Dr. Ir. Dedy Kristanto, M.

Sc

WATERFLOODING
What is Waterflooding?

Injection Water Separation and Production Well

Well Injection Storage Facilities
Pump

2 1

1 Oil Zone 2 Injection Water

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What is Waterflooding?
Description
Most widely used post-primary recovery method
Water injected in patterns or along periphery of reservoir
Mechanisms That Improve Recovery Efficiency
Water drive
Limitations
High oil viscosities / higher (more adverse) mobility ratios
Heterogeneity such as stratification, permeability contrast,
and fracturing reduce sweep efficiency
Challenges
Poor compatibility between injected water and reservoir
may cause formation damage
Subsurface fluid control to divert injected water and shut
off undesirable produced fluids
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Waterflood Mechanisms

Injector Producer

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Waterflood Mechanisms

Injector Producer

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Waterflood Mechanisms

Injector Producer

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Waterflood Mechanisms

Injector Producer

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Waterflood Mechanisms

Injector Producer

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Waterflood Mechanisms

Injector Producer

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Waterflood Mechanisms

Injector Producer

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Waterflood Mechanisms

Injector Producer

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Flood Pattern Requirements
The pattern chosen for any injection project should:
1. Provide optimum oil production capacity
2. Provide sufficient injection capacity to support oil
production
3. Maximize oil recovery with minimum of water
production
4. Use reservoir heterogeneity to best advantage and
avoid factors which could reduce sweep
efficiency
5. Use existing wells to minimize number of new wells
required
6. Be compatible with nearby operations
 Choose the best pattern based on first four characteristics and modify
chosen pattern to conform to fifth & sixth - goal should be efficiently
processing reservoir, not minimizing cost to install waterflood
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Waterflood Pattern Characteristics

Patterns are generally classified as normal or

inverted
- In normal waterflood patterns, the producing well is in the
center of the pattern
- Inverted patterns have the injection well in the pattern
center
Ratio of Required
Pattern Producers to Drilling Pattern
Injectors

4-Spot 2:1 Triangular

Skewed 4-Spot 2:1 Square
5-Spot 1:1 Square
7-Spot 1:2 Triangular
Inverted 7-Spot 2:1 Triangular
9-Spot 1:3 Square
Inverted 9-Spot 3:1 Square
Direct Line Drive 1:1 Rectangle
Staggered Line Drive 1:1 Offset lines
of wells

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Line Drive Patterns

a a

d
d

Direct Line Drive Staggered Line Drive

Efficiency of line drive patterns is generally high - it

increases as distance between the producing row
and injector row (d) increases, and distance between
adjacent producers (a) decreases
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5-Spot Pattern
A special case of the staggered
line drive where d/a ratio is 0.5
Most common pattern resulting
from primary well spacing
Drilling pattern is square
Other pattern configurations
generated by simply rearranging a
position of injectors & producers
flexible d

Number of producers = number of

injectors
Highly conductive pattern since Normal 5-Spot Pattern
shortest flow path is a straight
line between injector & producer-
provides good sweep behavior

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7-Spot Pattern

Normal 7-Spot Inverted 7-Spot

(4-Spot)

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9-Spot Pattern

Normal 9-Spot Inverted 9-Spot

 Major advantage of the 9-spot is the flexibility

- Some other patterns are very difficult, and expensive to
convert, and may require extensive infill drilling
- The inverted 9-spot can be revised to result in a 1:1
injector-producer ratio patter, either 5-spot or line drive,
with minimum effort DK - 17 -
Peripheral and Line Floods

In contrast to using repetitive patterns, a

peripheral flood utilizes edge wells along reservoir
boundary as injectors
If a single line of wells along one side, or down the
middle of a field is used, it is called a line flood

Peripheral Flood

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Selecting a Waterflood Pattern

Factors Influencing Selection of Waterflood Pattern:

Well spacing often dictates selection of waterflood
pattern. Proper well spacing planning is important:
- With regular well spacing, efficient pattern
waterflooding is possible
- Once field is fully developed, pattern options
become somewhat fixed
Existing well pattern
- Pick patterns to minimize drilling infill wells
Injection & production objectives
- Choose pattern which provides enough injectors
to provide adequate injection capacity to support
anticipated withdrawals from reservoir
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Selecting a Waterflood Pattern
Factors Influencing Selection of Waterflood Pattern:
Geology of reservoir
- Significant heterogeneities such as fractures or
permeability trends should be major factors
- Prevent adjacent injectors & producers from lying
along a line parallel to direction of maximum
permeability or fracture orientation
- Optimum pattern where line connecting adjacent
injectors is parallel to direction of permeability or
fracture trend
If possible, a field should be developed using a pattern
ultimately suitable for subsequent waterflooding/EOR
operations
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Selecting Wells and Spacing

Irregular Patterns
Modify pattern as needed to fit conditions of
specific field
The existing drilling pattern may be highly irregular
& may tempt engineer to abandon use of a regular
waterflood pattern - don’t be tempted
- Not necessary for all patterns to be perfectly
shaped or have exact well count to obtain the
benefits of a pattern waterflood
- A regular pattern arrangement can be
approximated to create an appropriate ratio of
producers to injectors by strategically locating
injectors & infill wells
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Selecting Wells and Spacing

Irregular Shaped
5-spot Development

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Selecting a Waterflood Pattern

Calculating sweep
efficiency using a
reservoir simulator
is sometimes the
most practical
method, especially
when patterns do
not conform to the
exact geometry 5
used in the 9
Base
published charts
Also practical
when directional
permeability exists
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Mobility Ratio
Favorable mobility ratios (M<1) produce higher
vertical sweep efficiencies

- Injectivity into high permeability zones will

decrease as flood front advances - retards
injection in high injectivity zones
For unfavorable mobility ratios (M>1)

- Injectivity in the high injection zones increases as

waterflooding occurs

- This causes even earlier water breakthrough &

decreases vertical sweep efficiency

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Mobility Ratio
For mobility ratios less than 1.0, the relative
injectivity will decrease as flood front advances
For mobility ratios greater than 1.0, the relative
injectivity will increase

Relative
Injectivity
with
Various
Mobility
Ratios

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Gravity Segregation

Effects of gravity segregation:

- Reduces sweep efficiency
- Requires vertical permeability
- Water flows under oil
- Rate effect minimal
Oil in unswept
reservoir

Injected water

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Reservoir Heterogeneities
Understand directional permeability & vertical
fractures to achieve high sweep efficiencies &
successful waterflooding
- If design for directional trends, a very high
sweep efficiency can occur
- If not, producing wells can water out very rapidly,
& waterflood can fail
 Directional permeability trends can be predicted by
regional geological studies, directionally oriented
cores & analogy to offset fields
Infill drilling is common in helping to improve
reservoir recovery

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Reservoir Heterogeneities

Reservoir heterogeneities which can have impact

on waterflood recovery:
- Pay discontinuities/pinchouts
- Faults
- Permeability variations/anisotropy
- Porosity variations
- Horizontal fractures
- Vertical fractures
- Vertical flow barriers (shales, etc.)
- Formation dip

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Vertical Sweep Efficiency
 Fraction of injection going into
each zone is proportional to
permeability thickness
Injection Production - 100-md zone would take 1/2
Water front at breakthrough
the water
- 50-md zone would take 3/8
10md, 5 ft of the water
- 10-md zone would take 1/8
50md, 3ft  Since velocities in each zone
would be somewhat
100md, 2 ft proportional to permeability,
when the 100-md zone
experienced water
Schematic of Stratified Reservoir breakthrough, the 50-md zone
would be only 50 % swept &
the 10-md zone would be only
10 % swept
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Vertical Sweep Efficiency

Stratification behavior such as this exists, even in

reservoirs with little evidence of vertical
stratification
- This stratification reduces vertical sweep
efficiency
- In many stratified reservoirs, water never
completely sweeps the tighter zones before
abandonment. This results in a reduced value of
EI because moveable oil is left unrecovered. The
abandonment is caused by an uneconomical
oilcut

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Permeability Variation
Layer Permeability Porosity Cumulative Cumulative
Number md % md-ft porosity-ft
1 252.8 15.9 253 16
2 116.0 13.6 369 30
3 83.1 13.8 452 43
4 65.4 13.4 517 57
5 51.8 13.8 569 71
6 43.0 12.6 612 83
7 36.3 11.9 648 95
8 31.5 11.1 680 106
9 27.8 12.3 708 118
10 21.2 10.3 729 129
11 18.9 11.1 748 140
12 17.3 11.6 765 151
13 15.8 11.2 781 163
14 14.2 11.0 795 174
15 13.0 11.4 808 185

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Permeability Variation

The Lorenz coefficient is calculated using the

areas designated in the figure below as:
area ABCA
Lorenz Coefficien t =
area ADCA
The value of the Lorenz
coefficient ranges from
zero to 1. A uniform
permeability reservoir will
have a coefficient of 0. A
reservoir with a high
permeability variation will
have a coefficient of 0.9 or
greater
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Dykstra-Parsons Method
Basic procedure for determining the permeability variation using
Dykstra-Parsons method:
1. Divide the permeability samples into layers of equal
thickness, usually 1 foot
2. Arrange the permeability data in decreasing order
3. Calculate for each sample the percentage of samples that
have a greater permeability & express this number as
"percent greater than”
4. Plot data on log-probability paper with permeability on the
log scale & "percent greater than" on the probability scale
5. From the best straight line fit of the data, determine the
permeability at 84.1 % probability and 50 percent probability.
The best fit straight line should be weighted toward the
middle points
-
6. Compute the permeability variation, V, as: V = k50 k84.1
k50
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Dykstra-Parsons Method
The value of V is a quantitative indicator of the
degree of reservoir heterogeneity
- A value of zero indicates a homogeneous
system
- Increasing
degrees of
heterogeneity
Dykstra-
will have higher Parsons
values of V Probability
Plot

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Dykstra-Parsons Method
Dykstra-Parsons Waterflood Recovery Prediction
WC = 96.2%
WC = 50%
ER= (1- 0.52Sw ) =
0.01
ER= (1-Sw ) = 0.01

WC = 83.3% WC = 99.0%
ER= (1- 0.72Sw ) =
0.01

ER= (1- 0.40Sw ) = 0.5

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What Is Production / Injection Control?

Mechanical Chemical Completions Separation Other

Cement Gelled Foam Stimulation Downhole Oil / Water Microbial EOR

Separators
Liners In-Depth Gel Dual String
Production / - Conventional
Lignosulfonate High- Injection
Mechanical Temperature Gel - Reverse coning
Isolation Recompletions
Relative
Packers Permeability Selective Injection
Modifiers Equipment
Resin Slimhole
Completions
Ringing Gel

The goal of production / injection control methods

is to improve reservoir recovery efficiency by:

- Opening up unproductive intervals

- Shutting off swept intervals

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What Is Production / Injection Control?

Primarily impact vertical sweep efficiency, because

they can be applied to one or more flow unit layers
Primarily applicable in the near wellbore area of
specific wells
Several methods may affect areal sweep efficiency,
but are limited because of the significant cost to
apply them extensively through a large, complex
reservoir
Several of these methods may apply to either
producers or injectors

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Production / Injection Control

While remedial actions can usually be performed

on either producers or injectors, it is usually
preferable to attack poor conformance at the
source - the injectors
A good injection profile is the best starting point to
a successful waterflood
Before considering remedial options, you might
want to go back and review the Waterflood Best
Practices

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What Is Production / Injection Control?

Mechanical

Cement
Liners
Mechanical isolation
Packers

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What
What Is
Is Production
Production // Injection
Injection Control?
Control?

Chemical

Gelled foam
In-depth gel
Lignosulfonate high-temperature gel
Relative permeability modifiers
Resin
Ringing gel

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What Is Production / Injection Control?

Completions

Stimulation
Dual string production / injection
Recompletions
Selective injection equipment
Slimhole completions

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What Is Production / Injection Control?

Separation

Downhole oil / water separators

- Conventional
- Reverse coning

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What Is Production / Injection Control?

Other

Microbial EOR

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Conversions from Producers to Injectors

Is it better to convert existing producing wells or to

drill new wells for injection purposes?
- Sometimes it is necessary to drill replacement
wells for injection because the old wells are in
poor mechanical condition
- The old wells are then plugged and abandoned
- However, in this section new wells will refer to new
locations that are added to complete waterflood
patterns.
- These wells reduce the spacing that existed
between the old wells

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Conversions from Producers to Injectors

Many operators consider injectors as secondary in

importance to producers
Therefore, old producers are usually converted to
injection, and any new wells become producers

- In fact, usually the worst producers are

converted to injection

- These may include the producers with the

highest WORs, lowest production rates, and even
dry holes
Poor producers usually make poor injectors

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Conversions from Producers to Injectors
The decision whether to convert existing wells to
injection or drill new injectors should be based upon
economics, not just a philosophy
The decision should be part of an overall waterflood
plan which yields the maximum economic oil
recovery
Other factors should be considered in making a
decision concerning conversion of existing wells
versus drilling new wells:
- Well bottom hole location
- Casing size
- Casing condition
- Completion technique
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Conversions from Producers to Injectors

Well Bottom hole Location

The surface location is many times thought to
reflect an accurate bottom hole location but due to
natural drift while drilling and past drilling practices,
the bottom hole location may be some distance
from the surface location
- May have a bottom hole location out of pattern
- Conversion to injection will impact the recovery of
that pattern
Thus drilling a new injection well could place the
bottom hole location in the center of the pattern

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Conversions from Producers to Injectors

Well Bottom hole Location

The proper injection pattern should take advantage
of the existing well patterns and require a minimum
number of new wells
Injection patterns should accommodate known
geological features such as natural fracture trends
and directional matrix permeability
New injection wells may need to be drilled in order
to take advantage of these geological features, and
to maximize oil recovery

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Conversions from Producers to Injectors

Casing Size
The casing size of existing wells should be of
sufficient size to allow the desired pattern injection
rate
Casing should be large enough to permit the
installation of the proper size tubing string
If dual tubing strings are planned, the casing must be
large enough to accommodate them
If subsurface injection control devices are planned to
be installed, such as side-pocket mandrels, the
casing should be large enough to permit the proper
size of subsurface devices
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Conversions from Producers to Injectors

Casing Size
Another consideration as to casing size of existing
wells, concerns corrosion
An existing well with small casing may prevent the
installation of a liner in the future - a liner may be
necessary if the casing becomes badly corroded
from the injection of corrosive fluids
Drilling new injection wells would permit the proper
size and weight of casing to be installed, along with
the proper metallurgy for a longer wellbore life

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Conversions from Producers to Injectors

Casing Condition
The condition of the casing should be determined in
each well being considered for conversion
This may require a pressure test of the casing using
tubing and packer, a casing inspection log, or other
methods of testing the casing integrity
An injection well requires good casing for a proper
packer seating
Existing wells with casing in poor condition may
require cement squeezing, casing patches, liner
installation, or other methods of casing repair - this
may greatly increase the cost of using such an
existing well
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Conversions from Producers to Injectors

Casing Condition
Injectors require good packer seats and cement
behind pipe to provide segregation of zones -
otherwise, you cannot control where the injection
water will go
Casing in poor condition must be repaired:

- Cement squeezing

- Casing patches

- Liners

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Conversions from Producers to Injectors
Completion Technique
 The techniques that were used to complete the existing wells
should be compared with current completion practices
 If the wells are very old, the primary cement job, perforations,
or productivity may be inadequate
 Past cementing should be evaluated for all wells being
considered for conversion to injection
 Channels behind pipe due to a faulty primary cement job may
cause cross-flow between injection intervals or injection into
other formations
 An inadequate amount of surface casing may require squeeze
cementing of the production casing in order to protect fresh
water formations
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Conversions from Producers to Injectors

Completion Technique
If existing wells were originally completed openhole,
they may make very good injection wells as far as
rate is concerned
Their injection rate may be greater than comparable
cased injectors due to the open hole's greater
surface area
However, if a poor injection profile occurs, a liner
may need to be installed
In large open holes a good cement job can be
difficult to obtain with a liner

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Conversions from Producers to Injectors

Completion Technique
If the existing wells were cased and perforated,
evaluate the number, size, and location of the
perforations:
- Too few too small perforations could require
reperforating
- Too many or too close of spacing between
perforations can create problems in multiple zone
waterfloods making cement squeezing to improve
the injection profile difficult
- Perforations in gas caps or other formations may
require cement squeezing or isolation with packers

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Conversions from Producers to Injectors

Completion Technique
If an existing well is converted to injection, proper
cleaning of the wellbore and stimulation can greatly
improve the injection rate and profile
Existing producers may contain scale, corrosion
byproducts, oily sludge, and many other
substances which could hinder injection
Therefore, the wellbore should be thoroughly
cleaned, the formation stimulated, and a clean
injection string installed prior to injection

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Conversions from Producers to Injectors

Completion Technique
Recommended procedure for converting existing
producing wells to injection:
- Remove existing tubing and steam clean if will be rerun
- Clean out wellbore to PBTD using bit and casing
scraper
- Breakdown or circulate and wash perforations
- Treat perforations with acid/solvent mixture to remove
scale and oily deposits
- Stimulate formation matrix with acid/solvent mixture if
needed to remove deeper damage
- Pickle tubing string if bare tubing is used for injection
string
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Slimhole Completion

< 5” casing
No tubing

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DHOWS - Reverse Coning

W
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Selective Injection Equipment (SIE)

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Dual String / Completion
Injection or Production

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Gel Treatment

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Injection Well with
Packer & Tubing

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Bridge Plug

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Scab Liner

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Improving Waterfloods

Selective Gel Blockage:

If a waterflood is practical, one method to control
high water production is selective gel blockage.
When the zone needing treatment is identified, a
mixture of a polymer and crosslinker is injected to
retain water in a Jello-like material.
The treatment can work for years and is usually
very cost effective.

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Improving Waterfloods

Polymer Flooding:
Waterfloods can also be improved by polymer
flooding. Addition of polymer makes the water
more viscous so that oil is produced faster.
Obviously, this is not an good idea in a low
permeability reservoir or one with a high clay
content that can adsorb the polymer.

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Improving Waterfloods

Surfactant-Enhanced Waterfloods:
These projects are only practical in sandstones
where adsorption of chemicals is not high or the
water is not so hard that the alkali precipitates.
The projects are very profitable if injectivity of the
chemicals is high and oil recovery is rapid. This
means that projects are likely to be more profitable
if the permeability·Depth/Pattern Area is greater than
0.3.
On the other hand, the projects with small well
spacing can be shallow, but that larger patterns
should be deeper and have higher permeability.

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