Water Flooding: College of Oil and Gas Engineering

Basra University for oil & gas
College of oil and gas Engineering

Oil & gas engineering department
Water flooding
Lecture 2
October, 2017
Water flooding
Outline
Well pattern
Fluid mobility
Mobility ratio
Ideal displacement
Non-piston displacement
Viscous fingering
Mechanism of waterflooding behaviour
Fractional flow equation
Factros affecting Fractional flow curve
Well pattern
 Regular patterns of wells are used
to sweep the entire area of a
reservoir with a waterflood.
 INVERTED NINE SPOT

 INVERTED SEVEN SPOT
 FOUR SPOT
 FIVE SPOT
 DIRECT LINE DRIVE
 STAGGERED LINE DRIVE
 SEVEN SPOT
 NINE SPOT
Fluid mobility, λ
 The mobility of a fluid is the effective permeability of that fluid
divided by its viscosity
 Mobility controls the relative ease with which fluids can flow through
a porous medium
λw = kw /μw
λo = ko /μo
 Mobility is a function of saturation as the relative permeabilities to

oil & water depend on the fluid saturations
Mobility ratio, M
 the ratio of the mobility of the displacing fluid behind the flood
front to that of the displaced fluid ahead of the flood front
M = λw / λo
 Ahead of the water flood, oil alone is flowing & behind it water
alone is flowing
Flood front
Injector Producer
1-Sor
Water Oil
Swi
Ideal displacement
 In ideal displacement, there is a sharp transition from Sor to
maximum oil saturation (1 - Swi) at the flood front.
 Ideal displacement is the most favourable condition for
production but only occurs if M≤ 1
Flood front
Injector Producer
1-Sor
Water Oil
Swi
Ideal displacement
 When M≤ 1, oil can flow at a rate greater than or equal to that of water
and is pushed ahead by the water bank in a piston-like fashion
 The moveable oil volume (MOV) is given by:
MOV = (1 - Soi - Swi) Vp
 The volume of oil recovered is exactly equal to the volume of water

injected
Non-Ideal displacement
 Water is found to be more mobile than oil
 M> 1 in this case, water push oil in a leaky piston-like fashion
 Tongues of water bypass the oil leading to much less favourable saturation
profiles
 More common displacement in nature
Flood front or shock front

Injector Producer
1-Sor
Behind the shock
At the end of the
front there is a
transition zone,
transition zone Water Oil
water alone is
where both water
flowing
and oil flow.
Swi
Non-Ideal displacement
 When the flood front reaches the production well there is a sharp increase
in water cut. This event is called breakthrough (BT).
 In non-ideal displacement, only a fraction of the MOV has been recovered
at water breakthrough
 Addition water injection is required to recover the moveable oil
 Several (5 or 6) MOV’s of water may be needed to displace a single MOV of
oil.
Producer moveable oil that
remains between the
Injector 1-Sor injector and producer
at BT
Oil
Water
Water breakthrough
Swi
Ideal or non-ideal displacement
 To address the behaviour of displacement ( Ideal or non-
Idela), the end point mobility ratio is considered.
k′𝑟𝑤 /𝜇𝑤 0.9
M= 0.8 End point Krw Kro

k′𝑟𝑜 /𝜇𝑜 0.7 Kro
0.6
Where; 0.5 End point
Kr
M= the end point mobility ratio Kro
0.4
k′rw & k′ro = End point relative permeabilities 0.3
0.2
If M ≤ 1 : Oil is capable of travelling with a velocity equal to, or 0.1
greater than, that of water, no tendency for the oil to be by-
passed which results in the sharp interface between the fluids. 0
If M > 1 : Water travelling with a velocity greater than, that of 0 0.5 1
oil, there is a tendency for the oil to be by-passed. Sw
Viscous fingering
 In non-ideal displacement, the Water

has a tendency to move faster than oil
 the water-oil interface is unstable.
 Tongues of displacing fluid propagate at
the interface. This process is called
viscous fingering
 Reservoir heterogeneity is a key reason

for fingering
Mechanism of waterflooding behavoiur
1- Fractional flow equation
2- Frontal advance equation
3- Water flood behaviour in Linear system

Buckely-Leverett theory
Weldge Procedure
4- Water flood behaviour in multi-layered reservoirs

Darcy equation
Capillary pressure
The fractional flow equation is very important ??:

1- It facilitates the determination of the relative flow rates of oil and water at any
point in the porous media,
2- It incorporates all factors affecting the displacement efficiency of a water flood
project
Assumptions for using fractional flow equation for linear

system
 One-Dimension
 Oil-water system
 Uniform thickness
Diffuse conditions means that
 Homogenous reservoir fluid saturations at any point
 Diffuse conditions in the reservoir in the linear displacement path
are uniformly distributed with
respect to thickness
Derivation of the fractional flow equation for a one-dimensional oil-
water system
Consider displacement of oil by water in a system of dip angle 
Start with Darcy´s equations
Replace the water pressure by Pw = Po - Pcow , Then:

water system
Rearranging the equations to be written as follow:
Subtracting the first equation from the second one
Substituting for And

water system
solving for the fraction of water flowing, we

obtain the following expression for the fraction
of water flowing
For the simplest case of horizontal flow, with

negligible capillary pressure, the expression
reduces to
Fractional flow equation in fields unit
sin () = positive for updip flow

sin () = negative for downdip flow
qt = water injection rate
FFE can be written for relative
permeabilities where ke=Kr.K
Typical plots of relative permeabilities and the corresponding fractional
flow curve ( S-Shape curve) are:
Factors affecting Fractional flow equation
Capillary
Gravity (direction
pressure
and dip angle)
Flow rate Viscosity

Wettability
1- Wettability
 Kw will be smaller in a water wet rock
than in an oil wet rock, then fw will be
smaller in water wet
 Since it is desirable to minimize fw at a

particular saturation condition, then:
 Water-wet reservoirs will yield a higher

displacement efficiency & higher oil
recovery than oil-wet reservoir
2- Formation dip & direction of displacement
 The effect of formation dip is dictated by
the gravity term, (ρw- ρo) sin 
 When water displaces oil up-dip:
sin () = + ve for updip flow
The effect of gravity will be to minimize fw, then
High displacement efficiency
 When water displaces oil down-dip:
The effect of gravity is to decrease the disp.
efficiency
sin () = - ve for downdip flow
water should be injected dowh-dip to obtain maximum oil recovery
3- Effect of capillary pressure
 In water-wet system, as capillary pressure gradient increase, fw value
increases and the efficiency of the waterflood decreases
 It would be desirable in a waterflood to decrease, or eliminate, the

capillary pressure gradient
 This can be done by altering the wettability of the rock or by decreasing,

or eliminating, the interfacial tension between oil and water
4- Effect of oil and water Mobilities
 Improved oil recovery results from
decreasing the water mobility, or by
increasing the oil mobility
 Kro & Krw are affected primarily by the
fluid saturations.
 A displacement process can be
improved by increasing the water
viscosity or by decreasing the oil
viscosity
Water viscosity can be increased by the addition of
polymers
4- Effect of injection Rate
 The effect of rate varies depending upon whether
water is moving up-dip or down-dip.
 A low value of rate is desirable if water is moving

up-dip (i.e., injection well is located downdip))
 A large rate should be used for down-dip

displacement (i.e., injection well is located updip)

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Basra University for oil & gas

College of oil and gas Engineering

 INVERTED NINE SPOT

 Mobility is a function of saturation as the relative permeabilities to

 The moveable oil volume (MOV) is given by:

MOV = (1 - Soi - Swi) Vp

 The volume of oil recovered is exactly equal to the volume of water

Flood front or shock front

M= 0.8 End point Krw Kro

 In non-ideal displacement, the Water

 Reservoir heterogeneity is a key reason

1- Fractional flow equation

2- Frontal advance equation

3- Water flood behaviour in Linear system

4- Water flood behaviour in multi-layered reservoirs

The fractional flow equation is very important ??:

Assumptions for using fractional flow equation for linear

Consider displacement of oil by water in a system of dip angle 

Start with Darcy´s equations

Replace the water pressure by Pw = Po - Pcow , Then:

Rearranging the equations to be written as follow:

Subtracting the first equation from the second one

Substituting for And

solving for the fraction of water flowing, we

For the simplest case of horizontal flow, with

sin () = positive for updip flow

Flow rate Viscosity

 Since it is desirable to minimize fw at a

 Water-wet reservoirs will yield a higher

 It would be desirable in a waterflood to decrease, or eliminate, the

 This can be done by altering the wettability of the rock or by decreasing,

 A low value of rate is desirable if water is moving

 A large rate should be used for down-dip

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