Polymer-augmented waterflooding of the Minnelusa in Wyoming has proven to be a successful method for improving production in most cases compared to normal waterfloods. Polymer is a lowcost, low-risk option when considering a method for enhancing production of a particular field. Its primary function is to improve the mobility ratio of the injected water by increasing its viscosity, thereby improving the volumetric sweep and conformance within the reservoir.

Advantages of using polymer include: (1) low cost, (2) preventing early water breakthrough, (3) improving volumetric sweep and conformance, (4) increasing oilwater ratios, (5) mobilizing oil that would likely have been bypassed under normal waterflood conditions, (6) mitigating heterogeneous permeabilities within the reservoir, and (7) other enhanced oil recovery injection technologies can still be applied after the polymer flood. Most, but not all, Minnelusa fields examined exhibited improved recoveries using polymer compared to fields under conventional waterfloods. Uneconomical polymer floods can be caused by a variety of factors, chief of which is the failure to properly understand the internal architecture of the reservoir prior to initiating the flood.

Presentation at the 2014 Wyoming Oil and Gas Fair by Baird. Topics include company background on Baird, financial indicators and outlook, energy macro, MLP specifics, MLP's in Wyoming and other information.

Presentation by BTU Anaytics at the 2014 Wyoming Oil & Gas Fair. Topics include market analysis and conculsions, domestic demand, rail infrastructure in Wyoming, and more.

Presentation at the 2014 Wyoming Oil & Gas Fair by True Companies on the topic of pipelines. 

The authors use multivariate statistics to highlight best practices in the drilling of Codell and Niobrara reservoirs of the northern Denver-Julesburg (DJ) Basin in southeastern Wyoming. The conclusions in this paper differ from a 2017 report by the Wyoming State Geological Survey on the same topic and illustrate why simple crossplots are not sufficient to properly analyze plays where a number of variables must be addressed and weighed simultaneously.

For the Codell, this study reveals that the attributes of Proppant Volume, Horizontal Length, Gas-Oil Ratio (GOR), and Treatment Rate have the greatest influence on 6-, 12-, and 18-month cumulative oil production. By examining the individual attribute responses, the current best design in the Codell is a lateral length of at least 9,600 feet (ft), a job size of 12 million (MM) lbs, a treatment rate of at least 40 barrels per minute (bpm), and a GOR of 570 standard cubic feet per barrel (scf/bbl). The type curves from decline curve analysis provided predictive monthly production. The best EURs were obtained with the optimized design and yielded better overall economics when entered into the economic model.

For the Niobrara, a 9MM lb job size with a lateral length of 10,000 ft, a GOR of 900 scf/bbl, and a treatment rate between 40 and 45 bpm is optimal. Due to lack of available pricing data and the inability to generate valid type curves of production, an economic analysis could not be conducted for the Niobrara.