EZIP swellables

The swelling rubber concept kicked off a train of thought in Cornelissen's head that made him think of a use for this material that could help solve a growing problem for the oil industry, water seeping in to the well and mixing with the oil. This slows down production and causes extra work and cost as the two have to be separated at the surface. He thought that if this swellable rubber or "elastomer" could be wrapped around well pipes, it would swell up in contact with water and prevent it from getting in to the well oil. He was right, and the resulting technology - Expandable Zonal Inflow Profiler (EZIP) - is now being used in wells around the world.

In some of the first tests of this technique the oil flow increased by 600%, demonstrating the value that could be generated from solving the water problem. Additionally, the use of EZIP is inexpensive and there are no extra costs for installation, as it goes in the hole in the same manner as the well pipe itself. It took Shell engineers only 12 months to go from idea generation the first field application.

Conventional oil wells begin by first drilling a hole down to the oil reservoir, then running a steel pipe (know as a casing) into the hole through which the oil will eventually flow to the surface. The diameter of the pipe is less than that of the original hole, leaving a space between the casing and the sides of the hole. This space is traditionally filled with neat cement slurry. Though this helps prevent some of the water from flowing incement shrinks on setting, leaving space for water to seep in still. EZIP technology, which grew from Cornelissen’s bright idea in the toy shop, is providing the solution.