Introduction

All oil fields under water drive, either from waterflood or a natural aquifer, eventually produce water along with
oil. Even gas-cap and depletion reservoirs may produce some water. This coproduction of water causes an
additional set of problems: corrosion, scale/salts deposition, gas hydrate formation, and disposal of the water
itself.

Casing leak
Leaks through casing, tubing or packers allow water from non- oil-productive zones to enter the production
string.

Poor cement job behind the casing against the water zone and high pressures could cause a leak in the casing,
and salts in its water zone would cause corrosion the casing and then leak into the casing.

Solutions typically include squeezing shutoff fluids and mechanical shutoff using plugs, cement and
packers. Patches can also be used. This problem type is a prime candidate for low-cost, inside-casing
water shutoff technology.

Channel flow behind casing

These channels allow water to flow behind casing in the annulus and it inside into
wellbore

Failed primary cementing can connect water-bearing zones to the pay zone These
channels allow water to flow behind casing in the annulus. A secondary cause is the
creation of a ‘void’ behind the casing as sand is produced.
The main solution is the use of shutoff fluids, which may be either high-strength squeeze
cement, resin-based fluids placed in the annulus, or lower strength gel-based fluids placed
in the formation to stop flow into the annulus.

Moving oil-water contact

Moving oil-water contact—A uniform oil water contact moving up into a perforated zone in a well
during normal water-driven production can lead to unwanted water production.

This happens wherever there is very lowvertical permeability. Since the

flow area is large and the rate at which the contact rises is low.
coning and other problems .In fact, this problem type could be
considered a subset of coning, but the coning tendency is so low that
near-wellbore shutoff is effective.

Remedial plane
In a vertical well:
this problem can be solved by using a cement plug or bridge
plug
In horizontal wells:
a sidetrack can be solve this problem