of 700ppm
[η] (cm3/g) 4570 2450 1550 and 1500ppm. Additional tests were done with lower
molecular weight polymers as described in Figure 3 to further
Table 3- Intrinsic viscosity in sea water at 50°C validate our choice. The high molecular weight polymer is
obviously the most affected by the shear degradation, but is
For this polymer, viscosity was measured at 50°C as a nevertheless the most efficient to ensure a high viscosity under
function of concentration and salinity as plotted on Figure 1. our salinity conditions.
From this plot it is clear that viscosity strongly decreases when
25
salinity increases up to 35-40g/l, but stabilizes at higher
salinities.
100 20

8 MDa
Viscosity (cP)

15 12 MDa
18 MDa
2000 ppm
1000 ppm 10
700 ppm
Viscosity (cP)

500 ppm
10 350 ppm
250 ppm 5

0
0 50000 100000 150000 200000
Applied shear rate (s-1)

1
Figure 2: Viscosity at 50°C as a function of applied
25 30 35 40 45 50 shear rate for 1000 ppm solutions of polymers of
Total Salinity (g/L) varying molecular mass.
Figure 1: Viscosity as a function of salinity and The viscosity losses are not only depending on the applied
concentration at 50°C for the polyacrylamide of shear but also on the residence time in the shearing device and
18Mda. Viscosity measurements at a shear rate of 10 both may be difficult to evaluate in the case of complex
s-1. devices. In this case it may be useful to construct a pilot loop
including that device.
Shear degradation
Polyacrylamides molecules are flexible chain molecules, that Thermal degradation
can be broken when submitted to high shear rates [2]. This A literature survey shows that hydrolysed polyacrylamides are
causes an irreversible loss of viscosity of the solution and very stable at 50°C [3,4] and the base-case assumption is that no
higher molecular weight polymers will be more sensitive to temperature ageing will occur during the project. Experiments
shear. It is generally admitted that once a solution has been under anaerobic conditions have been recently launched in our
sheared at high shear rates, further shearing at lower values of laboratories to further confirm that point.
shear rates will no longer impact viscosity. A thorough
analysis of shearing conditions has been achieved on the Adsorption
whole system of polymer injection. The potential stress Part of the injected polymer will remain adsorbed at the
locations are: surface of the rock material, which will reduce the
4 IPTC 11800

viscosifying effect of the solution and give a zero polymer In our study, the polymer option as implemented in the
concentration at the water/oil front. For a given solution, the Eclipse-Schlumberger software was used. All data are
adsorption is related to the mineralogy of the rock sample and provided as tables, directly derived from laboratory
to the accessibility to the active surface. Maximum adsorption measurements.
is observed on clays. As developed deep offshore field are generally multi-reservoir
Adsorption has to be measured on each rock type, and huge fields, our approach was multi-step:
preferentially not on crushed core where the active surface is - define an injection strategy on one of the most promising
much higher, and where adsorption is a maximum. reservoirs using base case polymer parameters
Both static (crushed cored) and dynamic (core flooding) - apply that strategy full field, and further optimize to define a
measurements were done on real unconsolidated core samples base case for polymer injection
representative of the field. Low adsorption has been measured - evaluate low case and high case polymer injection
in agreement with literature data available for clean sands: incremental oil by a probabilistic approach where static
between 10 and 30 µg/g. Measurements were done without oil properties and dynamic parameters from water flooding and
(Sw=100%), and at residual oil saturations. Values for polymer flooding were varied.
polymer adsorption at Sor (10µg/g to 14µg/g) were low, close A full paper should be required to give a detailed presentation
to those determined at full water saturation (25µg/g to of this work. This section will emphasize the simulation
29µg/g). Polymer adsorption/partitioning in crude oil can thus procedure and the key results obtained during our study.
be assumed negligible.
Injection strategy
Residual resistance factor The objective is to find some scenarios which maximise oil
The adsorbed polymer will reduce the permeability of the rock production and minimise the quantity of polymer injected.
sample and reinforce the mobility reduction of the water Generally a high concentration, limited size (15% to 50% PV)
phase. Values ranging from 1.7 to 2.3 were measured on the slug is injected, followed by successive slugs of decreasing
reservoir core samples during polymer flood. concentrations.
4 key parameters have been varied to define the injection
Other characteristics strategy :
From our own experience of polymer injection in the field of - the start of injection,
Chateaurenard in France [5, 6, 7] and many other projects, it is - the slug concentration,
clear that the preparation of a high quality polymer solution is - the slug size,
key to a successful polymer project, that is: - the post slug concentration:
• Quick dissolution, As a simplification we have assumed that no multiple
• Stable viscosity decreasing concentration postslugs were implemented, and
• Minimum insolubles and microgels that polymer was injected till the end of the field life.
A specific program has been achieved to define the protocol of
dissolution of polymer and check the filterability of the In order to quantify the polymer injection two criteria are
polymer solution, and recommendations for QA/QC have been retained: how many additional barrels are brought by the
made for future industrial application. injection, and the global efficiency of the polymer to get these
Other tests have also been launched: barrels which is defined as the ratio of the total of additional
- compatibility of the polymer with the different oil barrels produced (water injection being the reference),
water additives used in the injection and divided by the total amount of active polymer injected (usually
production facilities expressed in bbl/kg). This efficiency is varying all along the
- impact of polymer back production on the process, an average value is retained.
water/oil separation process As preliminary simulations indicated that the level of
At that stage of study, all the tests were positive, meaning that adsorption was very critical to the amount of incremental oil,
polymer injection was compatible with the and was relatively uncertain (limited number of dynamic
injection/production system. measurements), this uncertain parameter was included in the
optimisation to obtain an injection strategy that would be
Incremental oil evaluation robust to the most influential parameters related to polymer
Benefits of any EOR option need to evaluate incremental oil physics.
versus baseline development. In the case of polymer injection
a dedicated software is required that would be able to Minimum and maximum values have been defined for each of
represent key physics of the polymer: the 5 parameters and an experimental design approach has
- viscosity as a function of polymer concentration and salinity been applied, to define a range of optimum values of the
- viscosity as a function of shear rates parameters.
-adsorption of the polymer on the rock material Key findings of that part of the study were that:
- Permeability reduction related to adsorption - maximum efficiency (bbl/kg of polymer) does
- If significant, inaccessible porous volume to the polymer not give maximum incremental oil (in bbls)
when adsoption is satisfied: - the sooner the injection the better the results,
particularly for the acceleration of production
IPTC 11800 5

- it is not necessary to have a very high slug 1,2


concentration 700 to 900 ppm give the highest
increments 1
- post slug concentration, between 250 and Water Injection

Oil Production Rate


400ppm seemed to be most suitable 0,8
Polymer Injection
- A slug duration of 5 to 8years is recommended,
0,6

0,4
Deterministic base case
Different deterministic simulations have been run on the 0,2
full field, following injection strategies as optimized on the
most representative reservoir of the field. These simulations 0
0 0,2 0,4 0,6 0,8 1
were mainly conducted over a period of 20 years of Time
production, starting with water injection and moving to
polymer injection after a minimum of 3 years of water Figure 3 Typical Oil Production Profile Case
injection. The same well pattern was used for water and 1,4
polymer injection (no additional wells), meaning injector- 1,2

Cumulative Oil production


producer distances from 1000 to 1500m. All producers are
horizontal wells and injectors are either highly deviated or 1
horizontal wells. 0,8
Most significant results of these simulations were that:
• Incremental oil recovery varied from 3 to 7% 0,6
Water Injection
OOIP according to the start of injection and 0,4
amount of polymer injected Polymer Injection
• Earlier injection allows for more significant final 0,2

recovery and production acceleration 0


• In the most favorable cases a plateau duration 0 0,2 0,4 0,6 0,8 1
extension of 15% was observed Time

• Even when no plateau duration extension was Figure 4 Typical cumulative oil profile
observed the production decline was significantly
decreased 1
• Water production was significantly decreased, 0,9
with variable results from well to well 0,8
• As watercuts are not fully developed in the field 0,7
since polymer injection starts early in the field 0,6
Watercut

life, no sharp decrease in watercut is observed 0,5


• For a given global additional recovery, varying 0,4
results were obtained across the different Water Injection
0,3
reservoirs, mainly correlated to the amount of 0,2
Polymer Injection
water injected per reservoir (the higher the
0,1
injection the higher the recovery), and the water
0
oil mobility ratio. 0 0,2 0,4 0,6 0,8 1
• If total liquid injection is less during polymer Time
injection than during water only injection Figure 5 Typical Watercut evolutions
(significant injectivity reduction or imperfect
piloting of the injection), polymer injection
benefits may be lower Economics evaluation has been run on the different cases
• High injectivity potential of the wells allows to in order to select a base case for polymer injection.
inject as much polymer solution as water in most
of the wells Architecture study
The architecture study has mainly investigated the polymer
An example of typical profiles is provided in Figures supply chain and the facilities to be added to the existing
3. to 5. FPSO, where all the surface facilities for water injection and
oil separation and production are located.
Many options have been investigated and many discarded as
there is no other application of offshore polymer injection, and
both the size and the specific deep offshore conditions were
highly challenging. The paper only summarizes the major
findings of that study
6 IPTC 11800

Polyacrylamides might be provided as an emulsion in


synthetic oil, with 50% active material, or as a powder with
90% active material.
Whatever the type of polymer, a mother solution of high
concentration (generally 5g/l) is prepared, and later diluted to
the concentration of the design.
In the case of emulsion, the preparation is very simple as the
emulsion is pumped and then passed through a specific mixer
with water to break the emulsion and directly obtain the
mother solution.
In the case of powder polymer, powder is transferred to
polymer hopper dispersion unit for dissolution into water at
the mother solution concentration, and then passed through
maturation tanks to fully develop the viscosity. In the 1980’s .
Figure 6 Schematic diagram of the FPSO- process
maturation time was in the range of 5 to 12 hours, but can be
barge – powder carrier option
now reduced to less than 1hr thanks to a smart pre-wetting of
the powder. The simplest case, where the polymer processing facilities
(intermediate storage and mother solution preparation) were
A preliminary study has evaluated the feasibility and the on the FPSO, has been discarded at the start of the study as no
economics of powder and emulsion options. Despite the to very little place was available on the floating platform for
relative complexity of powder handling, that option was intermediate storage and solution processing assuming a
retained for two main reasons: maximum 5g/l concentration of the mother solution
• lower effective cost of the raw material for powder: achievable.
the price of 1kg of emulsion is roughly equal to the Recent progress in processing powder polymer allows now to
price of 1kg of powder, but active material content in prepare nice quality mother solution up to 10g/l and eventually
the emulsion isroughly half of that in the powder 15g/l instead of 5g/l., reducing the size of preparation skid and
(50% for 90% maturation tanks. The option of integrating a skid on the FPSO
• much larger tons/volumes of material to be shipped in is again on stream (Figure 7), leading to a total of 2 options to
the case of emulsion be further investigated.
Several marine options have been considered to supply the
polymer powder and process the solution and two have been
short listed.
Basic principle for the options considered was to store the
polymer powder onboard a barge or carrier DPC located at
field, as no room was available on the FPSO.
The barge or DPC would be equipped for processing the
polymer solution ready for injection and a system for transfer
of the solution to the FPSO.

These two combinations have been envisaged for three


different distances/modes i.e. directly moored along side the
FPSO, on (dynamic positioning) DP mode at some 100 to 200
m from the FPSO or anchored (spread moored barge or SPM
for vessel) at some 2000 m from the FPSO
Figure 7 Schematic of the polymer process facilities
Following a semi-quantitative study conducted a ranking of
integration on the FPSO
the options has been obtained. Cases alongside the FPSO
present the highest level of risks and have been ruled out. For
Polymer supply chain
operational considerations, the option of a barge permanently
Main polymer suppliers are inEurope, in the United States and
moored has been retained as described in Figure 6.
in China. Europe is the base case of the study at the moment.
Two different options are considered for the transportation:
either a specific carrier is built and sails between Europe and
the process barge, or international standard containers are used
to carry big bags of powder between Europe and on shore
close to the FPSO, where a dedicated storage warehouse is
built, and then a shuttle carries the containers from on shore to
the barge or to the FPSO (see Figure 8).
If a specific carrier is built, polymer will be transported by
train in bulk from the polymer supplier plant to the harbor
IPTC 11800 7

where silos and blowing facilities have to be set up for transfer Conclusions
to the carrier. A very thorough feasibility study of polymer injection has
been achieved on a typical deep offshore low temperature
SPECIFIC POWDER CARRIER +BARGE (50°C°), high permeability (>1D as an average) sandstone
reservoir containing medium viscosity oil (3 to 7cP under
F
reservoir conditions).
The study has demonstrated that:
1. Considering the need for massive quantities of
INTERNATIONAL STANDARD CONTAINERS + BARGE + SHUTTLE
polymer in a fullfield deep offshore development
(>10Kt/year) polyacrylamide polymers are preferred
F to biopolymers
2. High molecular weight hydrolyzed polyacrylamides
can be used under a wide range of salinities covering
INTERNATIONAL STANDARD CONTAINERS + SHUTTLE +FPSO
sea water and a mixture of sea water and produced
water.
F 3. Additional recoveries in the range of 5% can be
achieved in this particular context of large well-
Figure 8 Diagram of polymer supply logistics spacing development of a medium viscosity field
4. Earlier injection is more profitable, but also more
risky as the water injection baseline may not be
Pilot opportunity sufficiently well established
The need for a pilot has been investigated. Three main 5. Powder polymer supply is achievable for deep
objectives have been identified offshore fields either with a specific bulk carrier or
1. Demonstrate the ability to prepare on site a using standard international containers to transport
« good quality » polymer solution and the big bags (250 kg)
operability of the facilities 6. Even in the case where no room is left on the
2. Demonstrate that the injectivity of the polymer existing FPSO, marine options can be found to safely
solution is sufficient to be able to maintain the process the polymer on a barge connected to the
pressure) FPSO (depending on the sea conditions)
3. Demonstrate the efficiency of the polymer 7. An injectivity pilot is compulsory for such a project
(pressure maintenance and in situ viscosification 8. ‘recovery ‘ type polymer pilot with a full
or no polymer degradation) quantification may be difficult to design and lead to
Considering that no polymer solution has ever been prepared a phased development with potentially less resources
offshore, to such high flow rates, the operability demonstration for the full field project (due to the time delay)
is compulsory. Acknowledgements
Considering that pressure maintenance is key to the success of The authors sincerely thank the contribution of the whole
the project and that additional recovery with polymer is project team from its very early stages to the present, and
strongly correlated to the amount of solution that has particularly M.Planckaert who did all the simulation work
effectively been injected, the second objective is compulsory related to deterministic simulations.
and has even been identified as a killing factor if injectivity
losses related to polymer were very significant. References
1. Ming Hang, Wentao Xiang,Jian Zhang, Wei Jiang, Fujie
The third objective might be difficult to complete in a deep off
shore context, particularly for early injection Sun,“Application of EOR Technology by Means of
Polymer Flooding in Bohai Oil Fields”, SPE104432,
• If the water injection baseline is not well established
(2006)
the benefit of polymer may be difficult to determine
• Minimum pilot duration may be prolonged if a 2. Maerker, J.M., “Shear degradation of partially
hydrolyzed polyacrylamide solutions”, SPE5101, (1975).
producer response is required: large spacing implies
that water breakthrough inflexion or polymer back 3. Moradi-Araghi, A., Doe, P.H.: “Hydrolysis and
production may be long precipitation of polyacrylamide in hard brines at elevated
temperature,” SPE13033, (1987).
• A long test eliminates the feasibility of a single
injector pilot (rig location cost), therefore a full line is 4. Ryles, R.G., “Chemical stability limits of water soluble
concerned :Such a pilot would lead to a phased polymers used in oil recovery”, SPE13585, (1988).
5. Labastie, A., Vio, L.:”The Chateaurenard Polymer flood
development and potentially less resources for the
full field project (due to the time delay) field test”, European Symposium on Enhanced Oil
Recovery, Bournemouth, England, (1981).
More work on the minimum duration of a ‘recovery‘type pilot, 6. Putz, A.G., Lecourtier, J.M., Bruckert, L., “Interpretation
including brainstorming on existing and innovative monitoring of high recovery obtained in a new polymer flood in the
techniques is still required to design such a pilot. Chateaurenard field”, SPE18093, (1988).
7. Putz, A.G., Rivenq, R.C., “Commercial polymer injection
in the Courtenay field”, J. Pet. Sci. Eng7, 15-23., (1992).

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