tutions, and tax-exempt organizations. Industry's relative position improves, however, when other plans, such as profit-sharing and stock purchase, are taken into account. Percentages. Eleven per cent of the employers of chemists, as of 1967, (latest date for which data are available), had no plan of retirement income for their employees. These were generally small employers of chemists. Only 17c of the employers of 50 or more chemists did not have a retirement plan of some sort in effect. With respect to industrial employers of chemists, 14% had no retirement plans and 46% gave no vesting for less than 10 years of service. Consequently, 60% of the employers of chemists gave no benefit rights when employment was less than 10 years in duration. Finally, of the remaining 40%, a large proportion gave rights to a deferred pension only to the extent of 50% or less of the full rate of benefit acquired. The total picture, then, is one in which major developments are still needed before most employers of chemists will be providing full accrual of pension rights for periods of employment that last less than 10 years. The proposed plan's coverage would be group, not individual. The employer would have to agree to participate in the nationwide plan for all its employees or for a unit of employees. The unit could not, however, be unduly limited to executive, supervisory, or highly paid employees. All chemists, scientific and engineering personnel, and regular employees would, under ordinary circumstances, qualify for participation. Part-time, seasonal, and temporary employees and those for whom separate pensions are collectively bargained would not be expected to be eligible to participate. Pension payments would begin at any time after retirement from a participating employer, provided age 55 had been attained. The monthly pension amount would be actuarially determined, and would represent the maximum payable from the accumulated account. Whenever employment terminates, the value of the employee's account would be vested with him. Since none of the accrual would be lost, all of it would be ultimately applied to provide pension payments. The proposed plan would provide various kinds of mechanisms for receiving pension benefits. Advocates of the Acs-sponsored pension plan consider the simplicity of its basic provisions and the versatility of its variations a strong selling point when it comes to convincing employers of its desirability. Expectedly, the Segal Co. report showed that com20
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panies that do not offer a plan of their own were among those most interested in the possibility of buying the plan if it were to become available. But developers of the ACS plan say that there are plenty of advantages to be realized by even the larger companies who may be persuaded to participate even though they may have ongoing pension, profit sharing, or savings plans already. The cost of cranking up the machinery needed to offer specified benefit packages to companies and their employees can only be estimated. Proposed annual budgets often revolve around a breakeven point where operating costs and disbursements as pension payments equal income from the plan's investment holdings and contributions from employers and employees. But to get started will entail additional costs in preparing the plan for operation, including development of all of the necessaiy documents, clearance with the U.S. Treasury Department and other federal or state agencies, establishing, the policy's internal insurance requirements, legal and consulting fees, travel and office equipment needs, and closing related contracts with the appropriate institutions and services. Who decides· Meeting minimum operating expenses depends mainly on whether enough participants, in as many companies as necessary, can be signed up with high enough salaries from which large enough contributions to the plan can be made. Paramount among all recommendations is the one that cites the desirability for the ACS plan to parallel those plans offered by the Teachers Insurance Annuity Association. This plan which serves teachers has been in use for 50 years, and has become so widely accepted in u.s. colleges and universities that it is indeed portable, as the ACS plan would hopefully be. If the ACS plan is to become a reality, it will be because the members want it. But they will have to make it known to the councilors and the Board of Directors that they want ACS to take the initiative and assume the responsibility for setting it up. If, once under way, the ACS plan proves to be sufficiently desirable to entice equally generous, even though competitive, plans into existence and into reach of continuously increasing numbers of chemical scientists and engineers, then the puipose of the ACS effort will have been fulfilled. But a successful plan would have to come first. The Board is responsible for the financial solvency of ACS —it welcomes suggestions from members. But who can or should decide—ACS'S Board, its Council, its committees, or its members?
Chemicals find growing use in oil fields Behind growth is improved technology in drilling, production
CIVISE Use of chemicals in oil fields continues to grow rapidly, in spite of the trend in recent years toward drilling fewer wells. The major reason for this growth is improved technology, leading to more sophisticated treatments that require more chemicals. For instance, big advances have been made in oil well completion and stimulation methods over the past decade, R. E. Hurst of Dow Chemical's Dowell division told a symposium on oil field chemicals, sponsored jointly by the ACS Division of Chemical Marketing and Economics and the Division of Petroleum Chemistry. These methods consume large quantities of a variety of chemical materials ranging from bentonite and diatomaceous earth to hydrochloric acid and polyacrylamides. Oil production alone consumes large amounts of corrosion inhibitors, dispersants, demulsifiers, coagulants, and foaming agents. Today the market for chemicals in the production segment of the petroleum industiy is probably about $100 million annually, says Nalco Chemicars N. Farnsworth. Completion. After an oil well is drilled, steel casing is cemented into place. Then the well is tested to determine its potential production. Usually stimulation is necessary for economic production. The two major stimulation methods used today are acidizing and hydraulic fracture. In acidizing, an inorganic or organic acid is injected into a soluble formation, dissolving some of the formation, and so enlarging the flow channels in the rock. In hydraulic fracturing (the most widely used of the two) a fluid containing a propping agent such as graded sand is injected into the rock under pressure. This splits the rock apart to create flow channels. The propping agent remains in the fractures to hold them open. Regular construction portland cement is generally used in completion of a well—more than 800,000 tons per year currently. Many chemical additives, however, are used to alter the characteristics of the cement. For instance, calcium lignosulfonate is the
most widely used compound for retarding the setting rate of cement. Current consumption of this additive for such use is more than 1 million pounds per year. Annually 3 to 3.5 million pounds of accelerators (salts like sodium chloride, calcium chloride, and sodium sulfate) are used. Cellulose derivatives and polyamides are added to cement slurry to reduce the loss of water as the slurry is put in the well. Bentonite, a sodium aluminum silicate clay that can adsorb large amounts of water, is employed to give low slurry density. This application accounts for about 55 million pounds of bentonite each year, Mr. Hurst says. Other slurry extenders include pozzolanic or claylike minerals (such as volcanic ash and diatomaceous earth), 67 million pounds per year; expanded perlite (silica-aluminum oxide), 9 million pounds; and fly ash, 120 million pounds. Acidizing. Most oil producers use hydrochloric acid (normally a 15% solution) in acidizing. The formations are generally limestone (calcium carbonate) or dolomite (a calcium-magnesium carbonate) and are dissolved by hydrochloric acid. Today acidizing accounts for 87 million gallons of 15% hydrochloric acid annually. Organic acids have replaced hydrochloric acid in certain uses, such as
deep, hot wells in the 350° to 500° F. range. Formic and acetic acids are typically used because of their low molecular weight and relatively low cost. At present this market consumes about 200,000 gallons of formic acid and 100,000 gallons of acetic acid per year. Generally, the chemicals used to protect well equipment from hydrochloric acid attack are a combination of sodium arsenite and an alkyl phenol-ethylene oxide surfactant. This inhibitor system consumes about 1 million pounds of sodium arsenite annually. It is gradually being replaced by organic inhibitors, however. The best organic inhibitors available at this time are imidazoline derivatives. Oil producers are using about 1.25 million pounds a year of these derivatives. Other chemicals being used include abietylamine, about 700,000 pounds per year; coal tar derivatives, 250,000 pounds; and acetylenic alcohol-alkyl pyridine, 300,000 pounds. Hydraulic fracturing. The fluid used in hydraulic fracturing is water or brine in most instances. The viscosity of water or brine fracturing fluids can be increased by using a gelling agent such as guar gum, cellulose derivatives, or poly aery lamides. Consumption of guar gum for this application is about 5.75 million pounds
Oil production consumes about $100 million worth of chemicals annually
per year; cellulose derivatives, 150,000 pounds; and polyacrylamides, 500,000 pounds. Chemicals are also used to control fluid loss into the formation matrix and keep undesirable emulsions from forming. These are generally two t y p e s sodium salts of alkyl aryl sulfonates, and asphalt or gilsonite (naturally occurring asphaltic materials) fractions. About 1.8 million pounds of fluid loss agents are consumed annually. Consumption of emulsion preventers, usually nonionic compounds, is about 450,000 pounds. Classes. Chemicals used in production of oil can be divided into three classes—maintenance chemicals, product improvement chemicals, and recovery aids, Mr. Farnsworth told the symposium. Maintenance chemicals include corrosion inhibitors, scale inhibitors, coagulants, and biocides. The major source of problems in maintaining oil production equipment is the water mixed with the crude. The most effective corrosion inhibitors are cationic surfactants. The market for scale inhibitors includes both scale preventers and scale solvents; the solvents are normally acids. Coagulants and coagulant acids are used to clarify water. Chemical oxygen scavengers help to control corrosion. Organic or inorganic polyphosphates prevent scale in both the equipment and the formation. And biocides are employed to control bacteria and algae growth—a market worth more than $8 million alone, Mr. Farnsworth says. Product improvement. To sell crude oil, producers have to eliminate nearly all the water in it. Frequently the mixture is in the form of a light emulsion, and these emulsions are broken by using a combination of mechanical equipment and chemicals such as high-molecular-weight surface-active polymers. Oil producers buy $25 million to $30 million worth of these chemicals annually, Mr. Farnsworth estimates. The newest market for oil field chemicals—and probably the one with the biggest potential—is recovery aids. Nearly 390 billion barrels of oil have been discovered "in place." Of this amount, however, cumulative production and recoverable reserves are only 128 billion barrels. One method to recover oil is to inject into the formation chemicals that will do a better job of sweeping the oil off the sand and pushing it to the producing wells. Several applications of this method using high-molecularweight compounds are currently under way. Says Mr. Farnsworth, "I am aware of at least one location where 4 million pounds of a chemical are being injected into the ground at an estimated cost of $5 million/' MARCH 9, 1970 C&EN
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