Joint Industry Projects

Scaled Solutions has been involved with large Joint Industry Projects (JIPs) to tackle some of the industry’s most pressing challenges. Currently, Scaled Solutions are engaged in the SWELL JIP.

SWELL is a joint industry project sponsored by multiple operators, vendors and service companies, to carry out research and development aimed towards improving inorganic scale management and scale inhibitor treatments in complex and challenging oilfield production environments. The project is now in its fourth phase, which will run from March 2017 until February 2020.

Areas of research in the current SWELL IV programme include:

  • Investigating the effect that kinetics and hydrodynamics have on the formation, deposition and inhibition of scale. The work focuses on mild scaling regimes, defined as systems and/or conditions where produced waters remain metastable (oversaturated with a particular mineral but not precipitating) unless additional factors, such as high turbulence or surface shear stress, induce surface deposition or bulk precipitation.
  • Core flood testing of scale inhibitor squeeze treatments and development of new additives to enhance the lifetime of treatments under both conventional production conditions and more challenging conditions associated with chemical EOR.
  • Techniques for analysis of residual scale inhibitor concentrations from squeeze treatments. Method are available to quantify a range of SI chemistries down to sub-ppm levels and discriminate between components in mixtures produced from complex production systems.
  • Modelling of squeeze treatments. Place iT™ is our near-wellbore placement simulator that has been developed as part of the SWELL JIP over the past 15 years. It has been extensively validated against field and lab data. A dedicated fracture model is also available that simulates diffusive flow within fractured shales. Access to the software, along with comprehensive training and support is available to sponsors of the JIP.

Project sponsors can access more information here.