Enhanced recovery

Review Investigates Selection of Viscosities for Injected Polymers

This paper discusses the effect of injected-polymer viscosity on various aspects of a project, from recovery to surface facilities, including both theoretical arguments and practical field experience—which do not always align.

Comparison of oil viscosity and injected polymer viscosity for various field projects.
Comparison of oil viscosity and injected polymer viscosity for various field projects.
Source: SPE 222035.

Polymer injection is now a mature enhanced-oil-recovery process, and numerous large-scale expansions are currently underway while new projects are being designed globally. Some practitioners advocate injecting very high viscosities, while others advocate the opposite. The paper explains why the question of polymer-viscosity selection remains without a clear answer and describes the arguments of both positions using case studies.

Paper Scope

The complete paper is a comprehensive review of global projects in which the issue of injected-polymer viscosity has been explored by the author in a variety of scenarios and contexts. Because of the detailed nature of the review of these studies, this portion of the paper, which makes up its majority, is not included here; instead, the discussion and conclusions reached by this paper’s author are preserved and included in this synopsis.

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