FLUID DISPLACEMENT

INTERFACIAL TILT AND CRITICAL RATE

The reservoir from Problem 2 appears to have additional productivity beyond the 2,000 STBOPD originally planned from th
Check to determine if this is the case.

If additional productive capacity, is there any danger of causing damage to the reservoir by producing at too high of a rate?

For simplicity do not recalculate the fractional flow characteristics as a function of rate. Recall that for a dipping reservoir, th
flow curve is a function of processing rate and the fractional flow curve determines the average saturation behind the front a
the mobility ratio.

The following additional information is needed,

1. Reservoir pressure (psi) = 3150

2. Well flowing bottom hole pressure (psi) = 1000
3. Well skin factor = 0
4. Wellbore radius (ft) = 0.25
originally planned from the 4 wells.

cing at too high of a rate?

t for a dipping reservoir, the fractional

turation behind the front and therefore
 FLUID DISPLACEMENT

INTERFACIAL TILT AND CRITICAL RATE

1. Use the steady state formula to estimate the production rate from a producing well

Qo = 0.00708 * K * Kro * H * (Preservoir - Pbhf) / ( mo * Bo * (ln(re/rw) + s))

where K (md) = 200

Kro = 0.9
H (ft) = 25
Preservoir (psia) = 3150
Pbhf = 1000
Oil Viscosity = 3
Bo (RB/STB) = 1.2
Skin = 0
Drainage Radius (ft) = 500 1/2 Distance Between Wells
Wellbore Radius (ft) = 0.25

Qo (STBOPD) = 2758 per well

Potential Rate from the field = 2750 stbopd/well * 4 wells

Qo (STBOPD) = 11,000 field

2. Now check the mobility ratio of the displacement process. Therefore we can recalculate the
fractional flow curve with a throughput rate of 11,000 STBOPD * 1.2 RB/STB = 13,200 RBPD

This is done on the attached Fractional Flow sheet.

3. The definition of the mobility ratio is

M = (Krw * Oil Viscosity) / (Kro * Water Viscosity)

where, Krw evaluated at the average saturation behind the front

Kro evaluated at the oil saturation ahead of the front

Krw = 0.179 found by interpolating the water relative permeability table at an Sw avg = 0.638
Kro = 0.900

Mobility Ratio = 1.19

So displacement process at this rate is unfavorable.

4. Now compute the critical rate for water under-running

kk rwA sin
qcrit  4.9x10 4
(M  1)mw
 kk rwA sin
qcrit  4.9x10 4
(M  1)mw

Q crit = 0.00049 * 200 * 0.179 * 100000 * 0.19 * sin(15.5 deg) / [(1.19 - 1) * 0.5]

Q critical (RBPD) = 4930

The critical rate of the reservoir is 4930 RBPD which is only 37% of the potential rate of 13,200 RBPD.
The operator needs to be careful to control the offtake rate from this reservoir or risk water under-
running and, once the water is in the vicinity of the wells, coning. In combination these phenomena can
cause the reservoir to prematurely water out.
 FLUID DISPLACEMENT

INTERFACIAL TILT AND CRITICAL RATE

The following fractional flow characteristics are taken from the prior problem.
The rate and cross-sectional area are based on the total throughput rate and reservoir.
The tangent to the curve is found as the line of maximum slope

Fractional Flow (fraction)

Sw kro krw fw dfw/dSw
0.25 0.900 0.000 0
0.30 0.744 0.003 0.023 0.4680
0.35 0.602 0.012 0.106 1.0602
Fractional Flow Plot - High Rate
0.40 0.476 0.027 0.252 1.6827
0.45 0.364 0.048 0.440 2.1985
1
0.50 0.268 0.074 0.622 2.4860
0.55 0.186 0.107 0.774 2.5785
0.60 0.119 0.146 0.879 2.5117 0.8
0.65 0.067 0.190 0.944 2.3592
0.70 0.030 0.241 0.979 2.1762
0.75 0.007 0.298 0.996 1.9920 0.6
0.80 0.000 0.360 1.000 1.8182

0.4

kroend= 0.900
0.2
krwend= 0.360
oil visc= 3
water visc= 0.5 0
A= 100000 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9
qt = 13200 Water Saturation (fraction)
dens.diff = 0.19
sin alfa= 0.267
constant= 1.13E-03
k= 200

Extend the tangent line to a value Fw = 1.0 to find the average water saturation behind the front at breakthrough (Sw avg)

Sw avg = 0.55 + (1.0 - 0.774)/2.5785

plot points
Sw avg = 0.638 0.25 0
0.638 1