Muscat: Pettroleum Development Oman (PDO) has successfully commissioned its first full-scale enhanced oil recovery project (EOR) at Marmul, according to a press release issued by the company on Saturday.
The Marmul Polymer Project in the south of PDO's concession area will add a further 8,000 barrels per day of oil production over the coming years.
"This is an ambitious and novel project that involved building a water treatment plant with a capacity of 80,000 cubic metres per day and a polymer preparation and injection facilities station which will have a capacity of 17,500 cubic metres per day," Managing Director John Malcolm said.
Viscosity
The Marmul field was discovered in 1956. The main Al Khlata reservoir has very heavy, viscous crude and production will be substantially increased using polymer flooding as an enhanced oil recovery technique.
Polymer flooding works by adding polymer to water in order to make it more viscous before it is injected into the reservoir.
Increasing the viscosity of water leads to a more effective oil sweep, which increases both production and the ultimate recovery factor.
The project will lead to a 10 per cent increase in the oil recovery factor from the Al Khlata reservoir.
PDO also announced the successful commissioning of a potentially significant new gas field at Burhaan West in the north of the company's concession area.
