A Practical Model for Water Injection Evaluation and Optimization in Typical Offshore Reservoirs Considering Formation Heterogeneity Based on Experimental Study

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shijun Huang ◽  
Yuanrui Zhu ◽  
Shichao Chai ◽  
Guanyang Ding ◽  
Yicheng Xin ◽  
...  

Abstract A major concern with water injection in offshore oil reservoir is the water breakthrough. The formation heterogeneity is the main reason for it. In order to evaluate the water injection efficiency, a visualized 2-D experiment was carried out to obtain the distribution law of injected water and the variation of injection parameters in homogeneous and heterogeneous formation. In addition, a coupled wellbore/reservoir model was established by applying microelement method, superposition principle and imaging. This model considers the formation heterogeneity and pressure drop caused by wellbore friction. The visualized 2-D sand filling displacement experiment indicates that the injection rate at the horizontal well heel is greater than that at the toe and the injection front is more irregular in heterogeneous formation. The injection rate and injection pressure distribution along the horizontal well are obtained analytically based on the proposed model, the results show that the injection rate at the two sides of the wellbore is much higher than that in the middle when the formation is homogeneous and the wellbore is infinite-conductive. In this case, the injection rate curve along horizontal well shows a "U" shaped distribution. When a finite-conductive horizontal wellbore is considered, the injection rate at the heel of the wellbore is higher than that of the toe, although the injection rate curve along horizontal well also exhibits a deformed "U" shape distribution. For the formation heterogeneities along the horizontal wellbore, the injection rate distribution curve is not continuous anymore, but a deformed "U" shape is also observed for each wellbore segment. At last, the established model was applied to an ultra-heterogeneous offshore reservoir. It is concluded that the profile control effect of typical well is obvious. The results of this study are of great significance for the calculation of the injection rate profile and improving the water injection efficiency.

2013 ◽  
Vol 716 ◽  
pp. 413-417 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lei Li ◽  
Xue Mei Gao ◽  
Guang Lun Lei ◽  
Xiao Dong Wei

In order to solve the deep profile control problem and improve oil recovery of the oilfield, a novel profile control agent pore-scale polymer elastic microspheres (PSPEMs) was synthesized. The swelling property of PSPEMs in aqueous solution was analyzed. Core flow test and double-tube sand pack models were used for studying profile control and flooding performance of PSPEMs in oil formation. The results show that PSPEMs have good swelling property in aqueous solution with high salinity, high temperature and high pressure. Fig 5 and Fig 6 show that PSPEMs are better than polyacrylamide polymer on profile control. Table 1 indicates PSPEMs can improve water injection profile of heterogeneous formation effectively and plug the high permeable layer first. The higher the concentration of PSPEMs, the shorter the time it spends to realize profile control. The results also confirm that use proper concentration of PSPEMs, the profile control efficiency can increase enormously.


SPE Journal ◽  
2022 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Lishan Yuan ◽  
Fujian Zhou ◽  
Minghui Li ◽  
Xuda Yang ◽  
Jiaqi Cheng ◽  
...  

Summary Temporary plugging and diverting fracturing of the horizontal well is the primary option to promote production for tight reservoirs. Successful entry of diverters into the perforation is the basis and prerequisite for effective plugging. However, the transport behavior of the diverter during multicluster fracturing remains unclear. In this paper, we build a large-scale diverter transport experimental system, capable of conducting experiments with large flow rates and high pressures. The concerned factors include the injection rate, perforation flow ratio (PFRO), fluid viscosity, and perforation angle. The results show that the diverter transport effect is significantly different because of different flow distribution among perforations. Also, the diverter can enter the perforation only when the flow rate of the perforation reaches a certain value. In addition, the minimum critical PFRO has an “oblique L-shaped” relationship with the injection rate. Although it is difficult for the diverter to enter the perforation on the high side of the horizontal wellbore, increasing the viscosity of the carrying fluid or using a multidensity mixed diverter can effectively solve this problem. Furthermore, the field case shows that the experimentally obtained diverter transport pattern can be applied to the field to predict the location of the diverter and improve the temporary plugging effect. The findings of this work lay a theoretical foundation for subsequent temporary plugging and diverting fracturing control.


Geofluids ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Wei Liu ◽  
Hui Zhao ◽  
Xun Zhong ◽  
Guanglong Sheng ◽  
Meilong Fu ◽  
...  

Establishing reservoir numerical simulation and profile control optimization methods considering the mechanism of profile control has always been a difficult research problem at home and abroad. In this paper, firstly, a physics-based data-driven model was established on daily production data of injection and production wells following the principle of material balance. Key parameters including transmissibility, control pore volume, water injection allocation factors, and injection efficiency are derived directly from history matched model, and the dominated flow channels could be quantitatively identified. Then, combined with the evaluation results of the plugging ability of the plugging agent, imaginary well nodes are added to the existing interwell relationship to characterize the heterogeneity of interwell-specific parameters. This process performs flow processing along the interwell control units, forming a new and rapid method for simulation and prediction. Lastly, based on the calculated interwell transmissibility, water injection efficiency, and allocation factors, injection wells with low water injection efficiency can be preferentially selected as profile control wells. In addition, taking the production rates, injection rates, and the amount of plugging agent as optimization variables, we established an optimal control mathematical model and realized the parameter optimization method of the profile control. We demonstrated the results of one conceptual model and two indoor experiments to verify the feasibility of the proposed method and completed two actual field applications. Model validation and actual field application show that the proposed method successfully eliminates the complicated geological modeling procedure and the tedious calculation process associated with the profile control treatment in traditional numerical simulation methods. The calculation speed improves tens or hundreds of times, and water channeling paths are accurately identified. Most importantly, this method realizes the overall decision-making of profile control well selection, dynamic production prediction, and parameter optimization of profile control measures quickly and accurately by mainly using the daily production data of wells. The findings of this study can help for better understanding of the optimization design and application of on-site profile control schemes in large-scale oilfields.


SPE Journal ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yongzan Liu ◽  
Lijun Liu ◽  
Juliana Y. Leung ◽  
Kan Wu ◽  
George Moridis

Summary Unconventional tight reservoirs that are typically characterized by low permeability and low porosity have contributed significantly to the global hydrocarbon production in recent years. Although hydraulic fracturing, along with horizontal well drilling, enables the economic development of such reservoirs, the production rate often declines sharply and results in low primary hydrocarbon recovery. The application of enhanced-oil-recovery (EOR) techniques in tight reservoirs has received much interest. In this study, the feasibility and efficiency of interfracture water injection to enhance oil recovery in multistage fractured tight oil reservoirs are analyzed through an efficient coupled flow/geomechanics model with an embedded discrete-fracture model (EDFM). A combined finite-volume/finite-element scheme is used to discretize the governing equations for flow and geomechanics, and the coupled problem is solved sequentially using a fixed-stress splitting algorithm. A basic numerical model consisting of a 15-stage fractured horizontal well is constructed using the petrophysical and geomechanical properties of a tight oil formation in Ordos Basin, China. Fractures indexed with even numbers are switched into injecting fractures when the production rate has dropped to less than a certain threshold. The improvement of oil recovery is analyzed by comparing the production profiles with and without water injection. In this coupled model, the fracture closure/opening during production/injection is considered according to the constitutive relations between fracture aperture and effective normal stress acting on the fracture faces. The poromechanical response of matrix is modeled by the Biot (1941) theory. The effects of fracture spacing, injection rate, and the presence of a natural-fracture network on oil-recovery enhancement are discussed through sensitivity analysis. The main mechanisms of interfracture water injection for enhancing oil recovery are waterflooding and reservoir-pressure maintenance. Small fracture spacing tends to reduce the oil recovery because of fracture interference and a limited drainage area; therefore, the primary depletion stage is shortened as the fracture spacing is reduced. The influence of interfracture water injection is more pronounced with smaller fracture spacing because the pressure-transient responses near the producing fractures are more dramatic considering the close proximity between the injecting fracture and the producing fracture. Although a higher injection rate results in higher oil recovery, the injectivity in low-permeability reservoirs limits the maximum-allowable injection rate. When secondary (natural)-fracture networks are considered, neighboring hydraulic fractures can be connected to one another via the secondary fractures, particularly if the interfracture spacing is small. Water can break through in the producing fractures quickly, which could also lead to high water cut and suboptimal oil-recovery performance. This study tests the feasibility and efficiency of interfracture injection to enhance tight oil recovery. The results indicate that interfracture injection can be a promising EOR technique for tight oil reservoirs, which sheds lights on future completion strategies and production design in tight reservoirs.


2016 ◽  
Vol 2016 ◽  
pp. 1-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chengfeng Ren ◽  
Junjian Li ◽  
Yiqiang Li ◽  
Jingshu Yuan ◽  
Yanqiang Xi ◽  
...  

Modified sulfonated asphalt particles have a bright application prospect of the profile control of thick reservoirs due to the low cost, extensive sources, and good compatibility with reservoir. Nevertheless, the matching relationship between asphalt particles and reservoir pore has seldom been investigated till now. Oversized particles always block the near-wellbore area, which causes high injection pressures, while undersized particles cannot plug large pores. We designed a core for this experiment which has a high permeability zone in front of it and many pressure measuring points. We could quantitatively assess the matching relationship by measuring the on-way resistance coefficient, residual resistance factor, and relative change of permeability of man-made cores after injecting asphalt. Experimental results indicate that asphalt particles with sizes of 0.02 mm, 0.02–0.06 mm, and 0.08–0.1 mm match with reservoir permeability of 500 mD, 1000 mD, and 2000 mD, respectively. Undersized or oversized particles can reduce the conformance control effect, and the concentration of asphalt particles in the injectant can limit their migration ability. When the concentration of asphalt particles increases to 3000 mg/L, accumulations of asphalt particles can be caused in the formation, in which a scheme with asphalt particles alternative water injection is proposed to avoid the accumulation.


2021 ◽  
pp. 014459872110204
Author(s):  
Wan Cheng ◽  
Chunhua Lu ◽  
Guanxiong Feng ◽  
Bo Xiao

Multistaged temporary plugging fracturing in horizontal wells is an emerging technology to promote uniform fracture propagation in tight reservoirs by injecting ball sealers to plug higher-flux perforations. The seating mechanism and transportation of ball sealers remain poorly understood. In this paper, the sensitivities of the ball sealer density, casing injection rate and perforation angle to the seating behaviors are studied. In a vertical wellbore section, a ball sealer accelerates very fast at the beginning of the dropping and reaches a stable state within a few seconds. The terminal velocity of a non-buoyant ball is greater than the fluid velocity, while the terminal velocity of a buoyant ball is less than the fluid velocity. In the horizontal wellbore section, the terminal velocity of a non-buoyant or buoyant ball is less than the fracturing fluid flowing velocity. The ball sealer density is a more critical parameter than the casing injection rate when a ball sealer diverts to a perforation hole. The casing injection rate is a more critical parameter than the ball sealer density when a ball sealer seats on a perforation hole. A buoyant ball sealer associated with a high injection rate of fracturing fluid is highly recommended to improve the seating efficiency.


Author(s):  
Talal Ous ◽  
Elvedin Mujic ◽  
Nikola Stosic

Water injection in twin-screw compressors was examined in order to develop effective humidification and cooling schemes for fuel cell stacks as well as cooling for compressors. The temperature and the relative humidity of the air at suction and exhaust of the compressor were monitored under constant pressure and water injection rate and at variable compressor operating speeds. The experimental results showed that the relative humidity of the outlet air was increased by the water injection. The injection tends to have more effect on humidity at low operating speeds/mass flow rates. Further humidification can be achieved at higher speeds as a higher evaporation rate becomes available. It was also found that the rate of power produced by the fuel cell stack was higher than the rate used to run the compressor for the same amount of air supplied. The efficiency of the balance of plant was, therefore, higher when more air is delivered to the stack. However, this increase in the air supply needs additional subsystems for further humidification/cooling of the balance-of-plant system.


1965 ◽  
Vol 5 (02) ◽  
pp. 131-140 ◽  
Author(s):  
K.P. Fournier

Abstract This report describes work on the problem of predicting oil recovery from a reservoir into which water is injected at a temperature higher than the reservoir temperature, taking into account effects of viscosity-ratio reduction, heat loss and thermal expansion. It includes the derivation of the equations involved, the finite difference equations used to solve the partial differential equation which models the system, and the results obtained using the IBM 1620 and 7090–1401 computers. Figures and tables show present results of this study of recovery as a function of reservoir thickness and injection rate. For a possible reservoir hot water flood in which 1,000 BWPD at 250F are injected, an additional 5 per cent recovery of oil in place in a swept 1,000-ft-radius reservoir is predicted after injection of one pore volume of water. INTRODUCTION The problem of predicting oil recovery from the injection of hot water has been discussed by several researchers.1–6,19 In no case has the problem of predicting heat losses been rigorously incorporated into the recovery and displacement calculation problem. Willman et al. describe an approximate method of such treatment.1 The calculation of heat losses in a reservoir and the corresponding temperature distribution while injecting a hot fluid has been attempted by several authors.7,8 In this report a method is presented to numerically predict the oil displacement by hot water in a radial system, taking into account the heat losses to adjacent strata, changes in viscosity ratio with temperature and the thermal-expansion effect for both oil and water. DERIVATION OF BASIC EQUATIONS We start with the familiar Buckley-Leverett9 equation for a radial system:*Equation 1 This can be written in the formEquation 2 This is sometimes referred to as the Lagrangian form of the displacement equation.


Author(s):  
Pradyumna Challa ◽  
James Hinebaugh ◽  
A. Bazylak

In this paper, through-plane liquid water distribution is analyzed for two polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) gas diffusion layers (GDLs). The experiments were conducted in an ex situ flow field apparatus with 1 mm square channels at two distinct flow rates to mimic water production rates of 0.2 and 1.5 A/cm2 in a PEMFC. Synchrotron radiography, which involves high intensity monochromatic X-ray beams, was used to obtain images with a spatial and temporal resolution of 20–25 μm and 0.9 s, respectively. Freudenberg H2315 I6 exhibited significantly higher amounts of water than Toray TGP-H-090 at the instance of breakthrough, where breakthrough describes the event in which liquid water reaches the flow fields. While Freudenberg H2315 I6 exhibited a significant overall decrease in liquid water content throughout the GDL shortly after breakthrough, Toray TGP-H-090 appeared to retain breakthrough water-levels post-breakthrough. It was also observed that the amount of liquid water content in Toray TGP-H-090 (10%.wt PTFE) decreased significantly when the liquid water injection rate increased from 1 μL/min to 8 μL/min.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
A V Ogbamikhumi ◽  
E S Adewole

Abstract Dimensionless pressure gradients and dimensionless pressure derivatives characteristics are studied for horizontal and vertical wells completed within a pair of no-flow boundaries inclined at a general angle ‘θ’. Infinite-acting flow solution of each well is utilized. Image distances as a result of the inclinations are considered. The superposition principle is further utilized to calculate total pressure drop due to flow from both object and image wells. Characteristic dimensionless flow pressure gradients and pressure derivatives for the wells are finally determined. The number of images formed due to the inclination and dimensionless well design affect the dimensionless pressure gradients and their derivatives. For n images, shortly after very early time for each inclination, dimensionless pressure gradients of 1.151(N+1)/LD for the horizontal well and 1.151(N+1) for vertical well are observed. Dimensionless pressure derivative of (N+1)/2LD are observed for central and off-centered horizontal well locations, and (N+1)/2 for vertical well are observed. Central well locations do not affect horizontal well productivity for all the inclinations. The magnitudes of dimensionless pressure drop and dimensionless pressure derivatives are maximum at the farthest image distances, and are unaffected by well stand-off for the horizontal well.


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