EM179603 DOI: 10.
2118/179603-PA Date: 21-June-17 Stage: Page: 51
Polymer-Flooding Economics,
From Pilot to Field Implementation
Martin Sieberer, Karl Jamek, and Torsten Clemens, OMV
Summary
Polymer flooding of oil fields has not reached the same maturity
as waterflooding. Hence, implementing polymer projects at field
scale requires a workflow comprising several steps. The workflow
starts with screening of the portfolio of an organization for oil
fields potentially amenable for this enhanced-oil-recovery (EOR)
method. Next, laboratory and field testing is required, followed
by sector and field implementation and finally rollout in
the portfolio.
Going through the workflow, not only is the subsurface uncer-
tainty reduced, but also the knowledge regarding the cost structure
and operating capabilities of the organization is improved.
Analyzing the economics of polymer-injection projects shows
that costs can be split into costs dependent on the polymer injec-
tor/producer (polymer pattern) and costs that are independent.
Knowing these costs, a minimum economic number of patterns
(MENP) is defined to achieve net present value (NPV) of zero.
This number is used to determine a minimum economic field size
(MEFS) for polymer injection, which is taken into account in the
screening of the portfolio.
A robustness criterion for economic-evaluation purposes is
defined as the minimum number of patterns required for economic
polymer injection. By use of this criterion, a diagram is derived
allowing for screening of fields for polymer economics by use of
pattern-dependent and pattern-independent costs and the utility
factor (UF).
The cost structure reveals how the NPV of polymer projects
changes with the number of patterns, incremental oil, and in-
jectivity. Injectivity is particularly important because it deter-
mines the chemical-affected reservoir volume (CARV) or speed
of production.
A sensitivity analysis of the NPV showed that for the cost
structure used here, in addition to the polymer costs, the well
costs are important for the economics of a full-field polymer-
injection project.
Introduction
A large number of oil fields with an in-situ oil viscosity higher
than 5 cp and less than 2,000 cp have been discovered and are
produced. Such fields can be economically produced by injecting
large volumes of water and by use of short well spacing (Beliveau
2009). To enhance oil production, polymers can be injected
that improve the mobility ratio, accelerate oil production, and
lead to better sweep efficiency (Lake 1989; Seright et al. 2012;
Laoroongroj et al. 2015).
To perform polymer-injection projects, sufficient incremental
oil production has to be achieved at costs that make such projects
economically viable (Bondor 1993). The economics of polymer-
augmented waterflood projects have to be evaluated as incremen-
tal economics compared with the base case of water injection
(Milton et al. 1983; Mack and Duvall 1984; Giordano 1987;
Alusta et al. 2012).
Different aspects of the economics of polymer flooding have
been investigated. The analysis performed by various authors
Copyright V
C 2017 Society of Petroleum Engineers
This paper (SPE 179603) was accepted for presentation at the SPE Improved Oil Recovery
Conference, Tulsa, 11–13 April 2016, and revised for publication. Original manuscript
received for review 3 December 2015. Revised manuscript received for review 27 September
2016. Paper peer approved 23 January 2017.
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Total Pages: 10
included a comparison of polymer-injection economics with other
methods of enhanced oil production, such as alkali/surfactant/
polymer flooding, surfactant/polymer flooding, and profile control
(Wyatt et al. 2008; Okeke and Lane 2012; Henthorne et al. 2011).
Also, cash flows for several chemical EOR methods were studied
and compared for success and failure cases (Gogarty 1983). Fur-
thermore, chemical EOR was optimized for chemical concentra-
tion, slug size (Wu et al. 1996), and well-pattern efficiency
(Clemens et al. 2011). In addition, the economics, cost, and reser-
voir uncertainty were taken into account to assess the viability of
EOR methods (Kessel et al. 1987; Lefebvre et al. 2012; AlSofi
and Blunt 2014; Kemp and Stephen 2015).
In this paper, we address the following questions:
• How are polymer-injection projects progressed from screen-
ing to field implementation?
• What does the cost structure of a polymer-injection project
look like?
• How can polymer-injection economics be scaled up from
pilot test to field scale?
• Which are the most-sensitive economic parameters for poly-
mer projects?
• What are the required conditions to make polymer-injection
projects economically viable?
By use of data derived from a polymer-injection field test, we
are going to show that an MENP exists, which is linked to a
MEFS for polymer-injection projects, which needs to be taken
into account for screening portfolios. In addition, by aggregating
various parameters into four groups—well-pattern-dependent
costs, well-pattern-independent costs, injectivity, and UF
(UF ¼ kg of polymer injected/bbl of incremental oil produced)—
we derived diagrams showing the required conditions for eco-
nomic viability of polymer-injection projects, which can be used
for screening fields for this technology. Furthermore, we devel-
oped diagrams to assess for which conditions the injectivity
increase should be used to increase the CARV or to accelerate the
polymer response.
The paper is organized as follows. The next section discusses
the selection of the EOR method. Then, the field test is intro-
duced. Next, the cost structure is described, followed by deriving
the economic functions, the results, and conclusions.
Selection and Implementation of EOR Processes
Although EOR methods have been described and field-tested for
nearly 80 years, the current oil production because of EOR is only
a small percentage of the world’s oil production. Only a few
chemical-flooding projects have been implemented at full-field
scale (Wang and Liu 2006; Al-saadi et al. 2012; Delamaide et al.
2013). To implement EOR, we used the workflow shown in
Fig. 1. The workflow is similar to the workflow suggested by
other authors (Goodyear and Gregory 1994; Hite and Bondor
2004; Kaminsky et al. 2007; Teletzke et al. 2010; Hite et al. 2012)
but is extended with a screening of the portfolio and rollout in
the portfolio.
The first step in the workflow is screening of the portfolio for
potential application of EOR technologies (Schulte 2005). This is
performed by use of reservoir depth vs. in-situ-viscosity diagrams
(Taber et al. 1997; Rotondi et al. 2015; Siena et al. 2015). Fig. 2
shows an example of a portfolio screened for the various EOR
methods. The lower viscosity limit of the polymer-flooding-appli-
cation window is given by the limited incremental oil recovery of
51
 EM179603 DOI: 10.2118/179603-PA Date: 21-June-17 Stage: Page: 52 Total Pages: 10

Capabilities:
forecasting, optimizing,
and operating Screening of technologies and assessment of
technology readiness in industry and within company

Screening of portfolio
including minimum economic field size

Reduction of economic uncertainty,

optimization of field development
modeling to optimize development
Improvement of static-dynamic
Laboratory testing to determine specific parameter

and reduce uncertainties

Field test to reduce uncertainties and
improve operational capabilities

Sector development

Full-field development

Rollout in portfolio

Fig. 1—Process for implementation of EOR technologies in the portfolio of an oil-producing company.

polymer flooding compared with waterflooding, whereas the
upper viscosity limit is given by the low productivity of wells for
very-viscous oil. Both limits are currently extended in the recent
applications of polymers (Delamaide et al. 2013). The depth limit
results from the stability of cost-efficient polymers; this limit is
currently extended. The application windows of the other EOR
methods are dependent on the screening criteria derived by Taber
et al. (1997) and modified to include results of other authors
(Dickson et al. 2010; Renouf 2014). So far, successful full-field
polymer floods have exclusively been reported from sandstone
reservoirs. The reasons might be the usually higher content of
divalent cations in the formation water of carbonates than of sand-
stones, leading to lower polymer viscosity and poorer stability.
Another reason could be the more-frequently occurring natural
fractures in carbonate formations, resulting in short-circuiting of
polymer solutions.
The screening of the fields has to take a MEFS for the respec-
tive EOR method into account. The MEFS was defined for explo-
ration projects (Rose 2001) to ensure only those projects are
considered that might lead to an economically attractive project.
This concept can be transferred to EOR projects. EOR requires
construction of surface facilities and drilling of new injection
wells, and hence the revenues generated by an EOR project have
to cover these costs in addition to the incremental operating
expenditures (Opex) incurred in such developments. The smaller
the field, the more unlikely the recovery of these additional capital
expenditures (Capex). Therefore, the portfolio of fields needs to
be truncated for the MEFS.
In addition, the technology readiness in the company and in
the industry has to be considered. In our example, we have chosen
polymer flooding over alkali/surfactant/polymer flooding because
the technology maturity is higher.
After choosing the EOR method dependent on the portfolio, a
specific field is selected, applying screening criteria and method-
ologies as suggested by various authors (Guerillot 1988; Taber
et al. 1997; Henson et al. 2002; Surguchev et al. 2011). Next, lab-
oratory testing is performed to derive the parameters that are cru-
cial for simulating the pilot test and full-field development. For
polymer flooding, laboratory testing involves measurement of pa-
rameters, such as polymer adsorption, polymer viscosity vs. con-
centration and shear rate, inaccessible pore volume, and residual
resistance factor (Poellitzer et al. 2009). The data derived from
the laboratory test need to be scaled up to field conditions. In the
process of upscaling, the effect of dispersivity on the incremental
oil recovery has to be specifically accounted for (Clifford 1988)
because the dispersivity is different at reservoir scale then at core
scale (Mahadevan et al. 2003). If the simulation of field condi-
tions indicates that polymer injection might lead to sufficient

0
ASP
–500
–1,000
Depth (m, TVDSS)

–1,500
–2,000
Polymer
–2,500 Steam injection
–3,000
In-situ
–3,500 combination
–4,000 N2, CO2
–4,500
–5,000
0.01 0.10 1.00 10.00 100.00 1,000.00 10,000.00
Viscosity (cp)

Fig. 2—Example of screening a portfolio for EOR methods by use of the screening criteria of Taber et al. (1997). TVDSS 5 true verti-
cal depth subsea; ASP 5 alkali/surfactant/polymer.

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2,000
Oil rate (m3/d)

Oil Rate (m3/d)

1,500

1,000

500

0
1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010

100

80
Water Cut (%)

Water cut (%)

60

40

20

0
1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010
Water-Injection Rate (m3/d)

12,000
Water-injection rate (m3/d)
10,000
8,000
6,000
4,000
2,000
0
1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010

Fig. 3—Oil production (green, top panel), water cut (blue, center panel), and water injection (red, bottom panel) from the 8 TH reser-
voir. Current oil production is 180 m3/d at 95.9% water cut, with a water-injection rate of 4300 m3/d.

incremental oil for an economically attractive project, then a field
test is considered.
A field test aims at reducing uncertainties and improving
operating and monitoring skills of the persons involved in poly-
mer projects.
A successful field test and assessment of economic-sector
deployment of the technology leads to sector rollout, followed
by field implementation and deployment of the technology to
the portfolio.
In parallel with the workflow shown in Fig. 1, the simulation
of the field development is improved by integrating the data
derived from laboratory experiments, the field test, and sector
rollout of polymer injection. Scaling up from laboratory to full-
field is not only important to predict the performance of the field
under uncertainty (left box in Fig. 1), but also to determine and
improve the economics of EOR projects (right box in Fig. 1).
Because a field trial requires interaction of field personnel with
the subsurface and surface team, the capabilities of the organization
are substantially improved when performing such a trial, which is
crucial for rollout in a sector, in the full field, and in the portfolio.
In the example case, polymer flooding was identified as tech-
nology that might be applied in the portfolio and with a sufficient
technology readiness for field implementation. The next step was
selecting one of the reservoirs for testing of polymer flooding.
The chosen reservoir is described in the following section, includ-
ing the results of the polymer pilot.
Polymer Pilot in the 8 TH Reservoir, Austria
The selection of the reservoir for the polymer pilot was dependent
on reservoir and fluid properties. In addition to a sufficient perme-
ability, benign reservoir conditions (water salinity and tempera-
ture), good access to the reservoir (because it is in Austria in a
well-developed area), skilled operating personnel, and proximity
of the laboratory (2 km from field test) were the reasons for
choosing the 8 TH reservoir in Austria.
The 8 TH reservoir is in the Vienna Basin, approximately 20
km northeast of Vienna. The reservoir consists of sandstones de-
posited in a shallow marine environment. The porosities of the
sandstones are 20–30% and the average permeability 500 md. The
net thickness is approximately 20 m. There is a weak aquifer pres-
ent at the northern edge of the reservoir. The reservoir contained a
gas cap. The reservoir depth is approximately 1150 m subsurface.
The initial reservoir pressure was 113 bar, with an initial in-
situ-oil viscosity of 19 cp at the reservoir temperature of 50 C.
The oil density is approximately 20 API, and the formation-water
salinity is approximately 20,000 ppm.
Production from the 8 TH began in 1951 (Fig. 3). Peak oil pro-
duction of approximately 2000 m3/d was achieved in 1957. From
then onward, oil production declined. The reservoir pressure fell
to approximately 80 bar in 1960. Water injection was started in
1960 and oil production stabilized. The water cut continuously
increased and is currently at 96%.
Polymer injection was shown to lead to incremental oil pro-
duction, but several challenges were reported as well. These chal-
lenges are related to polymer degradation in the near-wellbore
region (Seright et al. 2009), microbial degradation of biopolymers
in the reservoir (Bragg et al. 1983), injectivity decline caused by
polymer injection (Weiss 1992), and the surface processing of the
backproduced fluids containing polymers (Argillier et al. 2013).
The polymer pilot in the 8 TH reservoir addressed these issues by
performing an extensive monitoring program (Lüftenegger et al.
2015). The area of the polymer pilot, with the corresponding In-
jector Wells S 81 and SC 1, is shown in the bottom-right panel of
Fig. 4. Before the polymer pilot, water was mainly injected north
of the field into the aquifer.
Fig. 4 shows the response of the wells surrounding Injection
Well S 81. Three of the four wells connected to Well S 81 showed

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 EM179603 DOI: 10.2118/179603-PA Date: 21-June-17 Stage: Page: 54 Total Pages: 10

3
110 Liquid (m /d) 11
100 S 66 10

Liquid (m3/d) Polymer (ppm)

Polymer (ppm)

Liquid (m3/d) Polymer (ppm)

100 10 9
Liquid (m3/d) S 65 90
90 9 80 Oil cut (%) 8
80 Polymer (ppm) 8 7
70

Oil Cut (%)

70 Oil cut (%) 7 60 6

Oil Cut (%)

Incremental oil
60 6 50 5
50 5 40 4
40 4 30 3
30 3 20 2
Incremental oil
20 2 10 1
10 1 0 0

01.01.2009

01.01.2010

01.01.2011

01.01.2012

01.01.2013

01.01.2014

01.01.2015

01.01.2016

01.01.2017
0 0
01.01.2009

01.01.2010

01.01.2011

01.01.2012

01.01.2013

01.01.2014

01.01.2015

01.01.2016

01.01.2017
S 65

S 79 7 weeks S 54
100 10 S 66
Liquid (m3/d) Polymer (ppm)

3
90
Liquid (m /d) S 95 9
Polymer (ppm) 6 weeks S 81
80 8
70 Oil cut (%) 7 10 weeks 6 weeks
S C1
Oil Cut (%)
60 6
50 5 8 weeks
40 4 S 82 S 67
Incremental oil 3
30 S 95
20 2
10 1
0
S
0 S 83
01.01.2009

01.01.2010

01.01.2011

01.01.2012

01.01.2013

01.01.2014

01.01.2015

01.01.2016

01.01.2017

200 m

Polymer injection well

Production well
Abandoned well

Fig. 4—Polymer-pilot response. The blue dots show injection wells, and green dots show production wells. The arrows indicate
tracer responses. The times indicate the tracer-breakthrough times in weeks. The green lines show oil cut vs. time, blue is the liq-
uid-production rate, and the black triangles are backproduced-polymer concentration. The yellow area indicates incremental oil
because of polymer injection.

an increase in oil production and polymer backproduction. Capex. In this text, Capex is defined as
More details concerning the operational issues are provided by • Costs independent of the number of patterns and new wells
Lüftenegger et al. (2015), and the interpretation of the pilot test is per pattern; e.g., surface-facility costs and owner’s costs of
discussed by Laoroongroj et al. (2015). Phase 1 (this phase is compulsory and does not depend on
Because the polymer pilot was performed in an unconfined the outcome of a previous phase).
configuration, the oil-production response has to be simulated for • Costs dependent on the number of patterns: These costs
sector and field implementation, taking the crossflow of polymers were derived from the wellpad costs and the number of
into neighboring patterns into account. patterns.
To implement full-field polymer injection, incremental oil pro- • Costs dependent on the number of new wells to be drilled
duction for polymer injection has to be assessed and the econom- per pattern. These costs are composed of drilling costs and
ics have to be determined and optimized. The following section surface/subsurface costs per new well.
shows the cost structure for full-field polymer-flooding implemen-
tation. The equations used for the economic evaluations are
also given. Opex. In this text, Opex is defined as
• Costs incurred during the full lifetime of the project, such as
Cost Structure produced-water treatment.
• Costs incurred only during the period of polymer injection,
The 8 TH reservoir is a mature field, similar to many other oil
in the present case for no longer than 8 years: polymer-mate-
fields for which polymer flooding is considered. The produced
rial costs, polymer-plant operation and surveillance, and sur-
water is reinjected and peripheral waterflooding is ongoing.
veillance per pattern (e.g., tracers and polymer-viscosity
Full-field implementation of polymer flooding for the 8 TH reser-
measurements).
voir requires drilling of injection wells and some additional pro-
Table 1 summarizes the costs for an example rollout case of
duction wells.
polymer injection. Facility and owner’s costs add up to 24 million
To evaluate the economics for an example case derived from
EUR, and each additional pattern with one injector declared as a
the 8 TH reservoir cost structure, a pattern-based approach was
new well adds 1.275 million EUR (new injector only). If in addi-
chosen. The pattern is defined as an injection well and its con-
tion to the injector one producer needs to be drilled to produce the
nected production wells (Batycky et al. 2008) rather than geomet-
mobilized oil, the additional costs per pattern add up to 2.345 mil-
ric injection/production configurations. Besides the number of
lion EUR (injector þ producer).
patterns, the number of new wells per pattern to be drilled is also
a key parameter.
For the following evaluation, up to two subsequent phases, Results
each including a 4-year period of polymer injection of 1,500 ppm The economic analysis performed here aims at finding the mini-
into  15 wells, were assumed. Costs are incremental Capex and mum-required incremental oil production caused by polymer
Opex over a base-case edgewater injection. The costs were injection or the number of wells required to reach an NPV. Fur-
grouped to allow for a simple upscaling to a different number of thermore, a scaling and sensitivity analysis was performed. The
patterns. The following subdivision of Capex and Opex is used. approach presented here does not allow finding an optimized case

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 EM179603 DOI: 10.2118/179603-PA Date: 21-June-17
Capex, Summarized
Capex facility and owner's costs (EUR) *
Capex/pattern (pipeline, wellpads, pumps, workover injector) (EUR) **
Capex/new injector (drilling and completion only) (EUR)
Capex/new producer (drilling and completion, workover, surface) (EUR)
Opex, Summarized
††
Opex: Plant operation and surveillance (EUR/yr)
††
Opex: Polymer (EUR/kg)
††
Opex: Produced-water treatment (EUR/yr)
Opex: Surveillance per pattern (tracers, injection/production) (EUR/yr)
* Capex independent of number of wells and patterns
** Capex dependent on number of patterns
†
Capex for the wells
††
Opex
Table 1—Costs for an example polymer roll-out case.
for a specific field taking details of the geological structure or
individual pattern performance into account.
MENP/MEFS. To screen fields for the application of polymer
flooding, the required incremental oil was calculated for NPV of
zero at a 10% discount rate, with taxes neglected. The calculated
required incremental oil is compared with the expected average
incremental oil per polymer-injector/producer pattern for the oil
field. The aim is to evaluate whether the field is a candidate
for polymer injection and the effect of the number of patterns on
the economics. Here, we focus on the economics rather than
on how to scale up the reservoir response from pilot testing to
field response.
The required incremental oil per pattern for NPV ¼ 0 is plotted
vs. the number of patterns for different oil prices in Fig. 5. The
number of polymer patterns has been increased stepwise from 1 to
30. For more than 15 patterns, a second phase with additional
injection wells is assumed.
For each configuration, the incremental oil per pattern was
determined for which the NPV is zero ( ¼ break-even). Fig. 5
shows that for a small number of patterns, the incremental oil
required is high and strongly increasing. The reason is that the
pattern-independent costs have to be covered by revenues gener-
ated from incremental oil production. The smaller the amount of
patterns, the less these costs are distributed.
With an increasing number of patterns, the incremental oil
needed per pattern to reach the break-even point (NPV ¼ 0) is
decreasing. For a given average incremental-oil production per
Incremental Oil/Pattern Needed
for NPV10 = 0 (1.5 wells/pattern)
29
27
Number of Patterns (np)
25
23
21
19
17
15
13
11
9 remaining patterns. Moreover, the “robust” number of patterns is
7 independent of the oil price and only sensitive to the pattern-inde-
5 pendent and pattern-dependent costs.
3
1 To derive the robust number of patterns, the following analyti-
10 000 30 000 50 000 70 000 90 000 110 000 130 000
Incremental Oil/Pattern (m3)
Fig. 5—Required incremental oil for NPV 5 0 at 10% discount
rate (NPV10 5 0) plotted for different number of patterns and oil
prices. An exchange rate of 1.1 USD/EUR and average of 1.5
wells/pattern were assumed (e.g., 12 new wells in eight pat-
terns, eight injectors and four producers).
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Total Phase 1 Phase 2
24,000,000 20,625,000 3,375,000
475,000
†
800,000
†
1,070,000
Total
250,000 During polymer injection only
3.0 During polymer injection only
300,000 During full project period
††
50,000 During polymer injection only
pattern, this is used to determine the MENP required to achieve
NPV ¼ 0. For example, for an oil price of 50 USD/bbl and aver-
age incremental oil of 35 000 m3/pattern, at least 10 patterns are
necessary for break-even. This is shown graphically in Fig. 5 by
the black dashed line at 35 000 m3/pattern and the arrow at 10 pat-
terns, where the required incremental oil for break-even per pat-
tern drops to less than the expected 35 000 m3/pattern.
Hence, the field has to be large enough to allow drilling and/or
converting of at least 10 polymer-injection wells. This can be
used to estimate the MEFS. Similar to the MEFS as defined in ex-
ploration (Rose 2001), the MEFS in polymer-injection projects is
the minimum field size required to achieve NPV ¼ 0. In carbon
dioxide storage, a similar concept used to assess the total potential
carbon dioxide-storage volume of an area, the minimum storage
size is taken into account (Burruss et al. 2010).
For a given incremental oil production caused by polymer
injection, the MENP can be defined according to Fig. 5. This
number, multiplied with the incremental oil production per pat-
tern, gives the total incremental oil production. Estimating the
incremental-oil-recovery factor caused by polymer injection, the
original oil in place (OOIP) can be calculated. This is the mini-
mum-required OOIP of the reservoir to satisfy the MEFS crite-
rion. The minimum OOIP is illustrated with an example shown in
Fig. 5: For an oil price of 50 USD/bbl and an expected average
incremental oil production of 35 000 m3/pattern, the required min-
imum number of patterns is 10 (Fig. 5). The total incremental oil
production required is 350 000 m3. Assuming an incremental-oil-
recovery factor of 5%, the minimum OOIP is 7 million m3.
Robust Number of Patterns. The MENP for polymer flooding
determines the minimum number of wells needed to achieve
NPV ¼ 0. However, the fewer the patterns, the larger the change
100 USD/bbl
in required incremental oil for NPV ¼ 0. This is used to define a
minimum “robust” number of patterns; if satisfied, the required
90 USD/bbl
80 USD/bbl incremental oil per pattern does not change significantly if one
70 USD/bbl pattern is producing less than assumed in the production forecast.
60 USD/bbl Planning for a “robust” number guarantees that underperforming
50 USD/bbl of one pattern can be compensated by the others, with only a
minor increase in the required incremental oil/pattern for the
cal expression for the NPV is used:
P
NPV ¼ I  fo  c   np  ða þ np  bÞ; . . . . . . . . . . . . ð1Þ
E
a ¼ fA  A; . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ð2aÞ
b ¼ fB  B: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ð2bÞ
55
 EM179603 DOI: 10.2118/179603-PA Date: 21-June-17
Parameter Value
α (million EUR) 20.4
β (million EUR) 2.9
fo 0.4464
Table 2—Parameters a (discounted total costs, independent of
number of patterns) and b (discounted total costs per pattern) for the
example case given in Table 1.
Eq. 1 is the difference of discounted revenues (first part) and
discounted costs (second part). Revenues are determined by the
incremental oil per pattern I, the number of polymer patterns np,
oil price P (fixed for the whole project lifetime), and exchange ra-
tio E (converting USD to EUR), and the conversion from m3 to
bbl (c ¼ 6.2898 bbl/m3).
Costs are split into total pattern-independent costs (Opex and
Capex) A and total pattern-dependent costs B. The effect of dis-
counting on the costs is introduced by means of the factors fA and
fB defined in Eqs. 3 and 4, which are the ratio of total discounted
and total undiscounted costs. dn is the discount factor for year n of
the project, an and bn are yearly costs, and in is yearly oil produc-
tion in m3; the sum extends over the full 25 years of the project.
It is important to mention that in of Eq. 5 is a time-dependent,
incremental-oil-production profile (dependent on various condi-
tions, including heterogeneity, polymer rheology and adsorption,
oil viscosity, and reservoir conditions) with total cumulative oil
production I, with response times and declines derived from pilot
data. Instead of discounting cash flow, costs and revenues are dis-
counted separately with the factors fA and fB for costs, and fo (Eq.
5) for revenues. Revenues and production are related by the oil
price, and we only consider flat-oil-price scenarios with P not
changing over time. Finally, the total discounted pattern-inde-
pendent (a) and pattern-dependent (b) costs are defined in Eqs. 2a
and 2b.
Xn¼25
an  dn
fA ¼ X n¼1
; . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ð3Þ
n¼25
a n
n¼1
Xn¼25
bn  dn
n¼1
fB ¼ X n¼25
; . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ð4Þ
bn
n¼1
Xn¼25
i  dn
n¼1 n
fo ¼ X n¼25
: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ð5Þ
n¼1
i n
If the NPV is set to zero, a relation between incremental oil
per pattern for break-even I and number of patterns np can
be derived (Eq. 6). The abbreviation c is introduced to simplify
Eq. 6.
a b
I¼ þ ; . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ð6Þ
c  np c
P pair of values (a, b), which are pattern-independent and pattern-
c¼c  fo : . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ð7Þ
E
For np!1, only per-pattern costs b are relevant; fixed costs,
such as facilities, are the more important the smaller the number
of patterns considered. The values for the parameters a, b, and fo
for Phase 1 of a typical project are summarized in Table 2. Two
wells per pattern are assumed here.
If the number of patterns increases toward the limit np !1,
then the incremental oil per pattern for break-even reaches a lower
limit Ilim. This corresponds to the case of the revenues per pattern
being equal to the costs per pattern (Ic ¼ b).
Demanding that the incremental oil as a function of the num-
ber of patterns I(np) does not increase by more than 5%, if one
pattern is dropped, a stability or robustness criterion can be
defined. It can be expressed as Eq. 8:
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Incremental Oil Needed
for NPV = 0 (75 USD/bbl)
120 000
Incremental Oil/Pattern (m3)
Project economics
sensitive to np!
100 000
80 000
60 000
MENP at 35 000 m3/pattern
40 000
Project "robust"
20 000 MRNP
-
1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15
Number of Patterns, np
Fig. 6—Concepts of MENP and MRNP for polymer flooding. The
MENP was determined for the assumption of 35 000 m3 incre-
mental oil per pattern, shown as the black dotted line. The mini-
mum robust number of patterns was evaluated for a required
stability of e 5 0.05. The red dashed line indicates the lowest-
possible incremental oil needed for a successful project, which
is for the limit np fi ‘.
Iðnp  1Þ
 1 þ ; with  ¼ 0:05: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ð8Þ
Iðnp Þ
By solving for n, one can derive a simple expression for the
minimum robust number of patterns (MRNP) nrobust:
sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
ða  bÞ ða  bÞ2 að1 þ Þ
nrobust  þ þ : . . . . . . . . . ð9Þ
2b 2b2 b
This stability criterion for the economics is illustrated in
Fig. 6.
As shown in Fig. 6, for a small number of patterns, the project
is sensitive to the number of patterns. In a case where one well is
not delivering the incremental oil as forecasted, the NPV will be
highly negative. In this area (red circle in Fig. 6), the robustness
criterion is not fulfilled. In the area of the green circle, the project
is stable even if patterns deliver less than initially forecasted, or
are even not producing. The robust number of patterns is indicated
in the diagram with the green arrow, and the lower limit for incre-
mental oil required for an infinite number of patterns Ilim is shown
with a red dashed line.
The concept of the MRNP has the advantage of being inde-
pendent of the oil price and discount factor. Moreover, it can be
used to screen or compare different polymer projects and phases.
A plot of the number of patterns nrobust satisfying the robustness
criterion [I(np–1)/I(np) ¼ 1.05] as a function of the total dis-
counted costs a and b is shown in Fig. 7, with each color repre-
senting a number of patterns.
The coordinates of a project within this plot are given by the
dependent discounted costs, respectively. Knowing these costs,
this plot can be used to determine the number of patterns required
for robustness. In addition, the red lines in the diagram show the
required minimum incremental oil per pattern needed for
NPV ¼ 0, for an oil price of USD 75/bbl. For example, pattern-
independent costs a of 20.4 million EUR and per-pattern costs b
of 2.9 million EUR lead to the minimum number of patterns of 10
required for a robust project. Satisfying this condition by imple-
menting nrobust (approximately 10) patterns, the corresponding
incremental oil per pattern needed for NPV ¼ 0 is found to be
approximately 26 400 m3/pattern.
The efficiency of injected polymers can be calculated by
use of the UF (UF ¼ kg of polymer injected/incremental bbl)
(Clemens et al. 2011; Choudhuri et al. 2015). As the costs of the
polymers are included in the per-pattern costs, a required UF for
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 EM179603 DOI: 10.2118/179603-PA Date: 21-June-17 Stage: Page: 57 Total Pages: 10

Number of Patterns Required (5% Criterion)

5
4.75 14.0–16.0
4.5 12.0–14.0
30 0 UF =

Per-Pattern Costs (million EUR)

00 m 3 2.0 × 4.25
Q/Q
/pat 0 × c/C
4 10.0–12.0
tern 0 × T/T
0
3.75 8.0–10.0
25 0 3.5
00 m 3
/pat 3.25 6.0–8.0
tern
3 4.0–6.0

β
20 0 2.75
00 m 3 UF = 3 2.5 2.0–4.0
/patt .0 × Q
/Q
ern 0 × c/C × 2.25 0.0–2.0
0 T/T
0
2
UF = 4 1.75
.0 × Q
/Q × c
0 /C × T 1.5
UF = 5 0 /T0
.0 × Q 1.25
/Q × c
0 /C × T
0 /T0 1
0.75
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
Pattern-Independent Costs (million EUR)
α

Fig. 7—Number of patterns required to satisfy the stability criterion [I(np–1)/I(np) 5 1.05], given as different colors. The red lines
indicate the incremental oil needed for break-even (NPV 5 0) at an oil price of USD 75/bbl. The green lines show the corresponding
UF (UF 5 kg of polymer injected/incremental oil in bbl). The black lines indicate an example project, with a 5 20.4 million EUR and
b 5 2.9 million EUR.

NPV ¼ 0 can be determined (Fig. 7). For the example case of pat-
tern-independent costs a ¼ 20.4 million EUR and per-pattern costs
b ¼ 2.9 million EUR, a UF of less than 2.7 kg/bbl is required to
achieve NPV ¼ 0.
If the injection rate Q, the polymer-injection concentration c,
or the duration of polymer injection T is modified with respect to
the base case of Q0 ¼ 200 m3/d, c0 ¼ 1,500 ppm, and T0 ¼ 4 years,
the UF changes according to the equation shown on top of the
dashed, green curves of constant UF (Fig. 7). It should be men-
tioned that while the colors defining nrobust are independent of the
oil price, the incremental oil for break-even (red lines) and the UF
derived from it (green lines) are valid only for USD 75/bbl.
NPV. For a given oil price, the NPV can be determined as a func-
tion of incremental oil per pattern and number of polymer patterns
(Fig. 8). Each color represents a particular range of NPVs (e.g.,
orange ¼ 20.0–40.0 million EUR). The plot was generated for an
oil price of USD 75/bbl.
The diagram is split into Phases 1 and 2 by the solid yellow
horizontal line. The red line indicates NPV ¼ 0, comparable with
the curves in Fig. 5, where NPV ¼ 0 curves for different oil prices
were compared. The dotted red line indicates NPV ¼ 0 for an av-
erage of 1.5 newly drilled wells per pattern, compared with 2.0
newly drilled wells for the solid red line.
The offset in the red curve above the yellow line is the result
of additional pattern-independent costs required to install Phase 2.
Above the red line, the NPV increases with the number of patterns
as each pattern is delivering a positive additional NPV. The red
line defines the MENP for polymer injection; this number of pat-
terns is required for NPV ¼ 0.

NPV (million EUR)

–80–60 –80–40 –40–20 –20–0

Number of
0–20 20–40 40–60 60–80
80–100 100–120 120–140 140–160 Patterns
29
27
ing
NP as 25
re
Phase 2

V
De inc 23
cre V
as NP
ing 21
19
17
15
13
11
NP
V= 9
Phase 1

0
7
5
Solid : 2.0 wells/pattern
3
Dashed : 1.5 wells/pattern
1
12 000

22 00

26 00

32 00
34 00
36 00

40 00

44 00
46 00

0
18 00
20 00

24 0

28 0
30 00

42 0
60 0
80 0

38 00

48 0
50 00
14 00
16 00
00

00
00

00

00
0
0

00
0

0
0
0

0
0
0
0

0
40

0
0
0
10

Incremental Oil/Pattern (m3)

Fig. 8—NPV for various combinations of incremental oil per pattern and number of patterns implemented, for USD 75/bbl oil price.
The solid red line shows NPV 5 0 and the MENP for polymer injection. Above the red line, the NPV is always positive. Below the
red line, NPV is always negative. The yellow line indicates implementation of Phase 2.

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6 50
NPV 1
Change in NPV (million EUR)

Change in NPV (million EUR)

4 40
NPV 2
2 30
0 20
0.5 0.75 1 1.25 1.5 1.75 2
–2 10
–4 0
0.5 0.75 1 1.25 1.5 1.75 2
–6 –10
NPV
–8 –20
–10 –30
Speedup (Base Case = 1) Scaling of CARV (Base Case = 1)

Fig. 9—Change in NPV at an oil price of USD 75/bbl as a func-
tion of the normalized injection rate, used for acceleration of
incremental production (“speed-up”).
In the area below the yellow line and below the red line, the
NPV is negative and is the maximum negative exposure of the
project. However, a negative NPV above the yellow line ( ¼ Phase
2) will not be realized, because Phase 2 will not be started
when Phase 1 is uneconomic. This is showing the value of a
staged development.
Scaling of NPV With Injectivity. One of the crucial parameters
in polymer-injection projects is injectivity (Manichand et al.
2013; Zechner et al. 2015). The higher the injectivity, the more of
the reservoir can be affected by polymers or, for a given pattern
size, the faster the oil-production response is seen at the produc-
tion wells. Here, it is assumed that the efficiency of incremental
oil is constant with increasing pattern size. The CARV is the vol-
ume of the reservoir that is in contact with chemicals (e.g., alkali,
surfactants, polymers) in chemical EOR and has similarities with
the stimulated-reservoir volume, which is used in shale-gas and
shale-oil projects (Mayerhofer et al. 2010; Suliman et al. 2013)
and similarly in thermally stimulated wells (Marx and Langen-
heim 1959; Boberg and Lantz 1966).
For a given pattern size (or constant CARV), the effects of
increased injection rates are accelerated oil production. Fig. 9
shows the results for varying the injection rates from a base case
of pattern-independent costs a ¼ 20.4 million EUR and per-pat-
tern costs b ¼ 2.9 million EUR. As an example, the diagram indi-
cates that for an increase in the injection rate by 25%, the NPV is
increasing by 2.1 million EUR.
If the size of the patterns can be adjusted with the injection
rate, two cases can be distinguished. Case 1 assumes that 10 poly-
mer patterns are always implemented; scaling up the CARV per
pattern together with the injection rate scales the polymer-affected
Fig. 10—Change in NPV 1 (blue) for a larger total affected reser-
voir volume and for a constant reservoir volume NPV 2 (red) at
an oil price of USD 75/bbl as a function of the normalized injec-
tion rate used to increase per-pattern CARV.
volume of the reservoir. This explains the steep increase in NPV
when CARV and injectivity are increased (NPV 1 in Fig. 10).
Case 2 keeps the polymer-affected reservoir volume constant
(NPV 2 in Fig. 10). This means when CARV per pattern and
injection rate are doubled, than the number of patterns is reduced
from 10 to five.
For both cases of changing CARV per pattern (Fig. 10), the
sensitivity of the NPV with the injection rate is stronger than for
the case of modifying the injection rate for a constant size of the
pattern (Fig. 9). As an example, Fig. 10 indicates that for an
increase in the injection rate by 25%, the NPV is increasing by 10
million EUR (NPV 1 in Fig. 10) and by 4.2 million EUR for the
same size of the polymer-affected reservoir volume (NPV 2 in
Fig. 10).
The analysis indicates that use of a higher injectivity to
increase the polymer-pattern size is adding more value than accel-
erating oil production, as long as the incremental oil scales line-
arly with the pattern size.
Sensitivity of Costs on NPV. Changing the cost items given in
Table 1, the sensitivity can be shown. For a base case of
25 000 m3/pattern of incremental oil, USD 75/bbl oil price, two
wells per pattern, two phases of 15 patterns each, and an exchange
rate of USD 1.1/EUR, yielding a base case NPV of 25.8 million
EUR, the sensitivity of the parameters is depicted in Fig. 11.
The sensitivities as given in Fig. 11 show that in addition to
the polymer costs, well costs can have a substantial effect in case
the per-pattern costs are strongly influenced by drilling of addi-
tional wells. In addition to the sensitivities discussed, a delay of
polymer implementation because of longer field testing (or more-

Sensitivity of NPV10 Upon 10% Increase of:

–0.85% Opex: Produced-water treatment

–0.93% Capex: Additional subsurface costs per producer
–0.93% Capex: Minimum subsurface costs (workover) per pattern
–1.16% Capex: Additional surface costs per producer
–1.2% Opex: Surveillance per pattern (tracers, injector/producer)
–1.4% Capex: Minimum surface costs (mainfolds, pumps, ... ) per pattern
–1.4% Capex: Pipeline cost per pattern
–2.7% Capex: Owner's costs, including engineering
–4.9% Capex: Central facility
–8.0% Opex: Polymer material
–9.1% Delay by 1 year (Capex, Opex, production)
–13.0% Capex: Drilling and completion of well

–14.0% –12.0% –10.0% –8.0% –6.0% –4.0% –2.0% –0.0%

Fig. 11—Sensitivities of the cost items on NPV. For this case, drilling of two wells per pattern was assumed. Hence, well costs
have a large effect on the NPV.

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 EM179603 DOI: 10.2118/179603-PA Date: 21-June-17
extensive laboratory testing) by 1 year was calculated. The results
show that the NPV would be reduced by 9.1%.
Conclusions
To implement EOR projects, the workflow begins with screening
of the portfolio, including an MEFS. The workflow includes
selection of a field suitable for polymer injection, but takes the
local conditions (staff, laboratory, accessibility) into account. In
addition to decreasing the uncertainty of the reservoir response,
the knowledge of the cost structure and operating capabilities of
the organization should be constantly improved.
The economics of polymer-injection projects show that costs
can be separated into pattern-independent and pattern-dependent
costs. Knowing these costs, an MENP can be defined, from which
an MEFS for polymer injection can be derived. In addition, a min-
imum number of wells for a robust project can be defined by use
of a robustness criterion.
By use of a diagram of pattern-dependent and pattern-inde-
pendent costs and UF, fields can be screened for economic applic-
ability of polymer flooding.
Injectivity of polymer solutions determines either the speed at
which the incremental oil is produced or the CARV. The analysis
shows that it is economically advantageous to increase CARV
rather than accelerating oil production.
A sensitivity analysis reveals that for the case investigated
here, the well costs are most sensitive for NPV followed by poly-
mer costs.
Nomenclature
A ¼ total undiscounted pattern-independent costs, EUR
B ¼ total undiscounted pattern-dependent costs, EUR
c ¼ conversion from m3 to bbl (c ¼ 6.2898 bbl/m3)
dn ¼ discount factor for year n of the project
E ¼ exchange ratio, USD/EUR
fA ¼ discount factor for pattern-independent costs
fB ¼ discount factor for pattern-dependent costs
fo ¼ discount factor for oil
in ¼ incremental-oil-production profile in year n, m3/a
I ¼ incremental oil per pattern, m3
n ¼ number of the project year
np ¼ number of polymer patterns
P ¼ oil price, USD/bbl
a ¼ fAA, total discounted pattern-independent costs, EUR
b ¼ fBB, total discounted pattern-dependent costs, EUR
c ¼ cP/Efo, discounted revenue per pattern and m3 of incre-
mental oil, EUR/m3
Acknowledgments
The authors extend their thanks to OMV E&P for permission to
publish the paper.
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Martin Sieberer joined OMV in 2010 as reservoir engineer at
OMV Austria, where he worked on various field redevelop-
ments and water-injection projects. Since 2015, Sieberer’s
focus has been on EOR-related topics and reservoir simulation
under uncertainty. He holds a PhD degree in physics from the
Technical University of Vienna, with a focus on materials sci-
ence and simulation.
Karl Jamek joined OMV in 2010. He worked on various projects
in the midstream- and downstream-business segments as pro-
cess engineer and project manager (gas and power, gas
transport, and gas treatment). In 2013, Jamek moved to ex-
ploration and production and is now heading the Water-
Treatment Technology Team. He holds a master’s degree in
process engineering from the Technical University of Vienna,
Austria.
Torsten Clemens joined OMV E&P in 2005 as a senior reservoir
engineering adviser. Previously, he worked for Shell on various
reservoir-engineering topics, such as recovery of heavy oil,
fractured reservoirs, and EOR. Clemens has authored or coau-
thored more than 60 technical papers. In 2010, he received
the SPE Regional Award for Reservoir Description and Dynam-
ics. Clemens is the chairperson of the International Energy
Agency EOR Initiative.
July 2017 SPE Economics & Management