Sustainable Distributed Polymer Injection Achieves 23% of Manantiales Behr Oil Production in 2 Years; Reusable Mobile Development that Reduces Polymer Back-Production
Authors: Juri J. E. , Dupuis Guillaume , Pedersen Guillermo , Ruiz Ana , Serrano Viviana , Guillen Paula , Ylitch Ivana , Ojeda Natalia , Gandi Silvana , Martino Luis , Lucero Ariel , Perez Diego , Vocaturo Griselda , Rojas Ariel , Viñales Alejo , Rivas Christophe , Massaferro José Luis 
Published: June 2023

Implementing a polymer flooding plan from laboratory studies to expansion and optimization takes around 8 to 12 years. This work reports on an approach that increases the project's return on investment and reduce risks faced by Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) operations, especially considering the impact of timing in the current energy transition context. The oil demand is under rapid replacement because the energy transition is being accelerated by new policies (Cozzi et al 2022). Traditional linear economic models used in field development concepts often neglect important factors such as reusing facilities, water usage, chemical consumption related to water treatment, and sustainability aspects like integrating geothermal energy from produced water. As a result, these approaches contribute to environmental degradation, resource-supply price volatility, and implementation risks (Cozzi et al 2022).

Our major contribution is the implementation of distributed polymer injection localised in reduced areas rather than a centralized infrastructure to massively inject polymer at a full-field scale. The distributed polymer injection with modular mobile polymer injection units (PIUs) targets the richest zones/sweet spots of bypassed oil. In this case, the logistics, and the construction of small modular mobile polymer injection units along with a cluster of ten injectors and nineteen to twenty-five producers ensure that the development cost will be below $5/bbl. The distributed polymer injection not only is efficient in kg of polymer per incremental barrel (on the injection side) but also rationalizes the total OPEX which includes the overall impact of polymer injection (water treatment and back-produced polymer treatment). Progressing this scenario is simple and depends mainly on the engineering and construction to move and mount rapidly the PIU from one sweet-spots to the next one.

The development concept emphasizes speed over scale, aiming to minimize water usage, infrastructure footprint, and operational expenses. While there is limited scope for optimizing upfront infrastructure costs, the project's lifetime offers opportunities for optimization in OPEX, considering that the polymer is consumed over 3 to 6 years. This strategy involves prioritizing small and mobile facilities, leveraging knowledge of specific reservoir targets for polymer injection. This standardization of engineering and materials streamlines the mounting of modules and allows for a focused approach to infrastructure optimization.

The Grimbeek Field case study demonstrates how this approach has significantly increased the return on investment by identifying sweet spots of by-passed oil in the fluvial system using reservoir simulation. Modular mobile polymer injection units were installed in each of these sweet spots. Reservoir simulation reveals that only 38% of the reservoir affected by polymer injection produces more than 60% of the incremental oil.

In less than two years, the Grimbeek Field witnessed a production increase from 4100 barrels of oil per day (BOPD) in 2019 to over 9700 BOPD, representing 23% of the total Manantiales Behr production. This successful implementation is expected to deliver 60% of the project's net present value within the next 10 months, effectively rationalizing operational expenditure.

The concept of distributed polymer injection is a game-changer in polymer flooding, as it enables a high recovery factor to be achieved within shorter timeframes, reducing implementation time, without significantly increasing operational expenditures or infrastructure footprint. Furthermore, the lifting cost (including polymer, operation, and additional opex for production treatment) (usd/boe) is slightly lower than water injection. Moreover, this approach has prompted a shift in polymer developments globally, with other companies adopting the distributed polymer injection concept and those previously relying on centralized infrastructure now transitioning to this approach. The strategy is applicable to many mature fields, offering improved efficiency and speed across the entire value chain: 1) constructing small polymer injection units off-site, 2) mounting modular installations on-site, 3) implementing relatively short injection cycles (3 to 6 years) with rationalized OPEX, and 4) focusing on cluster production while moving the PIUs to the next targeted area.