Book excerpt: Petroleum Engineer's Guide to Oil Field Chemicals and Fluids is a comprehensive manual that provides end users with information about oil field chemicals, such as drilling muds, corrosion and scale inhibitors, gelling agents and bacterial control. This book is an extension and update of Oil Field Chemicals published in 2003, and it presents a compilation of materials from literature and patents, arranged according to applications and the way a typical job is practiced. The text is composed of 23 chapters that cover oil field chemicals arranged according to their use. Each chapter follows a uniform template, starting with a brief overview of the chemical followed by reviews, monomers, polymerization, and fabrication. The different aspects of application, including safety and environmental impacts, for each chemical are also discussed throughout the chapters. The text also includes handy indices for trade names, acronyms and chemicals. Petroleum, production, drilling, completion, and operations engineers and managers will find this book invaluable for project management and production. Non-experts and students in petroleum engineering will also find this reference useful. - Chemicals are ordered by use including drilling muds, corrosion inhibitors, and bacteria control - Includes cutting edge chemicals and polymers such as water soluble polymers and viscosity control - Handy index of chemical substances as well as a general chemical index