Water-Alternating-Gas (WAG)

Enhanced oil recovery

Mustafa Jaber Ali

BASRA UNIVERSITY FOR OIL AND GAS

2021 JUNE
OUTLINE

 INTODUCTION
 GAS INJECTION
 GAS INJECTION MODES
 WATER ALTERNATING GAS
• Miscible WAG (MWAG)
• Immiscible WAG (MWAG)
 FACTOR AFFECTING WAG
 WAG TYPES
 RESULT AND DISCUSSION

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INTRODUCTION

 Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR): is the process of increasing the amount

recoverable oil from a reservoir, usually by injecting a substance into an
existing oil well.

 There are several different methods of Enhanced Oil Recovery including:

• Gas injection

• Thermal recovery

• Chemical injection

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GAS INJECTION

 Divided into two types according to miscibility.

1. Miscible gas injection : Gases will be injected at minimum miscibility pressure (MMP), Gases
used for Miscible injection are CO2 or NO2
2. Immiscible gas injection : Gases used for immiscible flooding are CH4, N2, CO2, and air. many
of these gases are not completely immiscible with the oil.

 The major object for gas injection is improve sweep efficiency and maintain
reservoir pressure.

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GAS INJECTION MODES

1. Continuous Gas Injection (CGI)

2. Huff-n-Puff Gas Injection (H-n-P)

3. Water-Alternating-Gas (WAG)

4. Gas-Assisted Gravity Drainage Process (GAGD)

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WATER ALTERNATING GAS

 A cyclic method of injecting gas followed by water and repeating this process over a

number of cycles.

 Improved oil recovery, by increasing sweep efficiency and maintain the reservoir pressure.

 Gas Injection increases displacement efficiency ED

 Water Injection increases sweep efficiency ES

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WATER ALTERNATING GAS

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WATER ALTERNATING GAS
• CLASSIFIED AS :
 Miscible WAG (MWAG)
• Reservoir pressure and injection pressure maintained
above MMP.
• Decreases oil viscosity, Increases oil mobility
• At MMP, gas-oil miscible at all proportions
• In reality, not completely achieved (hard to maintain
MMP)
• It is more important to determine the optimum value
of slug size for an appropriate injection strategy.
 Immiscible WAG (IWAG)
• Do not need to maintain pressure above MMP
• Provides a buffer zone between the 2 phases
• High microscopic efficiency
• Poorer macroscopic efficiency due to high M.
• it is more important to create more stable fronts rather
than to make sure a large portion of the oil has been
touched by gas.
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FACTOR AFFECTING WAG

 WAG process depends largely on:

 Reservoir characteristics.
• Reservoir Heterogeneity
• Petrophysical properties (ф, k, Sw, So, wettability)

 Fluid properties
• Viscosity of oil (T, P, SG).

 Injection and production well arrangement

• Optimum arrangement for optimum results (cost)

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FACTOR AFFECTING WAG

 WAG parameters
• WAG slug size: Optimum size for better results (for miscible WAG)
• WAG ratio: Too much water will affect micro ED, too much gas
affects macro ES.
• WAG cycles: Timing to switch from gas to water.

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WATER ALTERNATING GAS TYPES

 SIMULTANEOUS WATER ALTERNATING GAS (SWAG)

• Water and gas are injected at the same time
• better mobility control of the water phase in SWAG injection
• increased injection rate leads to higher injection pressure so increase process displacement
efficiency

 SELECTIVE SIMULTANEOUS WATER ALTERNATING GAS (SSWAG)

• Using multi-completion to inject water and gas from the same wellbore
• Water injected in the upper zone (to avoid segregation effect)
• Gas injected in the lower zone (to avoid segregation effect)

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RESULT AND DISCUSSION

 Increase cumulative oil production and

oil rate more than primary recovery

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RESULT AND DISCUSSION

 Stable average reservoir pressure

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RESULT AND DISCUSSION

• Increase oil recovery factor by 11%

more than primary recovery

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RESULT AND DISCUSSION

 Effect of increase gas slug

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RESULT AND DISCUSSION

 By increasing the WAG ratio, the efficiency of the process increases in improving
the volumetric sweep efficiency.
 In Pattern selection for WAG injection ,wettability should be taken in
consideration.

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THANK YOU

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