Water drive mechanisms maintain reservoir energy by balancing fluid production with either aquifer expansion or water injection. There are two types of water drives depending on reservoir structure: edge water drives where water enters at the boundaries and bottom water drives where water enters from below. While water influx can prevent reservoir pressure from dropping, both reservoir and aquifer pressures will ultimately decline when production rates are significant relative to the finite size of the aquifer system.
Water drive mechanisms maintain reservoir energy by balancing fluid production with either aquifer expansion or water injection. There are two types of water drives depending on reservoir structure: edge water drives where water enters at the boundaries and bottom water drives where water enters from below. While water influx can prevent reservoir pressure from dropping, both reservoir and aquifer pressures will ultimately decline when production rates are significant relative to the finite size of the aquifer system.
Water drive mechanisms maintain reservoir energy by balancing fluid production with either aquifer expansion or water injection. There are two types of water drives depending on reservoir structure: edge water drives where water enters at the boundaries and bottom water drives where water enters from below. While water influx can prevent reservoir pressure from dropping, both reservoir and aquifer pressures will ultimately decline when production rates are significant relative to the finite size of the aquifer system.
Water Drive Mechanism In a reservoir with a water drive
mechanism for maintaining reservoir energy, the production of fluids from the reservoir unit is balanced by either aquifer expansion or, via injection of water into the reservoir. The water normally contained within an aquifer system can be defined as edge or bottom water drive depending upon the structural shape, dip angle and OWC within the reservoir (Figures 4/5). The net effect of water influx into the reservoir may be to prevent reservoir pressure dropping and, given the relatively low compressibility, for this to occur without depletion of the aquifer pressure, the aquifer volume must be very large. In the majority of cases, the aquifer is of a finite size and accordingly both the reservoir and aquifer pressure will decline in situations where the production rate is significant. If the production rate is small compared to the aquifer volume, then the compensating expansion of the aquifer may lead to no noticeable depletion for part of the production life of the field.