A New Study of China's Advanced Water Injection Technology for Low-Permeability Reservoirs

Abstract

China has large volumes of low-permeability reservoirs, distributed widely in the Ordos, Karamay and Songliao basins. In the recent decade, a new technology called advanced water injection (AWI), which is to inject water into formation to increase or maintain pressure for 3 to 6 months before oil production, has been applied to efficiently develop low-permeability reservoirs. This paper studies mechanisms and applications of AWI in China. Especially, its resent application in Xifeng oilfield has been described in detail. Most importantly, this paper proposes a simple equation to calculate optimal injected volume of water and pressure rise.