Proprietary conformance polymer enhances waterflood efficiency to yield 1.1 million bbl of incremental oil

BrightWater™ thermally activated in-depth conformance polymer overcame a highly heterogeneous subsurface and harsh winter conditions to significantly improve oil recovery.

A major operator in Alaska wanted to improve sweep efficiency in an extremely heterogeneous reservoir. The surfactant used for the waterflood project had to be winterized to enable pumping to continue through the long and severe winter that restricted site access. At the same time, the treatment had to address the subsurface heterogeneity.

BrightWater thermally activated conformance polymer helps control the flow of injected water and was selected to address the challenge. It is triggered by the reservoir temperature and does not require any modifications to the injection equipment. The technology ensures that injected water displaces oil and helps maximize recovery instead of simply channeling through high-permeability thief zones and leaving the oil behind. A treatment plan was designed and iteratively refined in close collaboration with the operator.

The polymer was injected over a period of 4 years, and a study conducted across 21 wells to evaluate treatment efficacy showed approximately 1.1 million bbl of incremental oil recovery. Improving waterflood efficiency not only boosted oil output, it also reduced the amount of produced water and CO₂e emissions per barrel of oil produced.