Department of Petroleum Technology

Dibrugarh University
Dibrugarh, Assam-786004

AN OVERVIEW OF AQUIFER AND WATER

DRIVE RESERVOIR

Submitted to: Presented by:

Dr. Minati Das Dhiraj Kumar Deka
Dept. of Petroleum Technology Shailaj Bharadwaj
Dibrugarh University Subhasish Sutradhar
1st semester
 CONTENTS

 AQUIFER AND ITS TYPES

 AQUIFER PARAMETERS
 ASSOCIATION OF AQUIFER WITH WATER DRIVE RESERVOIR
 CLASSIFICATION OF RESERVOIR AQUIFER SYSTEM
 DEGREE OF PRESSURE MAINTENANCE
 FLOW GEOMETRIES
 OUTER BOUNDARY CONDITIONS
 MATHEMATICAL MODELS
 PRODUCTION TRENDS
 RECOVERY
 WHAT IS AQUIFER ?

 An underground layer of water bearing rock

 Saturated and unsaturated
 Isotropic and anisotropic
 Confined and unconfined aquifers
 Artesian well
 Perched aquifer
AQUIFER PARAMETERS

In order to access the aquifer potential in any area, it is essential to evaluate

the aquifer parameters.
 STORAGE COEFFICIENT: The property of aquifer to store water in soil or
rock pores. Also known as Storativity.
 TRANSMISSIVITY: The property of aquifer to transmit water.
 Aquifer test software is used in association with Theis and Copper Jacob
plot.
ASSOCIATION OF AQUIFER WITH WATER
DRIVE MECHANISM

 Nearly all hydrocarbon reservoirs are associated with water bearing rocks.
 Reservoir-aquifer system is beneficial when size of aquifer is large enough
and permeability of rock is high.
 In water drive reservoir, the oil zone is in communication with an aquifer
that provides the bulk of the reservoir's drive energy.
 The aquifer responds to the pressure decline of the reservoir in form of
water influx or water encroachment.
 CLASSIFICATION OF RESERVOIR AQUIFER SYSTEMS

Reservoir aquifer systems are commonly classified on the basis of

 Degree of pressure maintenance
 Outer boundary conditions
 Flow regimes
 Flow geometries
 Degree of pressure maintenance
 Active water drive:
Characterized by a gradual and slow reservoir
pressure decline
 Partial water drive:
Characterized by production rate drops more rapidly
 Flow geometries
 Edge water drive:
water moves into the flanks of the reservoir as a result of hydrocarbon production and pressure
drop at the reservoir-aquifer boundary.
The flow is essentially radial with negligible flow in the vertical direction.
 Bottom water drive:
occurs in reservoirs with large areal extent and gentle dip where the reservoir-water contact
completely underlies the reservoir.
The flow is essentially radial and, in contrast to the edge-water drive, the bottom-water drive
has significant vertical flow.
 Linear water drive:
In linear-water drive, the influx is from one flank of the reservoir. The flow is strictly linear
with a constant cross-sectional area.
Outer boundary conditions
 Infinite system:
 Pressure changes at the oil/aquifer boundary can never be felt at the outer boundary.
 This boundary is for all intents and purposes at a constant pressure equal to initial reservoir
pressure.

 Finite system(bounded):
 The aquifer outer limit is affected by the influx into the oil zone and that the pressure at this
outer limit changes with time.
 Flow regimes
 Steady State Flow
 Transient Flow
 Pseudo-Steady State Flow
 Boundary-Dominated Flow
mathematical water influx models
 Pot aquifer
 Schilthuis’ steady-state
 The van Everdingen-Hurst unsteady-state
 The Carter-Tracy unsteady-state
 Fetkovich’s method
Production trends in water drive system

 GOR remains fairly constant

 WOR continues to increase with time as the oil-water
contact moves upward
 Water production usually occurs early in the field life
of down structure wells
 Gas lift may be required for high water cut wells.
Recovery

 Oil recovery ranges from 35 to 75% of the original oil in place.

 Recovery also depends on the aquifer's sweep efficiency.
 recovery can be improved by balancing production rates across the field so that the oil-water
contact moves up as uniformly as possible.
Thank You