Reservoir

Engineering 2
(PT414)
Instructor: Joven John R. Cayao
Fluid Displacement,
Frontal Stability and
Pattern Floods
Fluid Displacement Process
Buckley-Leverett Theory
• One of the simplest and most widely used methods for
estimating the advance of a fluid displacement front in an
immiscible displacement process
• Estimates the rate at which an injected water bank moves
through a porous medium
Buckley-Leverett Theory
• Assumptions:
 Flow is linear and horizontal
 Water is injected into an oil reservoir
 Oil and water are both incompressible
 Oil and water are immiscible
 Gravity and capillary pressure effects are negligible
Welge’s Method
• Method for computing oil recovery from gas or water drive that
simplified the application of the Buckley-Leverett method.
Welge’s Method
• In summary, when water reaches the producer, Welge’s
approach gives the following results:
 Water saturation at the producing well is 𝑆𝑤𝑓
 Average water saturation behind the front is 𝑆𝑤𝑏𝑡
 Producing water cut at reservoir conditions is 𝑓𝑤𝑓
Welge’s Method
Effects of Capillary Pressure and
Gravity
• absence of capillary pressure and gravity effects result to a
flood front that propagates as sharp step function or piston-
like displacement
• Prevents abrupt increase in WOR
• WOR increases gradually as the leading edge of the mobile
water reached the well and is produced
• Gravity caused smeared or dispersed flood front
Miscible Displacement
• Fluids mix and interfacial tension approaches zero at interface
• introduce miscible gases into the reservoir
• maintains reservoir pressure and improves oil displacement
because the interfacial tension between oil and water is
reduced
Flood Front
• the interface between an injectant
and the fluid it is displacing
• its stability can influence the
efficiency of fluid displacement
Factors affecting the effectiveness of a
displacement process
• Reservoir and fluid characteristics (depth, structure and fluid
type)
• Number of wells
• Types of wells
• Well rates
• Well locations
• Well pattern
Recovery and Displacement Efficiencies
• Recovery Efficiency
 Quantified by comparing initial and final volumes of fluid in place
 Takes into account volumetric and displacement efficiencies
• Displacement Efficiency
 Accounts for the efficiency of recovering mobile hydrocarbon
 For oil, it is defined as the ratio of mobile to original oil in place at
reservoir conditions
Oil Swelling
• expansion in oil volume that can occur when a solvent contacts
a reservoir fluid
• swelling is due to the complete or partial dissolution of the
solvent molecules into the reservoir fluid
• can result in improved oil recovery by mobilizing residual oil
trapped in inaccessible pore spaces
Displacement efficiency considering the
effects of swelling
Areal, vertical, volumetric and overall
recovery sweep efficiencies
Patterns and Spacing
Pattern Recovery
Pattern Recovery
• Volumetric sweep efficiency declines as reservoir heterogeneity
increases or mobility ratio increases
• If the mobility of the displacing fluid is greater than the
mobility of the displaced fluid, then the mobility ratio is
greater than one. On the other hand, if the mobility of the
displacing fluid is less than the mobility of the displaced fluid,
then the mobility ratio is less than one.
• Mobility ratios less than or equal to one are considered
favorable
Next Topic: Recovery
of Subsurface
Resources