South Oman Polymer Project: A Decade of Operational Excellence and Comprehensive Reservoir Monitoring and Surveillance

Abstract

Abstract The largest polymer flood field in the Middle East has been in operation since 2010, with over 45 polymer patterns and approximately 300 wells. Over the past 13 years, the project has faced various challenges, including ensuring sustained injection uptime, maintaining polymer viscosity stability, and optimizing the polymer pumps uptime, all of which directly impacting the field's polymer oil recovery. Managing such a complex project necessitates a comprehensive understanding of fluid dynamics. To comprehend the reservoir's behavior, an exhaustive surveillance plan is conducted annually, enabling the team to assess performance and take appropriate actions as needed. A substantial amount of data has been gathered to monitor polymer performance, encompassing surface and subsurface aspects such as wells' production data, polymer and water injection rates, polymer daily consumption, polymer viscosities, back-produced polymer concentration, pressure data and others. The large amount of data requires periodic analysis. To facilitate this, the team has developed automated tools to visualize polymer flood performance in real-time. These tools incorporate pre-defined sets of algorithms to retrieve surveillance data and present it in easily interpretable charts and tables, allowing the team to concentrate on areas of concern. Furthermore, well and pattern monitoring is conducted through an approach known as exceptional based surveillance (EBS), which triggers alarms when data deviates from preset operational parameters. These efforts have resulted in increased recovery from the polymer flood. Surveillance activities have demonstrated the effectiveness of data-driven and focused efforts in improving performance. In conjunction with operational excellence, an increase of around 50% in oil recovery has been achieved over the past few years. The paper will provide examples of acquired data, analyses performed, and actions taken to enhance oil recovery.