Water Flooding A-Z

Water Flooding A-Z

Objectives

Describing Waterflooding

Definition
Objectives
Candidates
Patterns
Oil, water, and gas saturations
Fractional flow
Performance measures
Practices and problems
Reservoir monitoring

Water Flooding A-Z

Water Flooding A-Z

Infill Drilling

Reservoir Life Cycle

Water Flooding A-Z

Water Flooding A-Z

Infill Drilling

Waterflooding
Injection of water into a reservoir
Increases reservoir energy
Sweeps oil towards producing wells
Most widely applied secondary recovery method
Accounts for about 50% of U.S. oil production

Water Flooding A-Z

Water Flooding A-Z

History of Waterflooding
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History
Waterflooding
Goal of of
Waterflooding

1865

1920

1930

1940

1950

1960

1970

1980

1990

The primary goal of waterflooding is to displace oil

with water in an efficient manner that maximizes the
profitable recovery of oil from a reservoir.

* First recorded waterflood in Pennsylvania.

Waterflood projects in Oklahoma and Texas
Widescale waterflood
implementation
Infill drilling
Tertiary
recovery
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Water Flooding A-Z

Reasons for Water Injection

History of Waterflooding

Pressure Maintenance

Waterflooding increases the amount of oil recovered

from a reservoir in two ways.
Pressure
maintenance
productivity)

(Maintain

high

Maintain pressure above the bubble point to prevent:

1. Gas breakout which reduce shrinkage factor and
maintain oil of low viscosity
2. Relative permeability: Gas saturation increases
3. IPR?

well

Displacement of oil with water

Water Drive
Push water towards the production wells, usually done
when peripheral wells cease to be productive Shift water
from low permeability regions
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Water Flooding A-Z

Water Flooding A-Z

Pressure Maintenance

Displace Oil With Water

Gas

Use injector producer patterns to sweep oil from the

reservoir.
Water Treatment
Plant

Primary recovery not very efficient.

Oil
Production
Well

Sealing
Fault

Waterflooding yields additional production.

Water
Injection

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Water Flooding A-Z

Water Flooding A-Z

Primary Drive Mechanisms

Most applicable:
Solution-gas drive
Gas-cap drive
Weak water drive
Not applicable
Strong water drive

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Water Flooding A-Z

Water Flooding A-Z

Primary Drive Mechanisms

Proposed and Conditions of

Gas and Water Injection

Solution-gas drive reservoirs are some of the best

candidates for waterflooding.
Gas-cap drives benefit from waterflooding but require
careful attention to prevent
1) water injection losses into the gas cap
2) oil being pushed up into the gas cap.
A weak water drive that cannot maintain reservoir
pressure can be supplemented by water injection.
Strong water drive reservoirs generally do not need any
water injection.

Advantage:
1- Readily available at low cost (economics)
2- Recovery efficiency of the water flood process is
generally high because of the favorable mobility ratio,
3- Most reservoir rocks are water wet
Water entry into the smaller pores.
Effective permeability to water is lower

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Water Flooding A-Z

Water Flooding A-Z

Proposed and Conditions of

Gas and Water Injection

Proposed and Conditions of

Gas and Water Injection

Disadvantages:
1- Scaling in wellbores and facilities due to water
incompatibility.
2- Injection well plugging due to suspended solids and
entrapped oil.
3- Corrosion in wellbores and surface facilities.
4- Production, handling, separation, and disposal of
produced water.

5- Pumping of water to increase injection pressure above

the hydraulic head is relatively inexpensive.
6- Water formation volume factor is about one. Hence,
volume of water required to replace reservoir voidage
is relative low.
7- Spreads well throughout the formation

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A typical water flood project

The essential components of a water flood project, described below:
1- Water source and its treatment

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Water Flooding A-Z

A Typical Water Flood Project

sufficiency, treatment, compatibility, transport to the injectors

2- Water injectors
Pressure rating, mechanical integrity, injector/reservoir connectivity,
3- Reservoir
Reservoir characteristics, fluid distribution and saturations, and
reservoir/producer connectivity.
4- Producers
Pressure rating, mechanical integrity, Reservoir monitoring
5- Water oil separation / water conditioning plants
Size, efficiency of oil separation, efficiency of disposal water
conditioning
6- Disposal wells
Aquifer or reservoir characteristics, injection pressure rating, and
safety / environmental related concerns.

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Water Flooding A-Z

Water Flooding A-Z

Source Waters

Main Sources of Injection Water

Seawater
3.5% salinity
pH 8.2 8.4
Oxygen saturated
High in bacteria

1- Shallow aquifers, particularly if their waters cannot be used for

domestic or agricultural consumption
- Amounts of dissolved salts
i. Formation fines
ii. Precipitation products
iii. Corrosion products
iv. Bacteria / algae products

Aquifer Water
Salinity from 1,000 to 300,000 ppm
May contain carbon dioxide and/or hydrogen sulphide
pH acidic
Oxygen free
Free of bacteria (usually)

Produced Water
Will need to be supplemented for pressure maintenance
May contain carbon dioxide and/or hydrogen sulphide
pH acidic
Oxygen free

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Water Flooding A-Z

Water Flooding A-Z

Injection Water

Main Sources of Injection Water

3- Produced water
Amounts of oil in suspension & dissolved solids

2- Surface water from a lake, river, or sea

- Amounts of dissolved salts
- Amount of dissolved gases
i. Oxygen
ii. Carbon dioxide
iii. Hydrogen sulfide
- Quantity and nature of suspended solids

Water quality requirements for injection are:

1- Compatibility with reservoir rock & formation water
2- Least corrosive to injector / producer / facilities.
3- Environment friendly.

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Water Flooding A-Z

A Typical Water Flood Project

Crude Oil Dehydration

Emulsion Stability caused by
Presence of solids
High viscosity crude
Presence of surface active chemicals
High shear forces
Small volumes of dispersed phase
Emulsions resolved by
High temperature
Electrostatic fields
Use of chemical demulsifier
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Water Flooding A-Z

Water Flooding A-Z

Produced Water Management

Disposal Options

Difficult Emulsions

To Sea
Environmental restraints - Water quality
To Producing Reservoir
Compatibility - Water quality - Treating/fracturing
Long term effects
To Water Aquifer
Compatibility - Water quality - Long term effects
Effect on shallow water aquifers

High viscosity
High solids content (inc. corrosion product)
Low pH
Waxy

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Water Flooding A-Z

Produced Water Management

Produced Water Management

Produced water in a waterflooding project comes from

two sources:

The project economics will warrant reducing cost of

water production.
One must make an effort to reduce if not totally
eliminate the 'undesirable' water.
Also, an effort must be made to reduce the 'desirable'
water. Mobility Ratio

1. 'DESIRABLE' water - it flows through the reservoir while

pushing or dragging oil with it. It increases continuously
as the flood progresses.
2. 'UNDESIRABLE' water - it moves through the reservoir
without pushing or dragging oil with it. It also increases
continually with the maturity of the flood.

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Water Flooding A-Z

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Water Flooding A-Z

Produced Water Management

Produced Water Management

1. High cost of injection.

2. High cost of production - reducing well rate due to
increasing flowing bottom hole pressure, scaling,
corrosion, facilities modification for oil-water
separation and water disposal.
3. Environmental concerns

The first requirement for' water management is the

identification of the nature of water produced and its
possible cause's.
The success of the remedial action will depend upon its
correct identification and the choice of the right
corrective procedure.

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Water Flooding A-Z

Typical Water Quality Criteria

Treatment of Water for Waterflooding

Oil content
Oil characteristics
Dissolved chemicals
Suspended solids
Scaling propensity
Asphaltenes

Bacteria
Check the compatibility with the formation rock
Quantity

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Water Flooding A-Z

Water Flooding A-Z

pH of Natural Waters

Alkaline soil run off

Seawater
River water
Rain water
Peat and organic waters
Mine waters
Mineral springs

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Waterflood Performance Measurements

Economic success of a waterflood project depends on
the additional recovery obtained.

10
8-9
7
6
4
3
1-2

The cost of the water, injection wells, and surface

treatment facilities must be less than the value of the
additional oil recovered.

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Water Flooding A-Z

Water Flood Planning in an Economic

Perspective

Waterflood Performance Measurements

Before an economic evaluation can be made, the
reservoir engineer must predict the following
waterflood performance indicators.
Oil Production Rate (STB/day)
Water Injection Rate (STB/day)
Water-Oil Production Ratio (STB/STB)

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Water Flooding A-Z

Water Flooding A-Z

Optimum Timing for a Water Flood

Key Questions in Designing a Water Flood

As a rule of thumb, a water flood project is initiated at a

time prior to reservoir declining to a level of 10-200 psi
higher that the saturation pressure.

1- What does the reservoir look like?

External configuration.
Internal continuity of pore space and layers.
2- Natural water drive?
Aquifer type, shape, size and continuity.
Aquifer strength.

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Water Flooding A-Z

Key Questions in Designing a Water Flood

Key Questions in Designing a Water Flood

3- Is the reservoir floodable with water?

4- How much incremental oil?

Oil, water and gas production rates profile.
Profitability
5- Other pertinent matters?
Facilities modification & additional facilities.
Performance concerns.
Risk mitigation plans.
Water handling and disposal.

Current oil saturation & distribution.

Oil and water viscosity and mobility ratio.
Optimum timing for flood.
Need of a pilot when & where.
Development plan
- Well pattern peripheral or in-field.
- Well locations
- Well completion philosophy.
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Water Flooding A-Z

Water Flooding A-Z

Water Injection to Sweep Oil

Key Questions in Designing a Water Flood

Five - spot

Sweep monitoring program.

Flood optimization plan.
Enhance oil recovery (EOR) scheme.
Current pressure.
Production oil only or oil+water+gas.
Water source.

Injector/producer patterns
sweep oil from injectors to
producers more effectively as
they increase reservoir
pressure.

Production well
Injection well
Future inj. well
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Water Flooding A-Z

Water Flooding A-Z

Peripheral or Repeating Pattern Flood

Pattern Configurations

Two basic types: peripheral and repeating pattern

flooding.
The reservoir engineer must decide which to
implement.
The reservoir boundaries & physical rock characteristics
help to determine which flooding approach is most
appropriate.

Waterflooding patterns are characterized by the

configuration of the injection and production wells.
Several basic flood patterns will be presented in this
section.

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Water Flooding A-Z

Water Flooding A-Z

Peripheral Flood

Peripheral or Repeating Pattern Flood

Consists of injecting water into wells along the edge of

the reservoir
Generally yields maximum oil recovery with minimum
of produced water
Due to small number of injection wells in peripheral
flood, recovery response will occur after a long time
delay.

A narrow, long reservoir

may perform better if
waterflooded from end to end. This is especially true
for a dipping reservoir where gravity segregation can
be used to assist in the displacement.
A large surface area reservoir is often more suited to a
regular spaced repeating geometric pattern of
injection and production wells.

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Water Flooding A-Z

Peripheral Flood

Waterflood Patterns

If peripheral waterflood is implemented, when flood

front from injection wells breaks through at production
wells, these wells are often converted to injection
wells.
Oil will continue to be produced from wells ahead of
front and overall water rates are kept as low as
possible.
A reservoir that pinches out along edges with low
permeability and thus low productivity would not be a
good edge drive reservoir since the injectors would
have low injectivity resulting in poor waterflood
performance.

Peripheral (At the edge or periphery of the reservoir)

Advantages:
displacement
reservoir.

Better
efficiency,

areal sweep, increase

for partial water drive

Disadvantage: The response to the water injection is

limited to the producers, not respond quickly

Uses: in smaller reservoirs or combination with pattern

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Water Flooding A-Z

Waterflood Patterns

Repeating Pattern Flood

Pattern (irregular and regular repeating patterns)

Repeating pattern floods use injection-production well
pattern to cover all or part of reservoir.
This pattern is an element of symmetry and has,
theoretically, no flow boundaries.
The pattern can be studied to determine its
performance during waterflooding and this information
is used to predict field wide waterflood performance.

Injector/Producer Ratio

Direct & Staggered Line Drive: Ratio is 1/1

4-spot, 5-spot, 7-spot and 9-spot patterns:

injector/producer ratio and concept

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Water Flooding A-Z

Repeating Pattern Flood

Basic Flood Patterns

Number of injectors in field developed suing repeating

patterns is greater than for peripheral development
plan.
As a result, the response time is shorter due to
increased injection capacity.
Increase injection capacity also results in increased
production capacity.

Repeatable flood patterns

Line drive
4-spot
5-spot
7-spot
9-spot

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Water Flooding A-Z

Water Flooding A-Z

Peripheral Flooding
Basic Flood Pattern Guidelines

Injectors
Producers

Patterns are often referred to as regular or inverted

Regular patterns have only one production well per
pattern
Inverted patterns have only one injection well per
pattern

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Water Flooding A-Z

Optimum water flood pattern

Optimum Water Flood Pattern

Peripheral flood
All injection wells are located at or below the oil water
contact, while all producers are located structurally
higher locations.

Pattern floods
Wells are drilled to form a repeating pattern. Many
patterns have been used, but the 5-spot and 9-spot
patterns are the most popular.

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Water Flooding A-Z

Line Drive Patterns

5-Spot Pattern
Injection well

Injection
Well

Production
well

Production
Well
No-flow
Boundary

Direct Drive

No-flow
boundary

Staggered Drive
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1 : 1 injector-to-producer ratio
Most common pattern
Uniform well spacing
High sweep efficiency
Regular & inverted 5-spot are identical
Special case of a staggered line drive
with square drilling pattern
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Water Flooding A-Z

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Water Flooding A-Z

7-Spot Pattern

9-Spot Pattern
Injection
Well

Injection
Well

Production
Well

Production
Well

No-flow
Boundary

No-flow
Boundary
Normal

Normal
Nine - Spot

Inverted

Not commonly used due to irregular spacing

If used, inverted pattern preferred - has more production than injection wells
May be used for pilot floods in normal pattern form because it results in good
control of flow during a test flood

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Inverted
Nine - Spot

Second most common pattern used in waterflooding

In inverted patterns, the difference in distance of the corner wells and the side wells from the
injector causes difficulties with breakthrough as corner wells see less fluid from the injector.
Inverted pattern preferred - more production than injection wells
Uniform well spacing developed from square drilling pattern
Good sweep
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5-Spot

Direct Line Drive

4-S pot

Water Flooding A-Z

Factors in Pattern Selection

9-Spot

7-S pot

Current well locations

Fracture azimuths
Permeability anisotropy
Field geometry
Injectivity
Infill drilling plans
Casing integrity of conversion injection candidates
Adjacent lease considerations

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Water Flooding A-Z

Factors Affecting Pattern Selection

Factors Affecting Pattern Selection

Following criteria, presented by Craig, are commonly

used.
Provide desired oil production rate
Provide sufficient water injection capacity to yield
desired oil production rate
Maximize oil recovery with minimum water
production

Following criteria, presented by Craig, are commonly

used.
Take advantage of reservoir non-uniformities such
as fractures, permeability trends, dip, etc.
Be compatible with existing well pattern and
require a minimum of new wells
Be compatible with flooding operations on adjacent
leases

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Water Flooding A-Z

Factors Affecting Pattern Selection

Factors Affecting Pattern Selection

Comparison of the economics of possible flooding

schemes is used to determine final selection of
spacing, pattern type and orientation of the pattern.
Waterflooding is a secondary recovery process.
Pattern selection is often controlled by well locations
that result from primary field development. The cost
of drilling new wells frequently dictates that existing
wells be used and that few if any additional wells be
drilled.

In order to prevent early breakthrough due to water

channeling from injection to production wells, the line
connecting adjacent injectors should be made parallel
to the direction of maximum permeability or fracture
trend.

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Factors Affecting Pattern Selection

Factors Affecting Pattern Selection

Physical Restrictions:
Legal Considerations:

Geographical
Directional Permeability
Directional Fractures
Existing Wells
Reservoir Geometry

Minimum Spacing
Adjacent Leases

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Water Flooding A-Z

Factors Affecting Pattern Selection

Factors Affecting Pattern Selection

Process Considerations:
Economic Considerations:

Injection Rate
Response Time
Production Rate
Mobility Ratio
Flood Life

Cost Revenue
Rate of Return

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Water Flooding A-Z

Design Aspects
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

Design Aspects
8. Optimum Well Pattern
9. Injection Philosophy
10.Injection Well Requirement
11.A Pilot Project
12.Surface Facilities
13.Generalized Response to a Typical WF

Design Process
(Quality- Compatibility-Recycling of Produced Water)
Water Injection Rate Volume Requirements
Optimum Timing
Optimum Pressure Level
Fluid Saturation at Start of WF
Residual Oil Saturation at End of WF

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Water Flooding A-Z

Conceptual Planning

Conceptual Planning

Data gathering
Location of the field (offshore, onshore)
Field terrain and accessibility
Shape of the reservoir
Volumes of in place hydrocarbons
i- Initially and at present.
ii- Oil, gas and water saturations and their
distributions

Reservoir characterization
i- Rock and fluid properties
ii- Vertical and areal variations
iii- Zonal continuity, fractures and faults
iv- Formation dip
v- directional permeability
vi- Gas cap & aquifer: size and connectivity

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1- Conceptual Planning

2- Preliminary Designs

Previous reservoir development

i- Number and type of wells.
ii- Well productivity and completions

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iii- Location of wells

iv- Gathering and separation facilities
v- Production practices natural flow or lift.
vi- Production history oil, gas and water.
vii- Problems reservoir, environment and well related.
viii- Studies development and economics related
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These designs will provide most of the following

information:
Phase or full development
Project life
Initial oil rate (decline rate considerations)
Production rate forecasts
Water injection rate
Waterflood lay-out and well spacing
Sources of injection water
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Water Flooding A-Z

2- Preliminary Designs
89101113141516-

Disposal of produced water

Preliminary facilities design
CAPEX and OPEX estimates
Economic analysis
Risk and mitigation plans
Reservoir / well monitoring programs
Logistics and infra structure
Additional data requirement

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