Waterflood - Course Description

Waterflooding- General Discussion

Important Issues
1. Remaining Reserve?
Introduction to 2. Drive mechanism? Depletion drive “solution gas drive
Waterflooding/EOR reservoir”?
3. Production Performance “History”?
Applications 4. Expected recovery “Do Nothing Case”?
5. Expected Recovery “Waterflooding”?
By 6. Production performance “Do Nothing Case &
Dr. Mahmoud Abu El Ela Waterflooding”? How much incremental oil with time?
7. What is the Pb pressure of the crude oil?
8. Current reservoir pressure?
9. Is the current reservoir above Pb? Waterflooding is
recommended 200 psi above Pb

Water Flooding A-Z

Why this Course?
 Petroleum engineers are increasingly being asked to
evaluate the economics, production potential, and
waterflood/EOR design for potential waterflood/EOR
candidates.
Waterflooding- General Discussion
Important Issues
1. Fracture Pressure?
2. Injection Pressure? Inject at 50 psi below Fracture
pressure (minus the static pressure of a column of
injection fluid).
3. Mobility Ratio? Is it less than 1?
4. Will the Polymers be used?
5. What does the reservoir look like? Pattern? 5 Spot
“Why”?
6. Well Spacing? 150 m

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Waterflood - Course Description

Water Flooding A-Z

Waterflooding- General Discussion
Important Issues
Expected Outcome
1. Water source? Produced water
2. Compatibility Test?
3. Water Quality? Oil content, Oil characteristics  State the goal of waterflooding during the producing
“Viscosity”, Dissolved solids, suspended solids,
dissolved gas “O2, H2S, CO2”, ..etc.”, Bacteria,…etc. life of a reservoir.
4. Water Quality Monitoring? Particle counts? (total TDS)?  Greater understanding of the distribution of immiscible
Turbidity Oxygen/ H2S/CO2 concentration? SRB or
general bacteria? pH? fluids in a reservoir.
5. Where to sample? At the bottom of the well, At the well  Greater understanding of the process of immiscible
head, After the production manifold, At the end of the
production train, At any other relevant point in the displacement in a reservoir.
process equipment

Water Flooding A-Z

Waterflooding- General Discussion
Important Issues
Expected Outcome
1. Corrosion Issues “Prevention and Protection
METHODS? Materials Selection? Cathodic Protection?
Coatings , Linings, chemicals/Inhibitors?
2. Injection to Production Ratio? 3 to 7 bbls per bbl  Improved knowledge of waterflood pattern options and
secondary oil? the effect of selection on flood performance.
3. Planned injected water? 1.25 to 2 pore volumes?
 Increased ability to predict waterflood performance by
4. Response? How we measure the performance now?
application of classical waterflood prediction methods.
5. Expected response time? Should be 2 to 3 months
6. Expected fill in time?  Increased ability to predict waterflood performance by
7. Expected Breakthrough time? application of numerical simulation.

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Waterflood - Course Description

Water Flooding A-Z Water Flooding A-Z

Course Outline
Course Description
Waterflooding
 Reviews the reservoir engineering principles,  Describing Waterflooding
production processes, reservoir fluid and rock  Reviewing Fundamentals of Rock and Fluid Properties,
properties, drive mechanisms…etc. Injectivity, mobility ratio, sweep efficiency and
recovery mechanisms
 Reviews the production engineering principles  Analyzing Fundamentals of Immiscible Displacement in
Porous Media
 Analyzing Waterflood Patterns

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Water Flooding A-Z Water Flooding A-Z

Course Description
 Addresses the issues faced by managers in developing
hydrocarbon reservoirs, Objectives and Output of the
reservoir Management, Team
 Discusses the recovery methods challenges and
solutions
Course Outline
 Describing the advantages and disadvantages of
different possible waterflood/EOR patterns
 Analyzing the Waterflood/EOR Design Procedure
 Describing the Operating Philosophy
 Designing of waterflooding/EOR
 Summarizing the Waterflood/EOR Monitoring and
Management
 Describing the Water treatment technologies and
corrosions prohibitions techniques

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Waterflood - Course Description

Water Flooding A-Z Water Flooding A-Z

A Typical Waterflood Project

Waterflood Configurations
13 15

Water Flooding A-Z Water Injection Technology

Oil Production Processes

WATERFLOODING

14 16

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Waterflood - Course Description

Water Injection Technology Water Injection Technology

Primary Recovery Thermal EOR Methods

17 19

Waterflooding A-Z / Water

Injection Treatment Water Injection Technology

Water Injection System Non-Thermal EOR Methods

 Water source

 Water treatment and quality control

 Transport of the water to the injection wells

 Water injection

 Reservoir monitoring

Section 1a Haward Technology Middle East 18 20

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Waterflood - Course Description

Water Injection Technology Water Injection Technology

Region Region -1.0

1.0 - Region B C
A

Relative Permeability

Relative Permeabilities to Oil, kro

Relative Permeabilities to Water, krw

kro + krw

oil

 It express the relative contribution of each phase to the

total multiphase flow
water
 The correct definition is one of the most difficult and
important step in the construction of reliable simulation Water Saturation, Sw
model Swt
Oil Saturation, Se
Sec

Typical graphical relationships of the relative

permeabilities to oil and water in water-wet porous media.

21 23

Water Injection Technology Water Injection Technology

Region Region -1.0

1.0 -
Relative Permeability C Region B A

Relative Permeabilities to Water, krw

Relative Permeabilities to Oil, kro
kro + krw
 It controls the location, flow and distribution of fluid in
water
porous system

 It is affected by Wettability
oil

Swt Water Saturation, Sw Soc

Oil Saturation, So
Typical graphical relationships of the relative
permeabilities to oil and water in oil-wet porous media.
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Waterflood - Course Description

Water Injection Technology Water Injection Technology

Oil-Water Relative Permeability 1.0

Permeability
Relative
Depletion drive reservoir: oil production
without high Water Cut

0
0 Water Saturation % 100
1.0

Permeability
Oil with high water cut

Relative
0
0 Water Saturation % 100

25 27

Water Injection Technology Water Injection Technology

Oil-Gas Relative Permeability

Relative Permeability

 δ decreases, both Kro & Krw curves found to shift

upwards, indicating less resistance to flow for each
phase.

 Decreasing δ straightens out the Kro-Krw curves and

decreases Sor & Swi

 Zero IFT, the theoretical relative permeability curves

attain an X shape

26 28

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Waterflood - Course Description

Water Injection Technology Water Injection Technology

Relative Permeability Curve @ Zero IFT

29 31

Water Injection Technology Water Injection Technology

Relative Permeability Relative Permeability

 Production Data: Oil/Water system

Relative Permeability can be determined through:

 Laboratory Measurements

 Production Data

 Correlations

30 32

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Waterflood - Course Description

Water Injection Technology Water Injection Technology

Relative Permeability

Relative Permeability

 Production Data: Gas/Oil system

33 35

Water Injection Technology Water Injection Technology

Relative Permeability

Capillary Pressure

 Occurs whenever two fluids coexist in the pore space

of a reservoir rock

 It is defined as the difference in the pressure

measurable in the two phases

 Pc is function on the Sw

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Waterflood - Course Description

Water Injection Technology Water Injection Technology

Capillary Pressure Contact Angle

sow
 In immiscible displacement processes, Pc = Oil

P in the displaced phase Oil  Water Oil

P in the displacing phase -

sos sws Solid

37 39

Water Injection Technology Water Injection Technology

Wettability Wettability
 The capacity of the fluid to coat a solid surface
 The tendency of one fluid to adhere to rock in the
presence of other immiscible fluids

Capillary wall
Oil
Central Position
Water

Wettability refers to interaction between fluid and solid phases

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Waterflood - Course Description

Water Injection Technology Water Injection Technology

Wettability Wettability

 Water wet: the whole rock surface is coated with

water, while oil or gas occupy the central position of
the large pores
 Oil wet: the oil coating the rock surface and the water
residing in the center of the largest pores
 Intermediate wettability: where there is some
tendency for both oil and water to adhere to the pores
surfaces

41 43

Water Injection Technology Water Injection Technology

Wettability Wettability

Oil Oil

Water Water

Strongly Water Wet Strongly Oil Wet

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Waterflood - Course Description

Water Injection Technology Water Injection Technology

Wettability The Influence of the Reservoir Characteristics

Capillary Number

Vμ
δ cosθ

 Residual Oil Saturation (Recovery) decreases (increases) as

the Capillary number increases

45 47

Water Injection Technology Water Injection Technology

The Influence of the Reservoir Characteristics

Additives that can alter Rock Wettability
Mobility Ratio
• Surfactants

• Organic salts (K/μ)W

• Some oil base or emulsion mud (K/μ)O
• pH control chemicals

 Mobility Ratio affects on the sweep efficiency

 Residual Oil Saturation lower (Recovery higher) as the oil
viscosity lower and water viscosity higher

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Waterflood - Course Description

Water Flooding A-Z Water Flooding A-Z

Oil Reservoir Drive Mechanisms Goal of Waterflooding

 Increase the amount of oil recovered from the

 Solution-gas drive reservoir by
 Gas-cap drive
• Maintaining reservoir pressure
 Water drive
• Displacing (sweeping) oil with water
 Combination drive

 Gravity-drainage drive

49 51

Water Flooding A-Z

Waterflooding
Water Injection
Producing well
 Injection of water into a reservoir Injection well
• Increases reservoir energy Water
Oil
• Sweeps oil towards producing wells

 Most widely applied secondary recovery method

 Accounts for about 50% of U.S. oil production

Oil bank

Water + Water + Oil + gas + water

residual oil movable oil (Low pressure)
50

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Waterflood - Course Description

Applications of Waterflooding Lateral Pay Discontinuities

• Most applicable: Producing Injection
– Solution-gas drive well well
– Gas-cap drive
– Weak water drive
– Gravity drainage
• Not applicable Trapped oil
– Strong water drive
 Gas-cap require careful attention to prevent
 Water injection losses into the gas cap
 Oil being pushed up into the gas cap.
 Pressure in a weak water can be supplemented by water injection.
 Gravity drainage usually steeply dipping
 Strong water drive does not need any water injection.

Completion Interval Inconsistencies

Injection Patterns
Producing Injection
well well

Two-spot Four-spot Five-spot Seven-spot Trapped oil -

lateral pay
discontinuities

Line-drive Irregular Peripheral

Trapped
Injection well Producing well Oil - Completions

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Waterflood - Course Description

Lateral Pay Discontinuities

• Effect of infill drilling
Producing Infill Injection
well well well

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