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Waterflooding PDF
Waterflooding PDF
Waterflooding PDF
SPE 24367
This paper was prepared for presentation at the SPE Rocky Mountain Regional Meeting held in Casper. Wyoming, May 18-21, 1992.
This paper was selected for presentation by an SPE Program CommMee following review of information contained in an abstract submitted by the author(@. Contents of the paper,
as presented, have not been reviewed by the Society of Petroleum Engineers and are subject to correction by the author@).The material, as presented, does not necessarily reflect
any position of the Society of PetroleumEngineers, its officers, or members. Papers presented at SPE meetings are subject to publication review by EditorialComminees of the Society
of Petroleum Engineers. Permissionto copy is restrictedto an abstract of not morethan 300 words. Illustrationsmay not be copied. The abstract shouldcontain conspicuous acknowledgment
of where and by whom the paper is presented. Write Librarian, SPE, P.O. Box 833836,Richardson, TX 75083-3836 U.S.A. Telex, 730989 SPEDAL.
An advantage of the dendritic geometry is that oil remains - maximum well productivi, as a pressure sink,
a continuous phase throughout the majority of the - low pressures resulting in large bubbles, possibly
reservoir and continues to be produced, albeit at high blocking pore throats, and
WOR. - developing a continuous dendritic gas phase out
into the reservoir.
MULTlPHASE (GAS /OIL) EXPANSION & FLOW
IMBIBITION
Under primary depletion the gas saturation eventually
becomes large enough that gas becomes a continuous The imbibition process in unstable displacements is
phase and moves independently of the oil, at least near much the same as it is in naturally fractured reservoirs.
the producers. If gas is lost from the hydrocarbon phase The invading water is imbibed into the matrix blocks from
the viscosity increases and the phase shrinks. In a the fractures (high water saturation, injection, fingers) and
gas/oil/water system, as gas is lost the pressure must oil flows into the fractures (high oil saturation, production,
decline and as pressure declines so goes the drive fingers).
energy and productivi. In light oils and reservoir rocks
DRAG
with small pore throats, gas bubbles cannot form and
move in the reservoir. As pore throats become larger
Thickening and slip of the wetting phase at the oil water
(-lOum ) in higher permeability rocks large numbers of
interface result in the squeezing and drag of the
small bubbles (-2um ) can form and move without
hydrocarbon phase to the pressure sinks. In this
blocking throats. Also, as the viscosity of the oil
mechanism the oil and water phases do not move
increases, the ability of the bubbles to separate and drift
independently as visualized in the relative permeability
to the top of the reservoir diminishes (the boyancy is
concept. The oil moves relative to water, which is also
small and the viscous resistance to movement within the
moving in the thin film of the wetting interface.
oil is large). The bubbles that do form in the reservoir can
block small pore throats easier than larger ones and so EMULSIFICATION
tend to do so. This results in a displacement of the flow
from the smaller to the larger pores; from water filled Some of the hydrocarbon becomes suspended in the
ones to oil/gas filled ones. water phase as a result of native surfactant and in-situ
foam formation. This forms a very weak emulsion or
In high permeability viscous oil reservoirs therefore, the micro-emulsion which is effective in transporting oil and
oil and some gas move as a mixture phase which in improving displacement.
expands in bulk as pressure drops. This seems to be a
beneficial phenomenon overall (see 4). If the gas phase GRAVITY EFFECTS
becomes too large, it separates into a continuous phase.
This continuous gas phase originates at the producer and A primary effect of gravity drainage in heavy oil
grows outwards, again dendritically, and drains gas and watetfloods is in film spreading of the oil on the water
energy at a rapid and wasteful rate. phase as a free gas phase forms. Over geologic time,
even discontinuous oil ganglia, trapped in a segregating
gas phase, can drain out leaving a very low residual oil
saturation in the gas zone.
4 Waterflooding Heavy Oils SPE 24367
In general, heavy oil reservoirs are not trapped by pressure (which is between the injection and producing
completely tight caprocks. It is usually the capillary entry pressures). This part of the reservoir sees very small
pressure that prevents further upward migration of the oil. gradients and flow rates.
Thus, gas is not effectively trapped and it long ago
escaped upwards, except for that in solution. Heavy oil Because of generally poor economics, injection water
reservoirs are usually initially saturated at the prevailing quality is not usually very good. The slow "drag" process
reservoir pressure. has large amounts of water being pumped through the
reservoir and, as a conservation effort, most of the
During primary depletion secondary gas caps can form. produced water is recycled back to injection. Gradually
Since the displacement of viscous oil by gas is inefficient, the formation plugs off at the injection points and
high residual oil saturations probably still exist in continued injection results in high pressures and
secondary gas caps unless the film spreading fracturing. When these formations, which are generally
mechanism allows for the almost complete drainage of uncemented or weakly cemented, fail, at high pore
the oil phase sufficiently quickly. It is possible for pressure, a great deal of deformation and fabric damage
secondary gas caps to have very high oil saturations as takes place. Again the process is unstable and shifts at
well as high permeability to gas. the whim of local heterogeneityto yield dendritic zones of
enhanced permeability access to the formation. These
INJECTION INTO GAS too plug off eventually and a highly resistant "skin" forms
between the injection at high pressure and the majority of
When injecting into such a gas cap there is a large the reservoir at a much lower pressure.
specific surface area between the oil and gas phases.
Water entering, squeezes the gas back into solution in THE END IS HERE
the oil. The resulting loss of volume is very much larger
than when gas is simply compressed and, therefore, it is Jumping straight to the ultimate end of the process, a
easy for water to channel through such gas with very large area of skin prevents access by the pressure source
small pressure gradients. The gas goes into solution to the formation and an effective network of dendritic
leaving water in its place, locally at very high saturation, drainage (now water filled) keeps the bulk of the reservoir
again in a dendritic network and possibly occupying the at the low bottom hole producing pressure imposed by
largest (previously gas/oil foam filled) pores. As a result high-volume lift at the producers (Figure 7). The reservoir
of the above, it is not recommended that injection be is all at a low pressure so oil production cannot occur
undertaken within gas cap zones unless it is believed that and injection at reasonable rates cannot raise that
the gas saturation can be completely displaced and the pressure because of the large resistance between the
zone re-pressurized prior to being put on production. water channels and the matrix in general. The low
resistance dendritic drainage adds up to be a fracture like
WATERFLOOD LIFE CYCLE system and linear flow predominates at both injectors
and producers.
The life cycle of a heavy oil waterflood usually begins with
primary depletion. During that time a gas/oil mixture Oil production ceases quite a bi before one gets to this
phase develops and flows to the wells. Pores and layers situation. The point is: that the injection of pore
with large pore throats pass the majority of this low- plugging water and production at low bottom hole
quality hydrocarbon foam. Much of the rest of the pressures results in a gradual drop in average
reservoir plugs up with gas bubbles getting caught in reservoir pressure which cannot be economically
small pore throats. When water injection begins, it prevented.
channels unstably into the foam filled pores, driving the
gas into solution and the oil into smaller pores or less Figure 8 shows an analogue of the system. Initially the
permeable regions. This compounds the normal viscous injection potential is felt at Node (2) [average reservoir
instability that also results in a similar dendritic potential] because the resistance 1 / k is small. If the
encroachment of injected water into the reservoir. short circuit resistance (1/L&, is large (open circuit: no
channel), there is a large gradient between Node (2) [the
The pressures, initially and ideally, would be high in a oil bearing formation] and the producing well and good
radial region surrounding the injectors. Similarly the production. If a channel (short circuit) develops [(I /k),
pressures would be low in a region dominated by the is small] then the producer goes to the injection potential
producers which are producing at conditions and oil production ceases. Even in the absence of a
substantially below the saturation pressure. Figure 6 short circuit, as injection continues the resistance l/b
shows the situation diagramatically. A large portion of
the reservoir is at a pressure close to the saturation becomes larger due to plugging and the resistance 1/16,
SPE 24367 G.E. Smith 5
becomes smaller due to depletion (saturation changes). 7) Continuous careful management and analysis will
Eventually the average reservoir potential is close to that keep these reservoirs producing economically,
at the producers and depletion is complete. for a long period of time.
- 4 k z m m
Figure 3a: 2D pattern grown Figure w: Pattom
radially from a point from the inside cylinder
100 400
90 350
80
300
70
5
--
60 250
X 50 zoo 5
40
30
150 g
20
loo h
10 50
0 0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3
Curnulaik Core Effluent (W)
Figure 5: Heavy Oil Flood in Preserved Core
2.3 mld
Figure 7: Pressure zones late in the life of a
Heay~Oil waterflood
Wh ,I, of the dl
(2) bearing formation
Figure 8: Analogue of system