SELF-PROJECT PROGRESS : DUMP FLOOD

Alfanda Kurnia Widi (PE’16)

M. Hairul Fikri (PE’16)

Petroleum Engineering Department

Faculty of Mining and Petroleum Engineering
Institut Teknologi Bandung
2020
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PRESENTATION OUTLINE

Dump Flooding
Background Requirements Calculations Result Example References
02 04 06 08

01 03 05 07 09

Definition Advantages and Innovation Dump Flood Screening

DIsadvantages Simulation Conclusions

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Definition

• Here is dumpflood definition :

“Dumpflooding is the process of flowing a water-bearing reservoir of high pressure

potential to feed into an oil reservoir of lower pressure potential by placing the two
zones in communication through a casing string.” (Davies, 1972)

• Furthermore, Davies,1972 said that :

“The water source can be above or below the oil reservoir, as long as there is sufficient
pressure potential to effect the water transfer.” (Davies, 1972)

Dumpflood Scheme
(Zadravec and Berkic, 2020)

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Background
• Conventional waterflood project is very cost intensive as it requires
surface facilities involving many equipments with long lead time for
procurement, additional injection wells, flowlines, etc. (Shizawi et al.,
2011 and Kuoh et al., 2008).
Dump Flood Schematic (Haiyang et al., 2015)
• This mechanism reduces the number of injector wells required (saving
drilling costs) in addition to expenses associated with building additional
surface facilities and water treatment (Villaroel et al. 2015)

• This technique has been used mostly in Middle East where ground
water is scarce (Haiyang et al., 2015).

• The characteristic of reservoir candidate of dump-flooding is dominated

by reservoir pressure depletion, rapid pressure decline due to ESP
usage, and weak aquifer (All references).
Pressure Profiles showing the effect of the
• The pressure showed a steeper decline when the dumpflood well was dumpflood well (Osharode et al., 2010)
removed (Osharode et al., 2010)

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Advantages and Disadvantages
• Advantages :
1. The capital costs of conventional waterflooding
system exceed that of dumpflooding system.
2. The operating costs of conventional waterflooding
system exceed that of dumpflooding system.
3. In remote areas where there is inadequate ground
water, dumpflooding would provide the necessary
injection and avoid the extremely expensive water
supply system.
4. The injection rate could readily be increased by
converting a watered-out producing well to
dumpflooding.
5. Dumpflooding is a self-regulating process.
6. The casing corrosion problems are reduced since
the fluid transfer occurs in a closed system (to
prevent O2 appearance)
• Disadvantages :
1. The difficulty of measuring the quantity of water
transferring from one zone of high pressure to a
second zone of low pressure.
2. The rate of fluid transfer cannot be controlled
below the natural transfer without introducing
downhole chokes.
3. The servicing of either zone becomes more
complicated, hence more expensive.
4. Hole clean circulation would be a problem if sand
were deposited.
5. Tubing string would have to be introduced just
below the source zone perforations for the
introduction of corrosion-inhibiting chemicals if
there was corrosion-fluid.
(Davies, 1972)
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Requirements
Tool Properties
• Conventional Artificial Lift Elements (Complete ESP Systems)
• Advanced Artificial Lift Elements (Pod Assembly : Pod Hanger)
• Production casing
• Sand control device
• Gauges
• SSD
• Space
• Retrievable packer
• Flowmeter
• P&T Sensor
• Acoustic data transmission system
• Dumpflood chart (Dumping rates and tubing fluid level)
(All references)

Dump Flood Well Completion (Shizawi et al., 2011)

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Innovation : Intelligent Completion
• Tools :
1. Flow control devices (derived from sliding sleeve or
ball-valve technologies)
2. Feedthrough isolation packers
3. Control, communication, and power cables
4. Downhole sensors

• Benefits :
1. Monitor wellbore and pressure
2. Monitor crossflow rate
3. Determine PI and II
4. Perform Pressure Transient Analysis independently
5. Stimulate and clean up both zone
6. Pre-produce the injection zone
7. “Soft-start” the dumpflood process
8. Monitor and control drwadown pressure Dump Flood Completion (Rawding et al., 2008)
(Rawding et al., 2008)

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Innovation : Dumpflood Design
• Main design :
1. Completion through rigless thru tubing perforating
2. Pre-Acid stimulation
3. ESP Assisted Dumpflood (ESPAD)
• Design consideration :
1. Compatibility of reservoir fluids and source aquifer
deliverability
2. Limit deployment complexity
3. Equipment availability
4. Solids concentration and minimization of potential
leakage
Tandem ESP-Packer Dumpflood
5. System cost Systems (Al-Hajeri et al., 2015)
• Design challenges :
1. Both ESP packers to be unset simultaneously
2. High Grade ESP and tubular metallurgy required Encapsulated ESP-Packer Dumpflood
3. Direct flow measurement Systems (Al-Hajeri et al., 2015)
• Alternative design (Encapsulated ESP systems and
Tandem packer ESP systems) (Al-Hajeri et al., 2015)

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Innovation : Intelligent Dumpflood Completion Design
• Specifications :
1. Sand control requirements (larger gravel pack or
expandable sand screen)
2. Initial Natural Dumpflood
3. ESP Deployment method (CTDESP)
4. ESP Design and Setting Depth
5. Monitoring System (distributed temperature sensor
(DTS), lubricator valve (LV), and wireline cable)

• Downhole completion architecture :

1. Coiled tubing and power hanger
2. ESP assembly
3. Downhole monitoring tools
4. DTS
Water Dumpflood Injection Schematic (Kuoh et al., 2008)
• Surface architecture :
1. Wellhead
2. Electric power, monitoring, and control system
(Kuoh et al., 2008)
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Innovation : Evaluation and Completion Technology
• Evaluation :
1. Pressure Analyses and WRM Practices
2. Review of Flowing and Closed in Wells
3. Reservoir Modelling
4. Dynamic Modelling
5. Screening of Existing Oil Wells for Open Up
6. Oil Well Type and Count Sensitivities

• Performance Prediction :
1. Dumpflood performance prediction
2. Inflow and outflow prediction
3. Sustainability of source aquifer Well Count Creaming Curve ( Osharode et al., 2010)

• Well Completion Technology

1. Sand Control (ESS)
2. Tubing Size Selection
3. Downhole Flowmeters and Pressure Gauges
4. Well Integrity and Deliverability (Osharode et al., 2010)

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Innovation : Well Completion Design Options
• Option :
1. Casing Completion
2. Straddle Completion

• Casing completion design is preferred due to the

following reasons :
1. Rate Required
2. Consequence of Failure (Casing collapse, exposing
other formations)
3. Future Wellbore Utility
4. Remedial Options
5. Cost and Other Operating Issues (Installation cost
increments, operating cost, stopping dump, dump
rates, complexity, speed of implementation, pressure
loss due to friction, metal loss, surveillance capability)
Schematic of Basic Components of DF Well
6. Corrosion Completions (Quttainah and Al-Hunaif, 2001)
(Quttainah and Al-Hunaif, 2001)

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Dump Flooding Calculation
• Threshold pressure :

• Water injection and production :

• Material balance equation :

1. Oil Layer :
Dump Flooding Computing Program
(Haiyang et al., 2015)
2. Water Layer :

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Dump Flooding Calculation
• Liquid rate :

• At water breakthrough, based on Buckley-Leverett Theory :

• After water breakthrough :

Dump Flooding Computing Program

(Haiyang et al., 2015)

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Dump Flooding Calculation
• Rate after point at water breakthrough :

• Ratio PI at a point after water breakthrough to at water cut 0 :

(Haiyang et al., 2015)

• Noted that fluid rate is dependent on the productive and injective

capacity of the source and injected zones respectively, the friction loss in
the casing, and the difference between the reservoirs’ static pressures.
• Pipe friction is rate dependent and mostly measured through Newtonian
Fluid and turbulent flow model. Pipe friction can be utilized for casing size Dump Flooding Computing Program
design and rate control. (Haiyang et al., 2015)
(Davies, 1978)

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Dump Flood Simulation
• Simulation process :
1. Create geostatistical model
2. Production model
3. Pressure model
4. Compatibility of fluids
5. Fluid model
6. Rock-fluid model
7. Simulation model
8. History match
9. Forecast of scenarios
(Villaroel et al., 2015)

• Concern to design :
1. Well design
2. Compatibility of aquifer
3. Capability and applicability of Dumpflood
(Quttainah and Al-Hunaif, 2001)
Simulation Processes for Dump Flooding (Villaroel et al., 2015)

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Result Example : Success Story
• Lower cost, economical, simple, effective, and quick methods.
Dump flood well has proved its ability to increase oil recovery
in W-field at the range of 40% (Shizawi et al., 2011).

• Dump Flood scenario increases oil production at 5 % with

one well and 12 % with three wells after optimization.
Implementation of dump flood in the East Basin of Ecuador is
positive. NPV also can be improved (Villaroel et al., 2015).

• When water-oil reserve ratio is less than 60, production

plateau extends and oil recovery increases with the increase
of WOR. If WOR is more than 60, the effect is negligible. The
later the timing of dump flooding conversion, the longer the
production plateau and the higher the recovery of the
reservoir will be (Huiyang et al., 2015)

Simulation Results (Haiyang et al., 2015)

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Result Example : Success Story
• Implementation of conventional water injections (with surface facilities)
are practically impossible due to high costs of construction, maintenance
and water management. Many mature reservoirs were submitted to gas
injection processes and if they are injected by dumpflooding they will
become a kind of alternate injection (Acosta et al., 2018).

• Use of intelligent completion technology is a reliable and cost effective

solution for a controlled dump flood (Rawding et al., 2008).

• Tandem ESP system reduces rig time and is cost-effective than

encapsulated ESP system (Al-Hajeri et al., 2015).

• Boosted reservoir pressure is believed to increase the ultimate recovery

factor for the reservoir from 24 to 48%, adding 10 MBBL of additional
reserves (Kuoh et al., 2008). Dump Flood Project (Zadravec and Berkic, 2020)

• A 62% recovery factor is expected from prediction and the incremental

production profiles (Osharode et al., 2010)

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Result Example : Challenges
• Monitoring and managing dumpflood wells and managing reservoir pressure maintenance. Other challenges
are difficulties with flood front control, water breakthrough, conformance management, and the inability to
quantify the crossflow rate in each well (Rawding et al., 2008).

• The actual challenges are excessive drawdown on aquifer, large production flux rates, formation
destabilization, and sand production (Rawding et al., 2008).

• Significant offshore well integrity issues such as different types of fluids in the wellbore, especially water with
different chemical compositions and physical properties cause corrosion and casing damage (Zadravec and
Berkic, 2020).

• Sand cake plugging less than 200 microns was found (Shizawi et al., 2011). Sand influx after perforation is
exacerbated by absence of an effective sand control mechanism (Osharode et al.,2010)

• 40 % cost overrun and few days NPT of installation were resulted (Kuoh et al., 2008).

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Screening Conclusions
Subsurface Properties
1. High porosity, high permeability, weak anisotropy and
good lateral connectivity reservoir and water layer
2. High PI and II
3. Light oil (low oil viscosity and high API gravity) reservoir
4. Preferably reservoir does not have high gas content,
thick gas cap, and condensate content
5. Preferably green field reservoir (above bubble point)
6. Low to moderate aquifer support
7. Compatible mobility ratio
8. Preferably suitable for scarce ground water (offshore)
9. Water layer pressure must be greater than oil layer
pressure Cross Section along Concession Line
(All references) (Quttainah and Al-Hunaif, 2001)

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 References
- Acosta, E. R., Ortega, C. J., Riveros, G. V., Molina, L. R., & Rosales, E. E. (2018). A Doomed Reservoir Surprisingly Became a Mature
Reservoir with Potential: Water Dump Flooding Case Study in Boca Field . Rosales Zambrano Ingeniería, F.P. (RZI). Centro de Geociencias
Anzoátegui, C.A. (CGA), 1-12.
- Al-Hajeri, N., Anthony, E., Sharhan, G. A., & Jha, A. (2015). Tandem ESP-Packer Dumpflood Completion - A Successful Alternative to
Conventional Encapsulated ESP systems - Field Case Study. SPE-172549-MS, 1-7.
- Davies, C. (1972). The theory and practice of monitoring ‘and controlling dumpfloods. SPE AIME 3733, 1-16.
- Haiyang, S., Longxin, M., Haiying, H., Yongge, L., & Bo, L. (2015). Development mechanisms and influencing factors of dump flooding.
Petroleum Exploration and Development, 691-696.
- Kuo, H. L., Kang, M., & Staal, T. W. (2009). A Coiled-Tubing-Deployed Intelligent ESP Dumpflood System. SPE-95170, 1-11.
- Osharode, C. O., Erivona, G., Nnadi, M., & Folorunso, K. (2010). Application of Natural Water Dumpflood in a Depleted Reservoir for Oil
and Gas Recovery - Egbema West Example. SPE 140634, 1-7.
- Quttainah, R., & Al-Hunaif, J. (2001). Umm Gudair Dumpflood Pilot Project, The Applicability of Dumpflood to Enhance Sweep &
Maintain Reservoir Pressure. SPE 68721, 1-9.
- Rawding, J., Al Matar, B., & Konopczyinski, M. (2008). Application of Intelligent Well Completion for Controlled Dumpflood in West
Kuwait. SPE 112243, 1-11.
- Shizawi, W., Subhi, H., Rashidi, A., Dey, A., Salmi, F., & Aisary, M. (2011). Enhancement of Oil Recovery through "Dump-Flood" Water
Injection Concept in Satellite Field. SPE 142361, 1-6.
- Villaroel, A., Mino, M. N., Estrella, K., & Perez, J. (2015). Methodology of Feasibility Study on Pilot Test for Dump Flood Completion
System. SPE-177039-MS, 1-27.
- Zadravek, D., & Brkic, V. (2020). Intelligent natural dump flooding well - Case study from the area of the western Persian/Arabian Gulf
and possible application in the Croatian mature oil field Beničanci. The Mining Geology Petroleum Engineering Bulletin, 21-31.

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