Study the Effect of Connectivity between Two Wells on Secondary Recovery Efficiency Using Percolation Approach

Abstract

Estimating available hydrocarbon to be produced during secondary oil recovery is an ongoing activity in field development. The primary plan is normally scheduled during early stage of field’s life through master development plan studies. During this period, due to the lake of certain data, estimation of the field efficiency is usually based on rules of thumb and not detailed field characterization. Hence, there is a great motivation to produce simpler physically-based methodologies. The minimum necessity inputs of percolation approach make it a useful tool for foration performance prediction. This approach enables us to attain a better assessment of the efficiency of secondary recovery methods at early production time. The main contribution of this study is to establish a continuum percolation model based on Monte Carlo simulation that can estimate the connectivity of good sands between two wells. In the classical percolation, the connectivity is considered between two lines and two faces of the system in 2- and 3-D; whereas, hydrocarbon production is achieved through wells with the shape of lines (e.g., vertical, horizontal, or deviated wells). In addition, the results showed that not implementation of the correct geometry of wells can alter the estimated results from the percolation approach.