SPE-195369-MS

Spectral Acoustic Logging for Well and Reservoir Performance Evaluation

for Chemical EOR Project - During Water Injection Stage

Amna Al-Qenaie, Hom Chetri, and Priya Kumar, Kuwait Oil Company; Sergey Prosvirkin and Irina Aslanyan, TGT
Oilfield Services

Copyright 2019, Society of Petroleum Engineers

This paper was prepared for presentation at the SPE Western Regional Meeting held in San Jose, California, USA, 23-26 April 2019.

This paper was selected for presentation by an SPE program committee following review of information contained in an abstract submitted by the author(s). Contents
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Abstract
The pilot Chemical EOR project in Sabriyah Field, Kuwait is implemented applying a five-spot pattern:
four injectors and one producer. The results of base-line logging campaign performed in EOR area with the
purpose of appraising the current state of the reservoir before EOR implementation have been addressed
earlier in [1]. The objective of this paper is to demonstrate the results and value of reservoir-oriented noise
and temperature logging campaign carried out during the water injection stage, before chemical injection.
To investigate the reservoir and well parameters in EOR area, an integrated logging suite consisting
of High Precision Temperature (HPT) and Spectral Noise Logging (SNL) tools was run. High-definition
broadband SNL tool with a large scanning radius successfully located the active flow units including low-
rate ones and differentiated between reservoir flows, behind-casing channelling and leaks in well completion
components, even behind multiple barriers. HPT data were analysed to quantify flow/injection profiles by
matching the simulated reservoir temperature logs with field measurements under flowing/injection and
static conditions, riglessly.
The main objectives of the extensive logging campaign during water injection phase before chemical
EOR were to determine the water injection profile in pilot injectors and estimate the effective thickness
of the target reservoir zones being developed. It was found out that injection/flow profiles in injectors
and producers drilled in a heterogeneous formation were non-uniform: the flow from injector to producer
propagated mostly through highly-permeable layers. This resulted in a rapid injection water breakthrough:
in the producer, water breakthrough occurred in a highly permeable zone only several feet thick. The least
effective thickness (34-38% of the entire perforation zone) was found in the injectors situated to the west of
the producer, while in the eastern part of the EOR area the effective thickness of the reservoir was 56-59%.
It was also discovered that the underlying formation cooled off considerably after the pilot injection had
started, which might be caused by water migration to the lower reservoir zones in offset injector, because
no substantial water loss to the underlying formation was detected in the logged injectors.
The information obtained during the surveys will be used for updating the Chemical EOR Project to
ensure injection water flow control by injecting chemicals and chart the de-risking and mitigation plan for
implementing and testing during EOR pilot.
2 SPE-195369-MS

The results confirmed the possibility of using polymers during development of such kind of a
heterogeneous reservoir, and requirements of more due diligence prior to the implementation of EOR pilot.

Introduction
Kuwait Oil Company initiated the Chemical EOR project in Sabriyah, North Kuwait in 2015. The objective
of this pilot project was to check the efficiency of injecting chemicals for the purpose of enhancing oil
recovery in Mauddud, a mature carbonate reservoir [2]. Multiple numerical calculations and lab tests were
done in advance to determine if Alkali-Surfactant-Polymer (ASP) flooding would be the most cost-efficient
option for oil recovery increase in the SAMA reservoir [3].
Implementation of the EOR project can be divided into several stages. At the first stage, a pilot cell was
selected (a small 6-acre inverted 5-spot pattern – 4 injectors, 1 producer and 2 observation wells [4]), then
the wells were drilled, and baseline surveys were run. To evaluate the effect produced by offset wells on the
pilot block, HPT-SNL surveys were carried out prior to the commencement of injecting water or chemicals
into the pilot wells. In addition, well completion integrity was assessed, and production casing thickness
was estimated for further monitoring and identification of corroded spots. The results of these surveys are
described in [1]. At the second stage, target zones were perforated, and water injection began in four injectors
of the pilot block at a rate of about 4,000 bpd (Fig. 1) in order to study the injection water propagation profile
and sweep efficiency in the most permeable zones. Producer P-1 was put on production at the same time.
P-1 was producing on ESP and Y-tool was included in the well completion so that surveys can be carried
out in the reservoir zone. The HPT-SNL suite in all wells of the 5-spot pattern was run 5 months after the
commencement of injection. The main objectives of the logging suite were to estimate the current injection
rate, determine production profiles, evaluate injection efficiency and check the conformance. The results
of these surveys will be discussed in detail below. According to the project plan, water injection will be
replaced by chemical injection at the next stage of project implementation in order to level out the injection
fluid propagation profiles in such heterogeneous reservoir as SAMA.

Figure 1—Selected pilot block

Brief Field Overview

Kuwait's Sabriyah Mauddud (SAMA) is one of the largest carbonate oil reservoirs extending from Northern
Iraq to Oman. SAMA reservoir has a gross thickness of 400 ft divided into 10 layers (A to J): carbonate
SPE-195369-MS 3

limestone from A to G and sandstone and shale from H to J. The main developed portion of SAMA is layers
B through E of 250 ft with 70% of OOIP accumulation (which is the target of this study).
The reservoir is extremely heterogeneous with permeability of 10-60 mD and reaching 500 mD in
localized high permeability flow units. Primary production in the field began in 1958 and waterflood started
in 1998 to stop the reservoir pressure decline. Injection fluid is sea water with the salinity of 30-40 ppk.
This was effective in increasing reservoir pressure but resulted in quick water breakthrough in producers.
KOC developed a conformance plan to reduce water recycling through high permeability layers by altering
the completion strategy for water injection and oil production wells. As a result, producers are presently
completed in the upper part of the zone of interest (MaB/C/D) and water injectors in the lower part
(MaE). This completion strategy has become known as ‘Produce High Inject Low’ (PHIL) and has shown
encouraging results [2], [5]. Currently, field trials are conducted to estimate Chemical ASP project efficiency
with the aim of enhancing oil recovery.

High Precision Temperature (HPT) Logging

Temperature logging conducted throughout the wellbore is one of the most informative well surveying
techniques widely used for qualitative analysis of processes in wells and reservoirs. To perform a
quantitative analysis of temperature logs, and thereby evaluate flow/injection rates, multiphase composition
and formation pressure in each active reservoir interval, the HPT methodology was developed that included
hardware, data acquisition procedure and software for data interpretation.
The HPT tool contains a fast response temperature sensor with a response time of less than one second,
which should be located at the bottom of the tool. Temperature is recorded during low-speed down passes
to avoid or at least reduce convection of the wellbore fluids during logging. To minimize the uncertainty of
temperature logs interpretation, the data acquisition was confined to a methodologically approved logging
procedure.
The dedicated software was developed for assessing the production and injection profiles, including
cross-flows in the wellbore and/or behind casing, even in case of flow/injection rates being way below
the mechanical spinner's threshold. The temperature simulator numerically solves the problems of flow
hydrodynamics and heat exchange between the wellbore fluid, completion components, surrounding
anisotropic rocks and reservoirs. The temperature simulator can flexibly tune a multi-parameter
thermohydrodynamic model to match simulated and measured temperatures. It operates in two modes:
injection mode for injection temperature modelling and production mode for production temperature
modelling. The simulation is based on the assumption that fluid and gas flow in the reservoir radially from
and to the well. It also takes into consideration the thermodynamic effects caused by fluid and gas flows
through a reservoir, behind casing and along the wellbore, as well as wellbore and behind-casing cross-
flows [6].

Spectral Noise Logging

Acoustic signal can be generated in a well by fluid or gas flow through a reservoir, or leaks in completion
components and, for this reason, Spectral Noise Logging (SNL) – a passive acoustic tool - can be used in
a wide range of applications including reservoir flow and leak detection analysis. In respect of reservoir
flow analysis, SNL has proved to be a powerful technique due to its ability to locate active reservoir flow
units and fluid flows coming through channels in cement. However, SNL cannot reliably calibrate noise
volume in terms of flow rates because noise is a complex function of several flow parameters, most of
which, including differential pressure, fluid type and reservoir rock properties, are unknown. SNL data are
visualised in the SNL data panel, which shows noise power distribution between 3 kHz on the left side
of the panel and 60 kHz on the right side. The red colour is for the highest-power noise; yellow, green,
blue and violet for lower-power noise; and white for noise at or below the tool threshold. To extract the
4 SPE-195369-MS

depth and frequency specific acoustic signals generated by fluid flows along the reservoir, which is the
most valuable information for reservoir development, the advanced processing called SND (Spectral Noise
Drift) is applied and presented in the corresponding Panel. The contrasting spectral data panels - Dynamic
Range Equalization (DREQ) - are particularly useful for visualizing all significant noises in one dynamic
range and making low-amplitude signals higher and high-amplitude ones lower when both high- and low-
amplitude signals are present simultaneously.
Flow/injection intervals defined from SNL data can also be used as an input for the temperature simulator
to start a matching procedure. The integration of temperature simulation and SNL provides a unique
technique for volumetric assessment of behind-casing flow profiles [7].

Case Studies
Logging procedure
The integrated HPT-SNL surveys aimed at determination of water injection and reservoir fluid production
profiles in wells I-1, I-2, I-3, I-4 and P-1 of the pilot 5-spot pattern (See Fig. 1) were carried out within several
weeks. The survey programme included several runs: (1) First injecting/flowing temperature, pressure, fluid
composition, gamma ray (GR) measurements, casing collar locator (CCL) were taken on down pass, in
motion, and stationary SNL data on up pass, every three feet; (2) Then the same sensors were used to
take three transient measurements with 30-minute intervals between them. After that the injection wells
remained shut in for 48 hours and production wells for 12 hours to let wellbore pressure and temperature
stabilize; (3) shut-in logging passes were performed with the same set of sensors. Static measurements
were taken to determine reservoir temperature and identify any potential cross-flows between the layers
occurring due to the difference in reservoir pressures. In order to confirm that the parameters were stable,
tubing wellhead pressures were monitored during the entire survey. The final interpretation results of the
performed study including fluid flow analysis in individual wells as well as cross-well correlation analysis
will be described in this chapter.

Injector I-1
Well I-1 is an injector targeting MaD and MaE reservoirs. The injection rate during the survey was about
4,000 bpd. SNL data showed nine depth-specific signals (See DREQ FLOWING Panel in Fig. 2), which
were in good correlation with OH permeability data (See PERM column). At the same time, each of these
signals correlated well with temperature gradient variations on the flowing and transient temperature logs
(blue line in TEMP column). This led to the conclusion that all captured acoustic signals were generated
by water flows in the reservoir. Five of these active units are located within the perforated zones (three in
MaD and two in MaE), but four other units are below the perforated target zones – within MaG and MaH
interval. Injected water comes into these zones via the channels behind the casing.
SPE-195369-MS 5

Figure 2—Final results for I-1

All in all, it can be noted that due to the high heterogeneity of Mauddud and uneven reservoir depletion,
the effective injection thickness is only 56% of the total perforated interval. As can be seen from the
correlation with the permeability log, the water was injected into the most permeable reservoir layers. These
particular layers are planned to be isolated using ASP flood technique.
The injection profile that was built using temperature simulation taking into account the active reservoir
intervals from SNL data is shown in FORMATION FLOW PROFILE column. According to the resulting
injection profile, most of the water is injected into MaD and MaE units. This is where the maximum cooling
is currently observed, and where the cooling was traced before water injection in the pilot block wells had
started (bold green line shows temperature distribution during base-line data acquisition stage). Injection
rate in MaG and MaH was low by the time of the survey and amounted to only a few tenths of percent of
the total injection rate. It is nevertheless important that the well where a fracture in cement has been found
is constantly monitored for thief injection, because as the reservoir pressure builds up, off-target injection
can also increase.

Additional findings
Temperature logging in the well confirmed that the layers below the target zone were cooled off. This
cooling is partially due to thief injection into MaG and MaE units.

Injector I-2
Injector I-2 is situated in the southeast part of the pilot 5-spot pattern (See Fig. 3). Injection rate in this well
is 4,000 bpd. In comparison with Well I-1 no thief injection zones were found in this well (See Fig. 3) and
all the injection was distributed between MaD and MaE target reservoir units. However, similar to Well
I-1, the correlation between active reservoir zones and permeability was good. Total six injection zones
6 SPE-195369-MS

were identified, with the effective reservoir thickness amounting to 59% of the entire perforated interval.
The injection profile calculated by temperature simulations indicated that the injection distribution between
MaD and MaE reservoir units was approximately uniform. It may be noted that in both injectors, I-1 and
I-2 (wells on the east side of the pilot 5-spot pattern), temperature cooling was observed even before the
flooding had started in the pilot area. The green curve designates the temperature distribution measured
during the base-line data acquisition.

Figure 3—Final results for I-2

Additional findings
In this well, a cooling anomaly extending down to and including MaH can be observed below the target
zone. The character of this temperature anomaly is associated with the effect produced by Well I-5, which
is located outside of the pilot 5-spot pattern and interpretation of which will be given below.

Injector I-3
Injector I-3 is located in the southeast part of the pilot 5-spot pattern. Similar to other injectors of the pilot
area, the injection rate in this well is about 4,000 bpd. The advanced logging suite results are given in
Fig. 4. Injection distribution in MaD and MaE reservoirs (FORMATION FLOW PROFILE column) is less
uniform than in Wells I-1 and I-2 which are located in the eastern part of the pilot cell. Correlation of
SNL data (DREQ column) with permeability data (PERM column) testified that the injected water moved
predominantly through the most permeable zones and the highest injection rate (70% of the total injection
rate) was observed in a fairly narrow layer of MaE. The effective reservoir thickness in this well is only
38% and the remaining 62% of the perforated interval do not participate in oil displacement by water and
do not provide any reservoir pressure support.
SPE-195369-MS 7

Figure 4—Final results for I-3

Additional findings
Same as in all the wells described earlier, Injector I-3 demonstrated some deviation of the current
temperature from the initial temperature in the interval below the target zone down to MaH reservoir.

Injector I-4
Injector I-4 is located in the northeast of the pilot 5-spot pattern. Average injection rate in this well is 4,000
bpd. Injection distribution in this well has the highest level of nonuniformity among others wells of the
pilot area (See Fig. 5). According to SNL data (DREQ FLOWING column), there are only two injection
zones: one at the top of MaD and the other in the middle of MaE. The effective thickness is only 34% of the
total perforation thickness. Most of MaD is not involved in injection, which reduces the sweep efficiency
around the well. Similar to the other wells, the correlation between highly permeable and active reservoir
zones is good.
8 SPE-195369-MS

Figure 5—Final results for I-4

Additional finding
As in the rest of the injectors in the pilot 5-spot pattern, there is a cooling zone in Well I-4 below the
perforation, extending down to MaH.

Producer P-1
Producer P-1 is located in the middle of the pilot 5-spot pattern. The well is producing on ESP. The well was
successfully logged in flowing regime because it has a Y-tool installed in the wellbore to ensure access to the
reservoir zone. By the time of the logging survey, the well was producing 2,800 bpd of fluid with high water
cut (97%). The produced water has low salinity of 35-40 ppk, which is close to sea water salinity. The water is
used for injection in this part of the field and the formation water salinity is fairly high (220 ppk). This means
that only after 5 months after the commencement of injection an injection water breakthrough occurred
from injectors to producer. The logging suite results including flow profile are shown in Fig. 6a. Well P-1
flow profile analysis (FORMATION FLOW PROFILE column) indicates that the highly permeable zones
at the bottom of MaD and entire MaE are mainly producing. For instance, the 7-ft zone in the middle part
of MaE is producing 43% of the total production volume.
SPE-195369-MS 9

Figure 6a—Final results for P-1

Qualitative analysis of shut-in temperature logs (TEMPERATURE column, Fig. 6b) showed that MaD
and MaE reservoirs were cooled off in the area around the producer. This is another proof of cold water
breakthrough from the injectors. The maximum cooling on the shut-in temperature log can be seen in the
middle part of MaE, across the most permeable zone (ZONE #1). In this particular zone, where higher
pressure is maintained due to more effective injection, downward crossflow to MaF occurs inside the
wellbore
10 SPE-195369-MS

Figure 6b—Shut-in survey results for P-1

Additional findings
The SNL tool captured a depth- and frequency-specific signal generated by reservoir flow within the most
permeable MaG reservoir zone (see ZONE #2). A typical cooling anomaly signifying propagation of cold
water through MaF was detected in the same zone. The fluid flow through MaF is not hydrodynamically
connected with Well P-1 because the amplitude of the detected acoustic signal does not depend on the well
regime: the same noise pattern appears both in shut-in and flowing conditions.

Cross-well correlation results

Correlation of injection and production profiles makes it possible to trace the injection fluid movement from
injectors to producers. Fig. 7 shows the injection and production profile correlation results for the pilot 5-
spot pattern. Injection and production zones are in good correlation with the permeability model (PERM
column). Conventional production logging data including spinner data are often incapable of providing such
correlation as they can only show the fluid entry/exit points in/from the well.
SPE-195369-MS 11

Figure 7—Correlation between the advanced production logging suite results in the wells of the pilot 5-spot pattern

The next important point is that injection distribution is not uniform and this nonuniformity is higher in
the western part of the pilot area than in the eastern one. In MaE and MaD reservoirs where permeability
averages 20-40 mD, there are some highly permeable zones with the permeability up to 300-800 mD and
nonuniformity being higher in MaE. These highly permeable layers serve as injection water propagation
channels. In general, four pilot injectors cover almost the entire thickness of the target reservoirs, although
the top and middle parts of MaD remain the least involved in oil sweep by water.
Only one injector (I-1) of the pilot 5-spot pattern was found to be injecting outside of the target reservoir,
into the underlying MaG, but the thief injection rate was found to be insignificant.

Correlation between production profile in P- and injection profile in offset injector I-5
Injector I-5 is not part of the EOR pilot 5-spot pattern but is situated nearby, at a distance of 300 ft. This
is a dual string water injector: the long string is injecting in the underlying reservoir and the short string in
Mauddud reservoir units including MaD, MaE and MaG. In order to factor out the effect produced by other
wells on the the EOR pilot area it was decided to stop injection in Well I-5 until the project completion.
A few months after the commencement of injection in the pilot cell wells, Well I-5 was logged in shut-
in regime. A comprehensive analysis of HPT and SNL data proved that there was a downward cross flow
from MaE down to MaG and MaH. This wellbore crossflow was due to reservoir pressure increase in MaE,
as a result of water injection in the injection wells of the pilot 5-spot pattern. As water is transferred from
MaE to MaG and MaH it creates an effect similar to dump flooding. As a result, cold injection water moves
to MaG and MaH even when the well is shut in and this lateral flow can be traced in all wells of the pilot
5-spot pattern.
Fig. 8 shows a correlation of production profile of Producer P-1 of the pilot 5-spot pattern and offset
Injector I-5. The correlation confirms that the source of lateral flow in P-1 in MaG interval is the water
coming from the offset shut-in Injector I-5.
12 SPE-195369-MS

Figure 8—Correlation between the logging suite results in wells P-1 and I-5 to find the source of lateral flow

Based on the I-5 logging results it was decided to shut off all Mauddud reservoir units to prevent water
crossflows from MaE and MaD where ASP chemical injection is contemplated.

Conclusions
This paper describes the results of the data acquisition campaign that was launched with the aim to monitor
water injection in the 5-spot pattern of the Sabriyah field for two targets in Mauddud reservoir, Kuwait,
which was selected for the pilot Chemical EOR project. The main objective of this campaign was to
determine injection water propagation profiles from injectors to producer using an advanced logging suite
that included Spectral Noise Logging and temperature modelling. This information is essential for a cost
effectiveness analysis of the pilot EOR project where ASP injection technique is to be applied for this type
of reservoir.
The survey revealed that water moved from injectors to producer nonuniformly in vertical direction: the
larger volume of the water is injected into the most permeable zones, while many target layers remained
outside of the actual injection interval. Injection nonuniformity was observed to occur not only vertically
but also laterally: the reservoir effective thickness was about 56-59% for the wells in the eastern part of
the 5-spot pattern, while for the wells in the western part this value was found to be much lower and
amounted to only 34-38% of the total perforation interval. Such nonuniformity of injection water front
advancement is typical for heterogeneous layers of Mauddud and, conveniently, the application of latest
techniques such as ASP waterflood can assist in levelling out the water injection profiles in the targets and
SPE-195369-MS 13

therefore maintain reservoir pressure even in the least permeable layers. This will be conducive to enhancing
the sweep efficiency and, accordingly, oil recovery in this mature heterogeneous field.
It is interesting to note that the survey results indicated a lateral flow through the underlying off-target
reservoir which was part of the EOR project and where no injection was conducted at the time of the survey.
It was shown that the source of this flow was the downward crossflow from the target reservoir in the offset
injector. To prevent thief injection and loss of valuable chemicals outside of the pilot block and beyond the
target layers, a decision was made to shut off the perforations across the underlying off-target layers of the
EOR project in the offset well.

Acknowledgements
The authors thank the management of Kuwait Oil Company for permission to write this paper. Special
thanks to all of the field staff from KOC and the service provider for their seamless collaboration and effort
during the field job planning, execution and post job data processing.

Nomenclature
ft= Feet
psi= Pounds per Square Inch
bbl= Barrel
HPT – High Precision Temperature
SNL-HD – Spectral Noise Logging High Definition
EOR – Enhanced Oil Recovery
ASP - Alkaline-Surfactant-Polymer
WI – Water Injector
OP – Oil Producer
SAMA – Sabriyah (Oilfield) Mauddud (reservoir)

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