Utility and Reliability of Cemented Resistivity Arrays in Monitoring Waterflood of the Mansfield Sandstone, Indiana, USA

Abstract

Abstract In 1999 an oilfield experiment was initiated to test the application of electrical measurement technologies to permanent reservoir monitoring. The principal objective of the experiment was to demonstrate the feasibility of monitoring water movement between an injection and observation well. This paper describes the utility of the data provided by the resistivity arrays and discusses data quality and reliability of the measurements. Two wells were drilled into the Mansfield sandstone reservoir in Indiana. The D-8 injector well was located in the center of four development wells. The OB-1 monitoring well was offset 233 ft to the southwest in a location midway between the D-8 injector and the No. 3 production well. The injector was instrumented with a 16-electrode resistivity array that was run on the outside of insulated casing and cemented into the annulus of the well. A similar array was cemented into the annulus of the monitoring well. In March, the D-8 well was perforated and acidized. A surface gauge was used to monitor injection rates and pressures. Initially, injection proceeded at a rate of about 20 B/D, increasing to 100 B/D after fracture stimulation. The D-8 array records responses to perforation, acidization, swabbing, fracturing, and injection. It clearly distinguishes the movement of the waterfront in different zones. The data show good signal-to-noise ratio and high reciprocity. The OB-1 electrical array clearly indicates early water breakthrough via an induced fracture. The arrays show no degradation of signal over the 17-month duration of the experiment. The experiment has demonstrated the viability of using permanently installed resistivity arrays to monitor movement of oil-water contacts that are some tens of feet away from the wellbore. Results demonstrate the feasibility of using such arrays to monitor oil-water contact movements remote from injection, monitoring, and production wells.