Reserves Augmentation by Designing an Optimum Waterflood Pattern with Black Oil Simulator

Abstract

In petroleum production system, reservoir pressure is considered to be main source of hydrocarbon production from reservoir to the surface. With passage of producing time; fluids can only be lifted at the economic rates from subsurface to the surface by some secondary recovery method which sweeps remaining oil from the reservoir to improve its overall recovery. Waterflooding is the dominant fluid injection technique and is frequently applied worldwide secondary recovery process, which involves water injection in the oil formation under high pressure through an injection well to enhance oil recovery of the well(s) of interest. Selection of optimum number of wells and their optimum location is a whip hand to plan and implement a successful waterflooding operation on a depleted reservoir to prevent the wastage of substantial capital investment. This involves efficacious and judicious selection of waterflooding pattern to augment the reserves. This study emphasizes on importance and effect of efficiently selecting an optimum waterflood pattern for primary production depleted reservoir “W” by simulating its performance for regular 5-spot & 9-spot patterns to acquire, best technical & economic match for subject reservoir for a particular injectivity, reservoir areal heterogeneity, direction of formation fractures, existing production wells and their spacing etc. Where different opportunities involving a particular measurement or calculation are involved, there is no substitute for thinking out the best solution to the problem. The mistakes should be made on paper where an eraser can remove them, not in the field where someone must live with it.