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Recovery mechanisms

• Primary oil recovery

Describes the production of hydrocarbons
under the natural driving mechanisms
present in the reservoir without supplementary
help from injected fluids such as gas or water.

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 Recovery mechanisms
• Secondary oil recovery
Refers to the additional recovery that results from the
conventional methods of water injection and immiscible
gas injection.
– Water flooding is perhaps the most common method of
secondary recovery.
• Tertiary (enhanced) oil recovery
Various methods of enhanced oil recovery (EOR) are
essentially designed to recover oil left in the reservoir
after both primary and secondary recovery methods have
been exploited to their respective economic limits.
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 FACTORS TO CONSIDER IN
WATERFLOODING
• In determining the suitability of a candidate
reservoir for water flooding, the following
reservoir characteristics must be considered:
1. Reservoir geometry
2. Fluid properties
3. Reservoir depth
4. Lithology and rock properties
5. Fluid saturations
6. Reservoir uniformity and pay continuity
7. Primary reservoir driving mechanisms
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 1. Reservoir Geometry
• The areal geometry of the reservoir will
influence the location of wells and, if offshore,
will influence the location and number of
platforms required.

• If a water-drive reservoir is classified as an

active water drive, injection may be unnecessary.

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 2. Fluid Properties
• The physical properties of the reservoir fluids
have pronounced effects on the suitability of a
given reservoir for further development by
waterflooding.

• The oil viscosity has the important effect of

determining the mobility ratio that, in turn,
controls the sweep efficiency.

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 3. Reservoir Depth
• Reservoir depth has an important influence on both the
technical and economic aspects of a secondary or tertiary
recovery project.
• Maximum injection pressure will increase with depth.
The costs of lifting oil from very deep wells will limit the
maximum economic water–oil ratios that can be
tolerated, thereby reducing the ultimate recovery factor
and increasing the total project operating costs.
• In waterflood operations, there is a critical pressure
(approximately 1 psi/ft of depth) that, if exceeded,
permits the injecting water to expand openings along
fractures or to create fractures
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 4. Lithology and Rock Properties
• Reservoir lithology and rock properties that affect flood
ability and success are:
- Porosity - Permeability
- Clay content - Net thickness
• The clay minerals present in some sands may clog the
pores by swelling and deflocculating when waterflooding
is used, no exact data are available as to the extent to
which this may occur.
• Tight (low-permeability) reservoirs or reservoirs with
thin net thickness possess water-injection problems in
terms of the desired water injection rate or pressure.
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 5. Fluid Saturations
• In determining the suitability of a reservoir for
waterflooding, a high oil saturation that
provides a sufficient supply of recoverable oil
is the primary criterion for successful flooding
operations.
• Note that higher oil saturation at the beginning
of flood operations increases the oil mobility
that, in turn, gives higher recovery efficiency.

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 6. Reservoir Uniformity and Pay
Continuity
• Substantial reservoir uniformity is one of the
major physical criterions for successful
waterflooding. For example, if the formation
contains a stratum of limited thickness with a
very high permeability rapid channeling and
bypassing will develop.

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 7.Primary Reservoir Driving Mechanisms
• Six driving mechanisms basically provide the natural
energy necessary for oil recovery:
– Rock and liquid expansion
– Solution gas drive
– Gas cap drive
– Water drive
– Gravity drainage drive
– Combination drive
• The primary drive mechanism and anticipated ultimate oil
recovery should be considered when reviewing possible
waterflood prospects.
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 7. Primary Reservoir Driving
Mechanisms cont.
• The approximate oil recovery range is tabulated below
for various driving mechanisms.
• Note that these calculations are approximate and,
therefore, oil recovery may fall outside these ranges.

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 Water-drive reservoirs
• Water-drive reservoirs that are classified as strong water-
drive reservoirs are not usually considered to be good
candidates for waterflooding because of the natural
ongoing water influx.
• However, in some instances a natural water drive could
be supplemented by water injection in order to:
– Support a higher withdrawal rate
– Better distribute the water volume to different areas of the field
to achieve more uniform areal coverage

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 Gas-cap reservoirs
• Gas-cap reservoirs are not normally good waterflood
prospects because the primary mechanism may be quite
efficient without water injection. In these cases, gas injection
may be considered in order to help maintain pressure.
• Smaller gas-cap drives may be considered as waterflood
prospects, but the existence of the gas cap will require
greater care to prevent migration of displaced oil into the
gas cap.
• If the vertical communication between the gas cap and the oil
zone is considered poor due to low vertical permeability, a
waterflood may be appropriate in this case.
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 Solution gas-drive mechanisms
• Solution gas-drive mechanisms generally are considered
the best candidates for waterfloods. Because the
primary recovery will usually be low, the potential exists
for substantial additional recovery by water injection. In
effect, we hope to create an artificial water-drive
mechanism. The typical range of water-drive recovery is
approximately double that of solution gas drive.
• Waterfloods in solution gas-drive reservoirs
frequently will recover an additional amount of oil
equal to primary recovery.
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 OPTIMUM TIME TO WATERFLOOD
• The most common procedure for determining the
optimum time to start waterflooding is to calculate:
– Anticipated oil recovery
– Fluid production rates
– Monetary investment
– Availability and quality of the water supply
– Costs of water treatment and pumping equipment
– Costs of maintenance and operation of the water
installation facilities
– Costs of drilling new injection wells or converting
existing production wells into injectors
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Factors to determine the reservoir pressure
(or time) to initiate a secondary recovery
project
Reservoir oil viscosity
Water injection should be initiated when the reservoir
pressure reaches its bubble-point pressure since the oil
viscosity reaches its minimum value at this pressure. The
mobility of the oil will increase with decreasing oil
viscosity, which in turns improves the sweeping efficiency.

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 EFFECT OF TRAPPED GAS ON
WATERFLOOD RECOVERY
• There are two different theories
– First Theory (Cole (1969) )
– In this case, this would dictate that the gas molecules enclose
themselves in an oil “blanket.” This increases the effective size of any
oil globules. The amount of residual oil left in the reservoir would be
reduced by the size of the gas bubble within the oil globule.

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 EFFECT OF TRAPPED GAS ON
WATERFLOOD RECOVERY
• Second Theory
• as water displaced the oil
from the reservoir rock,
the amount of residual
oil left in the larger pore
spaces would be reduced
because of occupancy of
a portion of this space by
gas.

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 EFFECT OF TRAPPED GAS ON
RECOVERY

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 SELECTION OF FLOODING
PATTERNS
• The objective is to select the proper pattern that will
provide the injection fluid with the maximum
possible contact with the crude oil system.
• This selection can be achieved by
1.Converting existing production wells into
injectors.
2.drilling infill injection wells.

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 Types of well arrangements
• Essentially four types of well arrangements
are used in fluid injection projects:
– Irregular injection patterns
– Peripheral injection patterns
– Regular injection patterns
– Crestal and basal injection patterns

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 Irregular Injection Patterns
• Surface or subsurface topology and/or the use of
slant-hole drilling techniques may result in
production or injection wells that are not uniformly
located.
• Some small reservoirs are developed for primary
production with a limited number of wells and when
the economics are marginal, perhaps only few
production wells are converted into injectors in a
nonuniform pattern.
• Faulting and localized variations in porosity or
permeability may also lead to irregular patterns.
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 Peripheral Injection Patterns
• The injection
wells are located
at the external
boundary of the
reservoir and the
oil is displaced
toward the
interior of the
reservoir.

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Regular
Injection
Patterns

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 Crestal and Basal Injection Patterns
In crestal injection, as the name
implies, the injection is
through wells located at the top
of the structure. Gas injection
projects typically use a crestal
injection pattern. In basal
injection, the fluid is injected at
the bottom of the structure.
Many water-injection projects
use basal injection patterns
with additional benefits being
gained from gravity
segregation.

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 OVERALL RECOVERY EFFICIENCY
• The overall recovery factor (efficiency) RF of any secondary or tertiary
oil recovery method is the product of a combination of three individual
efficiency factors as given by the following generalized expression:

• Where
– RF = overall recovery factor
– NS = initial oil in place at the start of the flood, STB
– NP = cumulative oil produced, STB
– ED = displacement efficiency
– EA = areal sweep efficiency
– EV = vertical sweep efficiency

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 OVERALL RECOVERY EFFICIENCY

• The areal sweep efficiency EA • The vertical sweep efficiency

Is the fractional area of the EV
pattern that is swept by the Is the fraction of the vertical
displacing fluid. section of the pay zone that is
• The major factors determining contacted by injected fluids.
areal sweep are: • The vertical sweep efficiency
– Fluid mobilities is primarily a function of:
– Pattern type – Vertical heterogeneity
– Areal heterogeneity – Degree of gravity segregation
– Total volume of fluid injected – Fluid mobilities
– Total volume injection
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 OVERALL RECOVERY EFFICIENCY

• The displacement efficiency ED is the fraction of

movable oil that has been displaced from the swept zone
at any given time or pore volume injected. Because an
immiscible gas injection or waterflood will always leave
behind some residual oil, ED will always be less than 1.0.
• All three efficiency factors (i.e., ED, EA, and EV) are
variables that increase during the flood and reach
maximum values at the economic limit of the injection
project
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 The displacement efficiency ED

• The displacement efficiency is expressed as:

Where
•Soi = initial oil saturation at start of flood
•Boi = oil FVF at start of flood, bbl/STB
•Ŝo = average oil saturation in the flood pattern at a
particular point during the flood
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 Fractional Flow Equation
• The development of the fractional flow equation is attributed
to Leverett (1941). For two immiscible fluids, oil and water,
the fractional flow of water, fw (or any immiscible displacing
fluid), is defined as the water flow rate divided by the total
flow rate, or:

• where
– fw = fraction of water in the flowing stream, i.e., water cut, bbl/bbl
– qt = total flow rate, bbl/day
– qw = water flow rate, bbl/day
– qo = oil flow rate, bbl/day

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 fw = fraction of water (water cut), bbl/bbl
ko = effective permeability of oil, md
kw = effective permeability of water, md
= water–oil density differences, g/cm3
kw = effective permeability of water, md
qt = total flow rate, bbl/day
o = oil viscosity, cp
w = water viscosity, cp
A = cross-sectional area, ft2

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 Effect of Water and Oil Viscosities
This illustration reveals
that regardless of the
system wettability,
•Higher oil viscosity
results in an increase in
the fractional flow
Curve.
•Higher injected water
viscosities will result in a
decrease water flow rate
with an overall reduction
in fw.

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Frontal Advance Equation

iw = water injection rate, bbl/day

Winj = cumulative water injected,
bbl
t = time, day
(x)Sw = distance from the injection
for any given saturation Sw, ft

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 Stabilized zone and nonstabilized zone

The stabilized zone

As that particular saturation
interval (i.e., Swc to Swf) where
all points of saturation travel at
the same velocity.

Nonstabilized zone
Saturation zone between
Swf and (1 – Sor), where the
velocity of any water
saturation is variable.

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 Break throw time

• tBT = time to breakthrough, day

• PV = total flood pattern pore volume, bbl
• L = distance between the injector and producer, ft

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• the cumulative water injected at
breakthrough

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 AREAL SWEEP EFFICIENCY
• Is the fractional area of the pattern that is
swept by the displacing fluid.
• The areal sweep efficiency depends basically
on the following three main factors:
– Mobility ratio M
– Flood pattern
– Cumulative water injected Winj

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VERTICAL SWEEP EFFICIENCY
• The vertical sweep efficiency, EV,
Is the fraction of the vertical section of the pay zone
that is contacted by injected fluids.
• The vertical sweep efficiency is primarily a
function of:
– Vertical heterogeneity
– Degree of gravity segregation
– Fluid mobilities
– Total volume injection

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 Mobility
• In general, the mobility of any fluid λ is
defined as the ratio of the effective
permeability of the fluid to the fluid viscosity

where
λo, λw, λg = mobility of oil, water, and gas, respectively
ko, kw, kg = effective permeability to oil, water, and gas,
respectively
kro, krw = relative permeability to oil, water, and gas, respectively
k = absolute permeability
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 Mobility ratio

Substituting for λ:

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 Flood Patterns

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 Effect of Initial Gas Saturation
• When a solution-gas-drive reservoir is under consideration for
waterflooding. It is necessary to inject a volume of water that
approaches the volume of the pore space occupied by the free
gas before the oil is produced. This volume of water is called
the fill-up volume.
• So for effective water flooding we must achieve reservoir
pressure 100-150 psi above bubble point pressure before
beginning water flooding
• Because economic considerations dictate that waterflooding
should occur at the highest possible injection rates, the
associated increase in the reservoir pressure might be
sufficient to redissolve all of the trapped gas Sgt back in
44 solution.
Stages of
water
flooding.

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 Water Fingering and Tonguing
• In a dipping reservoir,
The condition for
stable displacement is
that the angle
between the fluid
interface and the
direction of flow
should remain
constant throughout
the displacement
Stable and unstable displacement in
47 gravity segregated displacement
‫‪Water Flooding‬‬
‫عمرو واصر صابر‬
‫ابراهيم عبد الحكيم عبدي‬
‫حسه محمد حسه الجىايىى‬
‫احمد عبد السميع محمد احمد‬
‫محمد محمود فتحى محمد‬
‫محمد على السيد رضوان‬