WaterFlood Operating Problems

Water Quality Considerations

Topics discussed in more detail:
• Solids plugging
• Reservoir souring
• Scaling

Other issues to be aware of:

• Clay swelling/fines migration
• Carbonate dissolution and CO2-induced corrosion
• Paraffin deposition
• Asphaltene precipitation

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Water Injectivity
Factors Affecting Water Injectivity
• Permeability
• Skin
• Relative Permeability
• Well Trajectory
• Water/Rock Interaction or Compactibility

Injection capacity will vary with time due to formation plugging;

thus, injecting clean water is critical.
• Field test of water injection rate is recommended for a new flood, or
identify a good analog
• Water compatibility tests, including clay-swelling tendencies, are
essential
• Possible plugging material: Mobilized fine sand, Clays, Bacteria, Iron-
Oxide, Scale, Oil
• Periodically measure injection index or perform pressure falloff tests

61 61
 Water Quality Concerns: Solids
Particle Size
• Limit particle size and volume as much as possible
+ Avg. pore throat diameter can be measured using mercury capillary method or estimated by
formation permeability (md).
Avg.PoreThroat ≈ k

+ Particles with < 1/3 of the avg. pore throat diameter will pass through the formation
+ Particles with > 1/3 of the avg. pore throat diameter will form a filtercake
+ High concentration of particles in water can cause bridging within formation
• Reference: SPE 39487

Injected Water Filtercake Sand Grains 44

Water Quality Concerns: Solids and
“Fracture” Mode Injection
Completion Types
• Stand Alone Screens (SAS) – Limit
particle size to < 1/7 of the screen slot
• Cased & Perforated (C&P – Limit particle
size to < 100 microns
• Frac Pack – Limit particle size to <1/7 of
the screen aperture and 1/20 of proppant
grain diameter (ie. 30/50 proppant
requires a 20 micron filter)

Screen Screen Screen

45
Water Quality Concerns: Souring (H2S)
Reservoir Souring
• Souring: The generation of H2S in a
reservoir where none had previously
existed
• Key Components
+ Sulfate Reducing Bacteria
+ Carbon Source
+ Sulfate (found in injected water)
+ Other trace nutrients
• Negative Side Effects
+ Extremely toxic to human
+ Requires additional operational
concerns
+ Lower realized prices for produced
hydrocarbon

H2S Formulation
C16H34 + 12.25 SO4 2- 16 CO2 + 12.25 H2S
+ 24.5H + 17H2O

46
 Sea Waterflood Scaling Scenario
Mixing in the Producer after Breakthrough

Scale Formation
• If formation water contains high barium = 50 - 1000 mg/L
• Barium sulfate scale expected with water breakthrough in producing wells

Mitigation and Remediation Seawater Oil/gas

• Seawater Formation and/or aquifer brine

Barium sulfate generally requires Formation brine
mixed with seawater

mechanical remediation Seawater-brine mixture

Aquifer brine

• Typically managed with scale Hydrocarbon

inhibition squeeze treatments

• Desulfation is typically reserved for:
– high barium concentrations (> 100
mg/L)
– Difficult well access
Injection Well Aquifer Producing Well

54
Common Scale Deposits
Warning: some of these scales are
radioactive or are contaminated with
radioactive minerals such as radium (NORM)
Types of Scales
• Carbonates: CaCO3, SrCO3
• Sulfates: BaSO4, SrSO4, CaSO4
• Iron Scales: FeS, FeCO3, Fe2O3, Fe3O4
• Salt: NaCl
• Other Scales:
• Sulfur
• Silicon-based scale: SiO2
• Calcium Fluoride: CaF2
• Sulfides: PbS, ZnS

49
 Produced Water Re-Injection
All Injectors Plug Pore Throat dia. vs. Permeability
100

Matrix vs. Fracturing

• If not fractured, wells must be

Diameter (μm) of Pore Throat

10
periodically remediated

or Plugging Particle .
• Rate of plugging is proportional
to water quality 1

0.1 Frio Core

Water Quality Impacts pore dia.

d/3

• Pressure requirements 0.01

d/7

• Filtration requirements 1 10 100 1,000 10,000

Air Permeability (mD)
• Frequency of remediation

1/3 pore throat diameter specification

insufficient for matrix injection
• d/7 to d/20 more realistic
• Pore throat of filter cake is much lower
than native formation

57
Example Opportunities for Waterflood Improvement

• Injector profile modification (gels, polymer, cement, reperf, etc)

• Rebalance flood patterns

• Add water handling equipment

• Injector stimulations

• Artificial lift upgrades/ repairs

• Producer workovers (add pay, water shut off, new zone)

• Producer / injector workovers to eliminate thief zones

• Facility and well repair

• Drill wells (pattern realignment, infill drilling)

10
Water Handling and Artificial Lift
1. Planning for produced water handling/disposal and requirement for artificial lift
should be done during Design and Development phase of project
2. Think about total liquid, GOR, and WOR profiles for the life of the field

100%

Virgina Hills
90% Swan Hills
Swan Hills South
Judy Creek A
80%
Judy Creek B
Carson Creek North
70% Norman Wells
Fields Off-Plateau at Norman Wells - Margin
60% Norman Wells - The Rest
+/- 70% oilcut (30%
Subsurface Oilcut

Wcut) due to Artificial 50%

Lift and Water

40%
Handling constraints
30%

20%

10%

0%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%
Recovery Factor
42
 Reservoir Souring
Sulfate Reducing Bacteria (SRB) Mitigation of SRB and Iron Sulfide
• Corrosion of iron in absence of air Scale
• Precipitation of amorphous iron sulfide that causes • Natural scavenging from iron minerals in
plugging and reduced injectivity reservoir - Siderite (FeCO3)
SRB Thrive in the Following • Addition of sulfide scavengers (triazine)
Conditions • Nitrate injection, sulfate removal (not sure
guarantees)
• Sulfate as an oxygen source (electron donor)
• Organic nutrients- especially volatile fatty acids
• Inorganic nutrients for reproduction
• Temperature range 0 – 85 °C (32 – 185 °F),
Salinity less than ~ 100,000 mg/L Souring of Sweet Reservoirs (SPE 38795)
Field Location Waterflood H2S Max SO4 in water (mg/L) Temperature (°C) Fatty Acids TDS x 10-3
Name Type (ppm) Produced Injection Producer Injector (mg/L) (mg/L)
Bay Marchard GOM Source 0.64 4 1 104 - - 122
Main Pass 69 Louisiana Source - 36 4 79 79 710 109
Beta California Source/Produced - 100 - 66 66 14 34
Ventura California Fresh/Produced 50 20 63 66 66 728 10
Chester 18 Michigan Source/Produced 100 990 990 43 43 22 182
Eugene Island GOM seawater 8 1475 2860 82 82 - 111
Brent North Sea seawater 29 33 2820 78 78 444 8
Cook Inlet Alaska seawater 200 135 1850 68 68 222 19
Kuparuk River Alaska seawater 600 85 2200 67 21 - 17
Prudhoe Bay Alaska seawater/produced 1100 511 2670 93 27 - 23
Huntington Beach California seawater 40000 250 2100 46 49 - 25

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Earthquake Risks

JPT, 01 September 2017