The present invention comprises a hydrocarbon composition consisting essentially of a hydrocarbon and an ionic-association or coordination-complex polymer in an amount sufficient to increase and maintain the elongational viscosity of said composition at a level greater than that of said hydrocarbon alone; said polymer capable of disassociation upon application of a high shear to said composition and reassociation upon withdrawal of a high shear, and to the process for improving the elongational viscosity of hydrocarbons subjected to a high shear regime comprising adding to said hydrocarbon an ionic-association or coordination-complex polymer in amount sufficient to increase the elongational viscosity of said hydrocarbon.
Henry F. Hamil; W.D. Weatherford; George E. Fodor