POLY‑PLUS, EZ‑MUD, and NEW‑DRILL are brand names for PHPA — partially hydrolyzed polyacrylamide, the most widely used shale-encapsulating polymer of water-based drilling. PHPA is produced by specialist polyacrylamide factories in liquid-emulsion and dry-powder form, and it crosses industries: the same product class serves oilfield WBM programs, HDD bores, and water-well drilling. Ironstone supplies drilling-grade PHPA in both forms, with a certificate of analysis for every batch.
PHPA is a long-chain, anionic (negatively charged) polyacrylamide polymer. In the mud, the polymer chains attach onto the surfaces of reactive clay and shale — on the wellbore wall and on drilled cuttings — and form a coating that slows how fast water reaches the clay. The industry word for this is encapsulation. The practical results are cuttings that arrive at the shakers still firm instead of dispersed into the mud, a more stable borehole in reactive formations, and a cleaner fluid with less clay build-up. Because the chains are long, PHPA also raises viscosity, which is why some programs run it as a primary viscosifier in low-solids fluids.
The chemistry is the same family; the difference is packaging, freight, and mixing. This is the most common point of confusion on procurement lists, because the same brand family often exists in both forms:
| Form | Advantages | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| Liquid emulsion (drums / IBC) | Mixes fast with basic equipment; no dust; dosing is simple volume math. | A large share of every drum is carrier fluid and water, not polymer — you pay freight on the whole drum. Compare price per active polymer, not per liter. |
| Dry powder (25 kg sacks) | High active content; much cheaper freight per unit of polymer; long shelf life. | Needs slow, controlled addition through a hopper or eductor — dumped powder makes fish-eyes that never fully hydrate. |
Procurement lists write whichever brand the mud engineer trained on. These names all describe PHPA products, in one or both forms — if your list shows any of them, the generic class is the same:
| Brand name on the list | Product line | Form |
|---|---|---|
| POLY-PLUS / POLY-PLUS DRY | SLB (M-I SWACO) | Liquid emulsion; DRY is the powder form |
| EZ-MUD | Halliburton (Baroid) | Liquid emulsion |
| EZ-MUD DP | Halliburton (Baroid) | Dry powder |
| NEW-DRILL PLUS | Baker Hughes | Dry powder |
The table is orientation, not equivalence: products differ in molecular weight, charge, and active content. The match is made on the COA, not on the class.
| Parameter | Why it decides the match |
|---|---|
| Active polymer content | The number that makes prices comparable across liquid and dry forms — and the number diluted products hide. |
| Molecular weight class | Longer chains encapsulate and viscosify more strongly; a mismatch changes both dosage and mud behavior. |
| Charge (degree of hydrolysis) | Controls how strongly the polymer attaches to clay and how it tolerates hardness in the mix water. |
| Viscosity at stated dosage | The field-checkable proxy for the two parameters above — run it in your own mix water. |
| Hardness / calcium tolerance | PHPA performance drops in hard water; compare in water that matches your source. |
Dosage depends on the job — a shale-encapsulation program, a low-solids viscosifier role, and an HDD clay bore each dose differently, and liquid and dry forms do not dose alike because active content differs. We do not publish a single number here; when we quote, we send the TDS with dosing guidance for your application and system volume, and the COA states the active content the guidance is based on.