Professional Documents
Culture Documents
The formula for overall waterflood oil-recovery efficiency ER might be simply stated as
the product of three independent terms:
o ER = EDEI EA, ............................................................ (11.1) where ED = the
unit-displacement efficiency, EI = the vertical-displacement efficiency, and EA
= the areal-displacement efficiency. Of course, assuming independence of
these three factors is not valid for real oil reservoirs.
Reservoir rock understanding begins with knowing the depositional environment at
the pore and reservoir levels and possibly also several levels in between. Second, the
diagenetic (any chemical, physical, or biological change undergone by a sediment
after its initial deposition and during and after its lithification, exclusive of surface
alteration (weathering) and metamorphism) history of the reservoir rocks must be
ascertained. Then, the structure and faulting of the reservoir must be determined to
understand the interconnectivities among the various parts of the reservoir,
particularly the injector/producer connectivity. Finally, the water/oil/rock
characteristics need to be understood because they control wettability, residual oil
saturation to waterflooding, and the oil relative permeability at higher water
saturations. Because of these needs, there always should be a developmental
geologist on the waterflood-evaluation team.
The key oil properties are viscosity and density at reservoir conditions. In a porous
medium, the mobility of a fluid is defined as its endpoint relative permeability divided
by its viscosity; hence, a fluid with a low viscosity ( 1 cp) has a high mobility unless
its relative permeability is very low. Similarly, a low-API crude oil ( 20API) has a
high viscosity and a very low mobility unless it is heated to high temperatures.
Because waters viscosity at reservoir temperatures generally is much lower than or,
at best, equal to that of the reservoir oil, the water-/oil-viscosity ratio is generally
much greater than 1:1. As discussed in some detail later in this chapter, the
water-/oil-mobility ratio is a key parameter in determining the efficiency of the
water/oil displacement process, with the recovery efficiency increasing as the
water-/oil-mobility ratio decreases.
Those evaluations should include such potentially complicating factors as
compatibility of the planned injected water with the reservoirs connate water;
interaction of the injected water with the reservoir rock (clay sensitivities, rock
dissolution, or generally weakening the rock framework); injection-water treatment to
remove oxygen, bacteria, and undesirable chemicals; and the challenges involved in
separating and handling the produced water that has trace oil content, naturally
occurring radioactive materials (NORMs), and various scale-forming minerals.
At the pore level (i.e., where the water and oil phases interact immiscibly when
moving from one set of pores to the next), wettability and pore geometry are the two
key considerations. The interplay between wettability and pore geometry in a
reservoir rock is what is represented by the laboratory-determined capillary pressure
curves and water/oil relative permeability curves that engineers use when making
OOIP and fluid-flow calculations.
Wettability is defined in terms of the interaction of two immiscible phases, such as oil
and water, and a solid surface, such as that of the pores of a reservoir rock.
o The contact angle is used to define which fluid phase is more wettingfor
low contact angles, the water phase is more wetting, whereas for high contact
angles, the oil phase is more wetting. os ws = ow cos
, ....................................................... (11.2) where os = the IFT (interfacial
tension) between the oil and solid phases, ws = the IFT between the water
and solid phases, and ow = the IFT between the oil and water phases.
o Reservoir rocks typically are described as being water-wet, oil-wet, or
intermediate-wet. A water-wet rock surface is one that has a strong preference
S orw
S oi
where Soi = initial oil saturation (1 Swc). The Sorw is the endpoint of the
water/oil imbibition kro curve, which was discussed above; however, for simple
waterflood calculations this value is the most critical one.
o Sorw can be measured several ways. It can be determined as part of all relative
permeability laboratory studies. Historically, short core-plug floodpot tests
have been run in the laboratory, and only the rock samples porosity, absolute
air permeability, Swc, Sorw, and permeability at the two endpoint saturations
have been reported. It is important to ensure that these laboratory tests are
conducted long enough for the displacement to be taken to its true endpoint.
They can be performed either as displacement tests or by using a centrifuge
to measure these data. Displacement tests historically have been used, but
because of improvements in centrifuge technology, the centrifuge approach is
becoming more common. Usually, floodpot-test times are inadequate to reach
a true Sorw. Imbibition capillary pressure measurements obtain more-reliable
values for water-wet porous media.
ki
i
krw
o
w
kro
krwe
o
kroe
w
where krwe = relative permeability to water at the endpoint (Sorw) and kroe = relative
permeability to oil at the endpoint (Swi). This mobility ratio assumes a plug-like
displacement between the oil phase at connate-water saturation before the flood
front and the water phase at residual oil saturation behind the flood front. Because, in
most reservoir situations, waters viscosity is lower than oils, the viscosity ratio is
unfavorable for water to displace oil efficiently; however, as Figs. 11.4, 11.5, and 11.9
show, the relative permeability of water at residual oil saturation is lower by a factor
of two to eight than that of oil at connate-water saturation. Hence, for many
reservoirs, the mobility ratio is close to unity (favorable) if the oil viscosity is greater
than the water viscosity at reservoir conditions only by a factor of five.