Taber South - Canada's First Polymer Flood

Abstract Three years of actual performance of the Taber South Mannville B pool polymer flood has resulted in sufficient data to review the initial decision to implement this type of secondary recovery scheme. Comparison of performance to the original forecasts to a performance to the original forecasts to a critical re-examination of those forecasts and to performance of conventional waterfloods in pools with similar characteristics has been pools with similar characteristics has been made. Operating costs and capital costs caused by polymer injection have been studied. Consideration of ultimate polymer slug size and operational procedures has been undertaken to provide a guide for optimum future performance. provide a guide for optimum future performance. The conclusion has been reached that polymer flooding has been economically successful and appears to have been significantly more profitable than a conventional waterflood. Introduction Canada's first polymer flood was initiated in Feb., 1967, in the Taber South Mannville B oil pool, located approximately 35 miles southeast of Lethbridge, Alta. (Fig. 1). The Taber South Mannville B pool was discovered in March, 1963, with the drilling of the CPOG Taber S 2-29-7-16 well. A total of 23 oil wells and 11 dry holes drilled on a 40-acre spacing pattern, to an average depth of 3,230 ft, defined a reservoir containing an estimated 40,010,000 STB of oil.