Strathclyde Study Assists in £3bn BP Investment Plan
A team at Strathclyde have recently carried out a study which will be used in a £3bn BP investment plan to redevelop two oilfields in the North Sea.
BP exploration recently announced the major investment in the Schiehallion field in the North Sea (codenamed Quad 204.) and is in the latter stages of production. The plan requires enhanced oil recovery techniques to maximise its future production and one of these methods involves pumping a water soluble polymer down the well that reduces the mobility of the water in the rocks and allows the oil to be extracted preferentially.
Bruce Postlethwaite and Siddharth Patwardhan from the Department of Chemical and Process Engineering, and John Liggat from the Department of Pure and Applied Chemistry have been looking at production costs for this polymer in a three month project that started in June. The information from the study will be used at a strategic level in BP to decide how the polymer should be sourced for the next twenty-five years.
‘The work has been a bit scary for us because of the short timescale’, said Dr Postlethwaite, ‘but we’re very excited to be involved in a project of such importance. We’re also already seeing signs that this could lead to further collaboration, with a recent visit from a member of the ‘Pushing reservoir limits’ team to discuss potential research collaboration.’
A team at Strathclyde have recently carried out a study which will be used in a £3bn BP investment plan to redevelop two oilfields in the North Sea.
BP exploration recently announced the major investment in the Schiehallion field in the North Sea (codenamed Quad 204.) and is in the latter stages of production. The plan requires enhanced oil recovery techniques to maximise its future production and one of these methods involves pumping a water soluble polymer down the well that reduces the mobility of the water in the rocks and allows the oil to be extracted preferentially.
Bruce Postlethwaite and Siddharth Patwardhan from the Department of Chemical and Process Engineering, and John Liggat from the Department of Pure and Applied Chemistry have been looking at production costs for this polymer in a three month project that started in June. The information from the study will be used at a strategic level in BP to decide how the polymer should be sourced for the next twenty-five years.
‘The work has been a bit scary for us because of the short timescale’, said Dr Postlethwaite, ‘but we’re very excited to be involved in a project of such importance. We’re also already seeing signs that this could lead to further collaboration, with a recent visit from a member of the ‘Pushing reservoir limits’ team to discuss potential research collaboration.’
