Basra University for oil & gas

College of oil and gas Engineering

Oil & gas engineering department

Water flooding
Buckely-Leverett- Part 2

By Ali K. Al-Maliki, MSc

Novemeber, 2017

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 Water flooding

Outline
Application of BL & FFE
Average water saturation in swept area
Average water saturation at BT
Average water saturation after BT
Recovery factor calculations
Recovery calculations to BT
Recovery calculations after BT 2
 Applications of BL & FFE

Main calculations for water flooding in homogenous reservoirs using BL

and S-shape curve:

1- Constructing water saturation profile

2- Breakthrough time
3- Cumulative water injection
4- Pore volume of water injected

5- Average water saturation in the Swept area

6- Recovery factor before, at and after Breakthrough
7- injection and production profile
8- Produced WOR and Wc

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 BL & FFE Application: Average SW calculation

 The average water saturation in the swept

area is determined in both

1- Before and at Breakthrough

2- After Breakthrough

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 BL & FFE Application: Average SW at BT
Average Sw in the swept area at BT:
fwf
 The tangent to the fractional flow curve
is extrapolated to fw = 1

 The intercept with fw=1 is the average

water saturation, SwBT

 The slope of the tangent can be

calculated as follow: Swf

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 BL & FFE Application: Average SW at BT
Average Sw in the swept area at BT:
 Average Sw in the swept area
would remain constant with a 0.8

value of SwBT until BT occurs 0.7 1-Sor

0.6

 At BT time, the flood front 0.5

saturation S reaches the Swf

Sw
wf
0.4

producing well and the water cut 0.3 Swf Swf=Swbt

increases suddenly from zero to 0.2
fwf 0.1

0 100 200 300

 At BT, Swf= SwBT and fwf =fwBT Distance, ft 6
 BL & FFE Application: Average SW at BT
Cumulative water injected at BT

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 BL & FFE Application: Average SW after BT

Average Sw in the swept area After BT:

 After BT, the water saturation
0.8
& WC at the producing well Sw2, fw2
0.7
gradually increase due to
0.6
continuous injection of water
0.5
Swf

Sw
0.4
 SW and water cut at the Swf
0.3 Swf=Swbt
producing well are denoted
0.2
as Sw2 and fw2
0.1

0 100 200 300

Distance, ft 8
 BL & FFE Application: Average SW after BT

Welge graphical solution:

When the water saturation at the

producing well reaches any assumed
value S after BT, S-Shape curve is used to
w2

determine::

1- Producing water cut fw2

2- Average water saturation, Sw2
3- Cumulative water injected in pore volumes, Qi

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 BL & FFE Application: Average SW after BT

Welge graphical solution:

 The saturation at which the tangent
intersects fw = 1 is the average water
saturation in the swept area, Sw2

 The average water saturation can be

determined mathematically from:

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 BL & FFE Application: Average SW after BT

The cumulative pore volumes of water

injected, Qi at the time when the water
saturation reaches Sw2 at the
producing well

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 BL & FFE Application: Average SW after BT

 The cumulative water injected when

the water saturation at the
producing well reaches Sw2

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 BL & FFE Application: Oil recovery calculations
A set of calculations are required to determine the water flooding
performance and to calculate the oil recovery versus time:

Oil production rate, Qo

Cumulative Water Injected, Winj
Water production rate, Qw

Surface water-oil ratio, WOR Water-injection rate, Iwj

Cumulative oil production, Np

Water-injection pressure, Pinj

Cumulative Water production, Wp

Recovery factor, RF
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 BL & FFE Application: Oil recovery calculations

 Oil recovery calculations is divided into two parts: Assuming no

free gas in
the reservoir
1-Before breakthrough time calculations

2-After breakthrough time calculations

 Oil recovery before and after breakthrough is calculated by:

Np = N x EA x EV x ED N = OIIP at the start of water injection, STB

Np = cumulative oil production, STB
EA = Areal sweep efficiency, fraction
Ev = Vertical sweep efficiency, fraction
ED = Displacement sweep efficiency, fraction
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 BL & FFE Application: Oil recovery calculations

Before Breakthrough: Assuming

no free gas
 The cumulative oil production is simply equal to the in the
volume of water injected with no water production reservoir,
Sgi=0

Np = Winj

Wp = 0

Qw = 0

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 BL & FFE Application: Oil recovery calculations

At Breakthrough: Assuming
no free gas
 ED can be calculated by determining the average water in the
saturation at breakthrough reservoir,
Sgi=0

 Np at breakthrough is calculated from:

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 BL & FFE Application: Oil recovery calculations

After Breakthrough: Assuming

no free gas
in the
 Oil recovery calculations after breakthrough are reservoir,
based on determining ED at various assumed Sgi=0
values of Sw at the producing well

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 BL & FFE Application: Oil recovery calculations

Procedure for recovery calculations before and after BT:

1- Construct the fractional flow curve

2- Select several values of water saturations between Swf and

(1 – Sor) and determine the slope (dfw/dSw) at each saturation

3- Perform recovery calculations to breakthrough

4- Perform recovery calculations after breakthrough

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 BL & FFE Application: Oil recovery calculations
Sw BT
Recovery calculations to breakthrough (S = 0, E , E = 100%)
gi A V

(Sgi = 0, EA, EV = 100%)

 Plot fw vs. Sw

 Tangent the curve from Swi, then

𝒅𝒇𝒘
determine Swf , fwf and
𝒅𝑺𝒘 𝑺𝒘
𝒇

 Extrapolate the tangent at fw=1 and

determine the average water
saturation at the breakthrough, Sw BT
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 BL & FFE Application: Oil recovery calculations

Recovery calculations to breakthrough (Sgi = 0, EA, EV = 100%)

 Calculate pore volumes of water

injected at BT

 Calculate the cumulative water

injected at BT

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 BL & FFE Application: Oil recovery calculations

Recovery calculations to breakthrough (Sgi = 0, EA, EV = 100%)

 Calculate the displacement efficiency at BT

 Calculate cumulative oil production at BT

Np = N x EA x EV x ED

 Calculate time to BT assuming iw=constant

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 BL & FFE Application: Oil recovery calculations

Recovery calculations to breakthrough (Sgi = 0, EA, EV = 100%)

 Select several values of injection time less than the BT time (t < tBT)
and calculate the followings:

WORs, Qw and Wp are all

equals zero as no water
has arrived the producer
yet because the chosen
time is less than BT time

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 BL & FFE Application: Oil recovery calculations
Recovery calculations to breakthrough (Sgi = 0, EA, EV = 100%)

 Calculate the surface water–oil ratio WORs at BT

 Construct a table as follow:

t Winj Np Qo WOR Qw Wp

0 0 0 0 0 0 0
fwBt is the water cut
at BT ( fwBT = fwf)
t1 ---- ---- ---- 0 0 0

t2 ---- ---- ---- 0 0 0

t3 ---- ---- ---- 0 0 0

BT ---- ---- ---- --- ---- ---- 23

 BL & FFE Application: Oil recovery calculations
Recovery calculations After breakthrough (Sgi = 0, EA, EV = 100%)

 Choose several values of Sw2 between Sw Bt and (1-Sor)

 Determine fw2 & dsw/dfw corresponding each Sw2

 Calculate the average water saturation in the swept area for each sw2:
Find it from extrapolating the tangent to fw=1
Or use the following equation:

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 BL & FFE Application: Oil recovery calculations
Recovery calculations After breakthrough (Sgi = 0, EA, EV = 100%)
1
4- Find average Sw
0.98
1
0.9 0.96

0.8 0.94

fw
0.7
0.92
0.6
3- tangent
0.9 the curve, find dfw/dsw
0.5
fw

0.4 0.88
2- Find fw
0.3 0.86
0.2
0.84
0.1
0.82
0
0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.8
0.6 0.62 0.64 0.66 0.68 0.7 0.72 0.74 0.76 0.78 0.8
Sw
1- Select SW Sw

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 BL & FFE Application: Oil recovery calculations
Recovery calculations After breakthrough (Sgi = 0, EA, EV = 100%)

 Calculate the displacement efficiency ED for each

selected value

 Calculate cumulative oil production Np for each selected value of Sw2

Np = N x EA x EV x ED

 Calculate pore volumes of water

 injected, Qi, at each Sw2
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 BL & FFE Application: Oil recovery calculations
Recovery calculations After breakthrough (Sgi = 0, EA, EV = 100%)

 Calculate cumulative water injected for each Sw2

 Calculate the time to inject Winj barrels of water

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 BL & FFE Application: Oil recovery calculations
Recovery calculations After breakthrough (Sgi = 0, EA, EV = 100%)

 Calculate cumulative water production WP at any time t

from the material balance equation

 Calculate the surface water–oil ratio

WORs that corresponds to
each value of fw2
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 BL & FFE Application: Oil recovery calculations
Recovery calculations After breakthrough (Sgi = 0, EA, EV = 100%)

 Calculate the oil and water flow rates

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 BL & FFE Application: Oil recovery calculations
Recovery calculations After breakthrough (Sgi = 0, EA, EV = 100%)

 Construct a table as follow:

Sw2 fw2 dfw/dsw s-w2 Ed Np Qi Winj t Wp WORs Qo Qw

Swbt fwbt -- s-wbt Edbt Npbt Qibt Wibt tbt 0 -- -- --

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
1-Sor 1 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 0 --
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 BL & FFE Application: Oil recovery calculations
Additional calculations:

𝑁𝑃
𝑅𝐹 =
𝑁

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