ANALYSIS THE EFFECT OF OIL RATE IN WATER CONING USING ECLIPSE
RESERVOIR SIMULATION
G. Sayen, S. Agrian, W. Carol Ben, P. Reliawan,
M. R. Gyro Muhammad, I. Aditya Tri
Abstract
Water and gas coning are serious
problems in many oil field applications,
where the production of water and gas
from a thin oil reservoir is a common
occurrence, which increases the cost of
producing operations, and reduces the
efficiency of the depletion mechanism
and the overall recovery. We will deal
with one cause of this production
namely, coning. One of the main
reasons for coning is pressure
drawdown. A vertical well exhibits a
large pressure drawdown near the
wellbore, whereas horizontal well
exhibits minimum pressure drawdown,
thus horizontal wells provide option
whereby pressure drawdown can be
minimized, coning tendencies can be
minimized, and high oil production rates
can be achieved.Two forces control the
mechanism of water coning: (1) dynamic
flow force (applied force), and (2) gravity
force.In water-coning systems, the
upward dynamic force due to wellbore
drawdown causes water at the bottom of
the oil zone to rise to a certain height at
which the dynamic force is balanced by
the weight of water beneath this point.
As the radial distance from the wellbore
increases, pressure drawdown and
upward dynamic force caused by it
decrease, and the height of the balance-
point decreases along the radial
direction. Therefore, the locus of the
balance point is a stable cone-shaped
water oil interface. Oil flows above the
interface, while water remains stationary
below the interface. As the production
rate is increased, the height of the cone
above the original oil-water contact also
increases, until at a certain production
rate, the cone becomes unstable and
water is produced into the well.
Reservoir condition could be imitate
using reservoir simulation application,
including water coning. In this paper
using eclipse reservoir simulation we
are able to analyze the presence of
water coning.
Introduction
Water coning is an unwanted event to
happen in oil production because it
could reduce the production of oil and
make the production less economical,
but the existence of it are causing by
many factor that are hard to control.
In oil reservoirs where the oil-bearing
formation is underlain by an aquifer
which does not participate in the
production mechanism, water-coning is
a limiting factor to the flow rates of
producing wells. Production rates are
usually kept to a value that will prevent
the water from entering the wells. The
entry of water into a well lowers its
productivity by increasing the weight of
the fluid column.
Figure 1 : Water Coning (Tarek, 2010)
Numerical simulations are used to
analyze the most relevant fluid and
reservoir parameters that affect the
pooling of water. First, a number of
simulations are carried out to investigate
the performance of coning in reservoirs
and different fluid properties for vertical
and horizontal wells. Then, for each
simulation run, the ratio of oil to water
(WOR) is plotted against the average
height of the oil column under
perforation, on a semi-log scale, from
which perforation is determined. After
perforation data has been obtained for
all simulation runs, regression analysis
is then used to determine the
relationship between perforation holes
and various reservoir and fluid
properties. Extensive parametric
sensitivity analysis of water pooling was
made to provide data for developing
predictive correlations calculating
breakthrough time and breakthrough
height as a function of various reservoirs
and fluid properties.
Simulation output is used to develop
empirical water convergence
correlations to predict critical oil rates,
and water breakthrough times for
vertical and horizontal wells. Parameters
grouped together based on basic flow
equations and groupings are confirmed
by regression analysis. Introduction
Water and gas coning are a serious
problem in many oilfield applications,
where the production of water and gas
from a thin oil reservoir is a common
occurrence, which increases production
operating costs, and reduces efficiency
of the thinning mechanism and its
entirety. We will discuss with one of the
causes of this production, namely,
coning and focusing more on water
coning.
Reservoir simulation is a form of
numerical modeling which is used to
quantify and interpret physical
phenomena with the ability to extend
these to project future performance.
Reservoir simulation, on the other hand,
divides the reservoir into a number of
discrete units in three dimensions and
models the progression of reservoir and
fluid properties through space and time
in a series of discrete steps.
Eclipse is one of too developed by
Sclumberger that could help the
reservoir engineer to make a simulation
about reservoir so the reservoir
engineer could have a better
understanding to analyze the reservoir
condition throught 3D modeling and also
graph that provide usefull data such field
oil production, field oil rate, water
injection rate, etc.
The water coning could be identified
from reservoir simulation and using
eclipse reservoir simulation it make it
easier and more interactive. In this
paper the effect of oil rate production to
water coning will be analyzed.
Methodology Table 1 Porosity data:

Eclipse is applied to give the Layer Porosity Layer Porosity

1 0.25 16 0.08
visualization and to provide inteactive
2 0.23 17 0.09
interface to improve the understanding 3 0.11 18 0.11
of reservoir description. 4 0.15 19 0.22
5 0.24 20 0.23
6 0.14 21 0.21
The indication of the existence of water 7 0.14 22 0.22
coning could be analyze from the Field 8 0.17 23 0.15
9 0.15 24 0.16
water production total graph, if the value
10 0.22 25 0.18
of total water production in field is
11 0.25 26 0.09
increase significantly it indicates the 12 0.2 27 0.12
existence of water coning. 13 0.19 28 0.15
14 0.21 29 0.18
From the 3D modeling of reservoir the
15 0.11 30 0.2
value of oil saturation after several time
could be obtained.
If there are significant increase in water Table 2 : Water saturation and relative permeability data
production, and the saturation oil in 3D Sw Krw Kro Pc
modeling shows no significant decrease 0.2 0 1 326.2
of oil saturation in the reservoir, then it 0.3 0.01 0.99 168.7
could be the indication of waterconing. 0.4 0.02 0.88 101.2
0.5 0.03 0.67 67.4
In this paper the effect of oil rate to 0.6 0.04 0.56 52.9
water coning will be obtained by 0.7 0.06 0.39 42.4
comparing the production rate between 0.8 0.19 0.16 0
0.9 0.45 0 0
2000 stb/day and 5000 stb/day.
1 0.78 0 0
The sudy are applied in the field scale or
the average of reservoir and not in well
scale. Table 3 : Reservoir Descrption Data

Result and Discussion Dx (ft) 1000

Dy (ft) 1000
Given reservoir data:
Dz (ft) 50
Tops (ft) 4200
Pressure initial 4000
Gradient Pressure (Psi/ft) 20
Density oil (lb/ft3) 49.1
Density water (lb/ft3) 64.79
kh (mD) 100
kv (mD) 20
Input all of the given data (all the value in scenario And to obtained the
unknown data are input using logical highest water production rate to show
assumption) to note and running it on the indication of coning.
eclipse to get the result. After running
the simulation with no error comment
then we get the result.
Using flowfiz we could get the 3D model
of the reservoir, in this paper the model
used are the basic model without the
geological data to input, so the result will
be the basic 3D model with the
assumption of reservoir characteristic in
every grid. So the accuracy of this study Figure 3 : water and oil cummulative production vs time
in real world is not accurate, but it is (Scenario 1)
enough to show the basic
representation of reservoir condition
based on the given data.

From the graph we could see that the

water production start to increase over
time it probably that at rate 5000 stb/day
are far above the critical rate so the
water production are increasing over
time and this could be the first indicator
of coning.
Figure 2: Reservoir model and well location
In second scenario the rate are
In this simulation there will be 5 well decrease to 2000 bbl/day, to see the
producing in the same reservoir, using effect of reducing oil rate to the
five well so it could analyze different production of water.
location around the reservoir and could
know the average performance of
reservoir.
Since the simulation using five different
well the study and analysis will using the
field data performance instead of the
well data.
In first scenario, the oil production rate
are assumed to be 5000 bbl/day, the Figure 4 : Water and Oli cummulative production vs time
main purpose is to know the level of (scenario 2)
reservoir productivity with the highest

From the graph above, the water
production still increase but at lower rate
than before, in same time the oil
production also lower, it shows that
water rate will reduce with the reduction
of oil production rate. The water rate
curve seems to increase it probably
because the rate are already surpass
the critical rate.
The third scenario is the rate are
decrease even lower to 500 bbl/day to
get to see the effect of lower oil
production rate to the production of
water and potentially water coning.
Figure 5 : Water and oil cummulative production vs time
(Scenario 3)
From the graph above it could be seen
that the production water still exist and
keep increasing at the same time while
the oil production increase, over time, in
this scenario it seems like the oil rate
are still beyond the critical rate and the
increasing of water production could be
the indicator of water coning.
Table 4 : Result in each scenario
Scen Recovery
Total water Formation Total
Oil production
ario factor (%)
production, water cut, formation oil
rate (bbl/day)
FWPT (STB) FWCT (%) production,
No. 1 0.07 901535.31 8.9 9150000
No. 2 0.03 355234.56 8.8 3660000
No. 3 0.007 81248.242 8.1 915000
From the table above it semms that the
water cut could be decrease by reducing
the oil rate, it is actually compactible
with the cause of water coning itself that
is the oil rate that far too high surpass
the critical oil rate.
By reducing the oil production rate it
mean decreasing total oil production but
in same time also decreasing the same
time decreasing the total water
production and water cut, that could
prevent the water coning to happen
sooner that when it should be.
Conclusion and way forward
The rate of oil production have a big
effect on the production of water and
water cut. To prevent the water coning it
need to reduce the oil rate bellow the
critical rate but in common the value of
critical rate are very small that almost
impossible for any company to make a
profit in time with that kind of rate level.
So to control the water breakhthrought it
require the control of oil rate, because
one of the main reason that water
coning exist is because the high oil
production rate.
The reducing production also affect the
recovery factor, as it seems in table 4
the reduction of oil production rate will
cause the recovery factor become less.
But even the production rate effect the
watercut and could reduce the potential
of water coning, in this paper didn’t
5000 include the economical calculation to
2000 show the best way to produce and set
500 the production rate. The economical
calculation could be the refrence of
future analysis and study.

Refrence
JOB DESK GROUP 1
Tarek, A. 2010. Reservoir Engineering
Handbook 4th Edition. Gulf Professional
Publishing. Burlington, USA. Sayen G : Methodology, Conclusion
Agrian S : Analysis
Hatzignatlou D. G., Mohamed F. 1994. Gyro : Abstraction
Water and Gas Coning in Horizontal
and Vertical Well. Petroleum Society of Relly : Introduction
CIM. Canada. Carol : Introduction

Dabiri. A., Karaei M. A., and Azdarpour

A. 2017. Simulation study of oil
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reservoirs using ECLIPSE software.
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