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Topic Outline
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Introduction and definition

Why we need water injection
What to consider in waterflooding
Important rock-fluid characteristics in displacement
process
Displacement theory: Buckley-Leverett
C l l ti off oilil recovery: W
Calculation
Welge
l A
Analysis
l i

Introduction
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Drive mechanisms are means of providing energy to

displace hydrocarbon from reservoirs

There are drive mechanisms that involve the immiscible

displacement of oil

Immiscible displacement means that there is no mixing

of injected and displaced phases at the pore level
(through mass transfer of components).
components)

Natural water drive gives highest recovery factor

therefore water drive by injection is the most common
method of secondary recovery.
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Definition
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Waterflooding (www
www..slb
slb..com
com))
A method of secondaryy recoveryy in which water is injected
j
into
the reservoir formation to displace residual oil. The water from
injection wells physically sweeps the displaced oil to adjacent
production wells.

Water injection (www

www..wikipedia.
wikipedia.com
com))
A method used in oil production is where water is injected
b k into
back
i t the
th reservoir
i usually
ll to
t increase
i
pressure and
d
thereby stimulate production. This method is used to increase
oil recovery from an existing reservoir.

Cont.

Water is injected for two reasons:

1 F
1.
For pressure supportt off the
th reservoir
i (also
( l
known as voidage replacement)
water injection
2. To sweep or displace the oil from the reservoir,
and push it towards an oil production well.
waterflooding

Why We Need Water Injection

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Zone isolation

In some cases, an active reservoir-aquifer systems may

have faulting structure within the reservoir structure, which
causes some hydrocarbon zones to be isolated from aquifer
pressure support

Cont.

Permeability

In producing fields that has moderate to high permeabilities,

maintaining the high productivity is important. This is done
through pressure maintenance using water injection

Undersaturated reservoir

If a reservoir is above its bubble point (undersaturated), then if

there is no pressure support from an aquifer, the reservoir
pressure will decline rapidly
Which one you should use for this
case?
Water injection or water flooding
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What to consider in waterflooding

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To determine the suitability of a candidate reservoir

for waterflooding, these reservoir characteristics must
be considered:

Reservoir geometry
Fluid properties
Reservoir depth
Lithology
Lith l
and
d rockk properties
ti
Fluid saturations
Reservoir uniformity and pay continuity
Primary reservoir driving mechanisms
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Cont.
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Reservoir geometry

The areal geometry of reservoir influence the location and

number of wells/platforms
p

Lithology and rock properties

Clay content presence of clay mineral may or may not

block pores during waterflood
Thin, low perm reservoir water injection pressure may
exceed fracture pressure

Cont.
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Fluid properties

In microscopic level, relatively low oil viscosity is preferable

for waterflood i.e. water viscosityy higher
g
than oil viscosity
y
Water cannot move faster than oil, so water displaces oil in
piston-like manner

If relatively high oil viscosity (low water viscosity), water

moves faster than oil, causing water to fingers through the
oil

This is undesirable
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Cont.
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Reservoir depth

Influence both technical and economical aspect of waterflood

Maximum injection pressure increases with depth
Therefore if very deep wells, costs of lifting oil is very high so
reduce ultimate recovery factor i.e. it is not feasible to inject
water
On the other hand, shallow reservoir has limit on injection
pressure i.e. it must be less than formation fracture pressure

Fluid saturations

High oil saturation provides sufficient supply of recoverable oil

Oil mobility is high hence give higher recovery efficiency

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Cont.
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Primary drive mechanisms

Water drive

Good candidate because of natural ongoing water influx

Solution gas-drive
Also

considered good candidate because the primary

recovery will usually be low and therefore potential exists
for additional recovery by water injection

Gas-cap
G
reservoir
i

Not normally a good candidate because primary recovery

may already be efficient without water injection

But some cases may need water injection if the effective

gas-cap drive is not functioning
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Important Rock-fluid Characteristics

in Displacement Process
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Four important characteristics of reservoir rock-fluid

system which controls the efficiency of waterflooding

Wettability
Capillary pressure
Relative
R l ti permeability
bilit
Mobility ratio
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#1 Wettability
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Tendency of one fluid to adhere to a solid surface in the

presence of other immiscible fluids

Water displacing oil in water-wet reservoir - Imbibition

Imbibition flow process in which the saturation of the wetting

phase (water) increases and the non-wetting phase saturation
decreases.
Mobility of wetting phase increases

Water displacing oil in oil-wet reservoir - Drainage

Drainage - flow process in which the saturation of the nonwetting phase increases

Mobility of non-wetting fluid phase increases

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Air

OIL

WATER

< 90

SOLID ((ROCK))

FREE WATER

OIL

Oil

WATER

WATER

WATER

> 90

SOLID (ROCK)

OIL
GRAIN

G
GRAIN

OIL
RIM
BOUND WATER

FREE WATER
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# 2 Capillary Pressure
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The pressure difference between non-wetting phase

and wetting phase caused by interfacial tension and
curved
d surface
f
when
h
t
two
i
immiscible
i ibl fluids
fl id are in
i
contact with each other
Pc = Pnw - Pw

Capillary pressure is a function of surface

tension/IFT, pore size/geometry and wettability

Pc is a function of interfacial tension (if liquid-liquid system)

Pc is a function of surface tension (if gas-liquid system)

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# 3 Relative permeability
Relative permeability to fluid = Effective permeability of the fluid
Absolute permeability of the rock
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At connate Sw and residual So, the end point

relative permeabilities are denoted as kro and krw

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# 4 Mobility Ratio
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Mobility, k/, is defined as permeability of a porous

material to a given phase divided by the viscosity
of that phase

Mobility ratio, M, is defined as mobility of the

displacing phase divided by the mobility of the
displaced phase.
Mobility Ratio = Water mobility
Oil mobility

= kw/w
ko/o

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Source: http://baervan.nmt.edu/research_groups/reservoir_sweep_improvement/pages/clean_up/mobility.html

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Significance of the rock-fluid

characteristics
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The analysis of waterflooding displacement must use

the appropriate
pp p
capillary
p
y p
pressure curves and relative
permeabilities data measured under water-wet or oilwet imbibition or drainage conditions

Must understand the interconnection between these

characteristics in order to understand and analyse the
displacement
p
process
p

Oil moves easier in water-wet rock, thus recovery

from waterflooding for water-wet reservoir is
greater
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