Estimating transition time from deep filtration of particles to external cake during produced water re-injection and disposal

Abstract

Water production management from oil and gas fields is a big challenge for petroleum industry. Re-injection and disposal of produced water into subterranean formations/oil reservoirs is considered as an environmentally-friendly solution for managing massive water production in petroleum industry. Formation damage resulted from plugging by dispersed particles in the injected water is one of the main concerns in waterflood/disposal projects that causes rapid permeability impairment. Main mechanisms for permeability decline due to injection of low-quality water are deep filtration of dispersed particles into the porous rocks and external filter cake formation on the injection surface. In this article, an empirical correlation is developed for prediction of transition time from deep bed filtration to external cake formation based on available experimental data points from the literature. The proposed correlation includes measurable parameters such as solid particle size to pore size ratio (jamming ratio) and injection concentration of suspended particles which was ignored in previous studies. The proposed correlation is evaluated with water injection data of 15 wells with good agreement. The developed correlation can be used for design and planning of operations with solid in liquid dispersion including drilling fluid, low-quality water flooding, and waste water disposal into subterranean formations.