Polymer Solution Preparation and Quality Control at Milne Point

This paper focuses on solution preparation and quality control activities associated with the Milne Point polymer flood on the North Slope of Alaska. The project uses 10 different polymer injection locations with a variety of skid types and configurations, which had a notable impact on polymer quality control and dissolution operations. Compared with bulk 500-750-kg polymer bags, silos greatly improved storage capacity and overall quality of polymer solutions with less physical effort. Polymer hydration skids made in-house by the polymer supplier were more reliable and experienced fewer quality and startup issues than outsourced skids, and used uniform programming software for easier operator training. For pumping polymer mother solution, triplex pumps provided the best runtime and were most maintenance-friendly compared with diaphragm or triple screw pumps. Nitrogen blanketing was preferred to minimize corrosion and oxidative degradation due to soluble iron in the makeup water. Inline static mixers were ineffective in mixing mother solution with dilution water when mixing occurred close to the wellhead, leading to substantial variations in wellhead viscosity measurements. Dedicating individual pumps for injection into a given well provided desirable flexibility. Monitoring produced salinity and polymer concentration provided useful insights about sweep improvement and polymer retention. The observed field behavior was consistent with laboratory studies, indicating a tailing phenomenon associated with polymer retention at Milne Point.