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Water Influx into a Reservoir and Its Application to the Equation
of Volumetric Balance
By WILLIAM HURST*
(New York Meeting. February 1942)
57
58 WATER INFLUX INTO A RESERVOIR AND VOLUMETRIC BALANCE
difference between the original formation This theory of water drive has been
pressure and the pressure in the reservoir successfully applied by various investiga-
at the given time. Various other empirical tors4.5,6 to the study of water movements,
relations have been used to take into as illustrated for the East Texas field.
account the effect of time on the water In the analysis of the problem the rate of
influx. With reference, however, to the oil production for this field was introduced
application of empirical equations to in a solution of Eq. I to predict the pressure
water-drive calculations, it can be said variations in the reservoir for different
that except in a few specific instances assumed rates. The reason it was possible
their general applications are limited. to interpret the water influx into East
The method described in this paper for Texas as proportional to the oil production
the determination of water drive is based lies in the characteristics of the field; at
on the classical diffusivity equation. This the existing reservoir pressures the oil
equation was applied originally to the is undersaturated with gas, and as there
hydrodynamic problem by the author 3 in is no evidence of a gas drive, but only the
developing the transient conditions for the presence of a water drive, the oil produced
flow through a sand of a single-phase fluid is replaced by a corresponding volume of
whose compressibility is small or whose water in the reservoir from the Woodbine
density varies exponentially with pressure. formation. The solutions for water drive,
The derivation is developed by the applica- as developed for East Texas, cannot be
tion of Darcy's law for the flow of fluids applied to a field that is subject to both
through porous media to the equation of a gas and water drive, as the application
continuity. The final form, however, as of the volumetric balance equation to the
applied to a slightly compressible fluid is fluids in the reservoir shows that the water
given in vector notation, ana expresses influx can be expressed only as a function
the divergence of the flow from an in- of the reservoir pressure if the equation is
finitesimal element of sand, as proportional to be solved explicitly for the oil originally
to the pressure change per unit of time in place.
within the element itself. That is It is the experience of the author that
for the fields studied the radial flow case
[r] for water drive has proved sufficiently
accurate for most engineering purposes,
where V2 is the Laplacian operator on and for the remaining portion of the paper
pressure P in time (), with the diffusivity this solution only will be discussed.
constant equal to a 2 = K/f.Lrpc in :which K Nevertheless, it must be kept in mind that
is the permeability and rp the porosity water drive can be effective not only as an
of the sand, with f.L the viscosity, and c influx of water from adjoining sands at
the compressibility of the water. Thus a the edge of a field but also as a rising table,
solution of Eq. I that can be applied to and in general water drive should not
the formation, which also satisfies the necessarily be limited entirely to the radial-
boundary limits of the oil reservoir and flow problem.
water formation, is essentially a solution
of the water drive. The analyses, given RADIAL FLOW
in the Appendix to this paper (p. 9) are The physical interpretation of the
the applications of Eq. I to the water boundary conditions for this case is that
drive on fields interpreted as linear, radial, the oil field is concentric with the adjacent
and spherical influx of water into oil water formation, which is assumed to
reservoirs. extend for large distances away from the
WILLIAM HURST 59
field. Further, the water sand is considered influx of water for the entire history of the
to be initially saturated with water at the pressure surveys in the field. This range
same pressure as the original reservoir in scope for cx 2jR2 has also been observed
pressure, but for increasing times pressure in the application of this theory to flow
«'(e-enl
-R-'-
10-4 10" IO~ 10"
10• I
...........
......
10 I o
-",
r--
I I
I
10-, I0-'
I 10' 10' 10' 10' 1()6
cr'(e-enl
--R'-
FIG. r.-Gl FUNCTION FOR CALCULATION OF RATE OF WATER INFLUX.
gradients are established from the edge tests on oil wells, in which the well is
of the oil reservoir back into the formation interpreted as an instantaneous point sink,
to approach the original pressure at some analogous to the heat problem. It can be
point removed from the field. These said from these observations, therefore,
gradients, in turn, are subject to the varia- that the mathematics offers a certain
tions of the field pressure, and this effect amount of latitude in fixing the constants
is introduced into the mathematics by associated with water drive. However, what
superimposing a sequence of constant is most critical in these analyses is the
terminal pressure solutions, which essen- history of the reservoir pressure as it
tially reproduces the pressure changes in varies with time.
the field. Thus by means of the calculus, It is derived in the Appendix that for the
and the application of Darcy's law at the radial flow of water into a field, the rate of
periphery of the field, the water influx water influx into the oil reservoir at any
is determined as a function of reservoir time 0 is expressed in barrels per day as
pressure.
dZ 27r(I44)KuH
It has been observed that in the applica- dO = S·62J.1.
tion of this theory to reservoir studies the
physical values in the analytics, such as (edP G' (CX 2(0 - 0')) dO' [2]
Jo dO' R2
the diffusivity constant and the radius
of the field, are not at all critical in evaluat- and the cumulative water influx up to
ing the water influx. In several of the this time, expresseu as barrels, is given
calculations the comparable term to these by the relation
constants, namely cx 2j R2, was varied in 27r(I44)KuHR2
Z = - ---''--'---'-'----,,--
the order of the probable error introduced S·62J.1.cx 2
in establishing this value, without mate- (6 dP G (CX 2(0 - 0')) dO' [3]
rially affecting the calculated proportional Jo dO' R2
60 WATER INFLUX INTO A RESERVOIR AND VOLUMETRIC BALANCE
I I
10 ., V I
VI?
10 •10·' 10" 10 '
I0·'
10
«'16 -6n l
--R'-
FIG. 2a.
",'16-6nl
--R'-
, 10' 10' 10' 10'
I
./
10 , V I0'
/
/ I-
0 1
V
I
10 10' 10'
crOle-6nl
10 10 . 10~
0' ,
R'
FIG. 2b.
FIG. 2.-G FUNCTION FOR CALCULATION OF CUMULATIVE WATER INFLUX.
The integrands in these equations are the An alternative form for expressing the
products of the slopes of the reservoir cumulative water-influx equation IS the
pressure versus time curve for the field, relation
multiplied by either G'[a 2(0 - 0')IR2] or
G[a 2(0 - 0')1 R2] which are given in Figs. I, z = ::...27r::...(:,..:I24:!.4)~K::...(J:.:H::.
are given in the Nomenclature (p. 64). where reservoir pressure is explicitly
WILLIAM HURST 61
referred to as (PR - P), or as the difference Thus in the determination of the absolute
between original reservoir pressure and water influx into a field, the coefficient
pressure at time ()'. However, to satisfy associated with either of these equations is
the convergence of the integral the final established algebraically, along with the
0:2(e -en)
-R-'-
10 , 10 102 10' 10'
I
/
-
10 • I o·
'0
10
1/ I o·
IV 10 10 • ([2(6 -en)
10
, 10 . I0'
10'
-R-'-
FIG. 3.-G FUNCTION FOR DETERMINATION OF INTEGRATED AVERAGE VALUE OF C.
pressure difference is taken as constant quantity of oil originally in place, by a
for the interval ()I ::::;; ()' ::::;; () where (() - ()I) solution of the volumetric balance equation
::::;; o.ooIR2/a 2. for the fluids in the oil reservoir.
With reference to Eqs. 2, 3 and 4, it Eq. 3 is particularly suited to deter-
can be stated definitely that none of these mination of the cumulative water influx
equations can establish the absolute water into a reservoir, where the reservoir
influx unless it is possible to fix the' numeri- pressure-time curve may be represented
cal coefficients associated with the integrals. as a series of straight lines (Fig. 4). If
From this remark, however, it must not the pressure-time relation is a smooth
be construed that these equations are curve, there is no alternative but to
limited; on the contrary, it is the propor- resort to a graphical integration. Thus
tional variations of the integrals as they if the pressure variation in a reservoir is
fluctuate with time () that are important represented in "broken-line" fashion, with
in the calculations of the volumetric- the pressure at different times as P R , PI, P 2
balance equation, and for this reason at time zero, ()I and ()2, etc., the pressure-
Eqs. 3 and 4 should be regarded as time slopes are the following:
dP (P R - PI)
- d()' = ()r
dP (P r - P 2 )
or - d()' = (()2 - ()r) ;
dP (P 2 - P a)
- d()' = (()a - ()2) ;
dP (P n - I - P)
d()' = (() - ()n-I) ;
62 WATER INFLUX INTO A RESERVOIR AND VOLUMETRIC BALANCE
This means that between the pressure various times and the corresponding
surveys the slope of a line is fixed, therefore cumulative water as determined from a
Eq.3 can be expressed as
+ ... + (P n-I
_ P) [G(a 2 (6 - 6n _ I )/R2]t
a2( 6 - 6n _ l ) / R2 \
[6]
fixed subsurface depth. Also listed in the between the actual and calculated water
table is the time argument 0l2(Jn/ R2 for influx as represented by the ratio Z/Z1766,
each pressure survey. In Table 2 is given which is arbitrarily chosen to represent
a sample calculation of the proportional the proportional variatitn of the water
4400
4200
...............
~
4000
"',
!i 3600
~
'""
3400
'" ~
200 400 600
1.0
lL
/
Legend:
.- Volumetric balance
0- - "8roIcen line If presSUte
variation in the reserllOir.
/,/
'0
~O.4
/
i
N
';DO.2 "d'/V
N
V
~
>!::: .....
cumulative water influx for 1645 days drive. This is true for the last eight surveys,
of the production life of the field, employing although the first two are considerably off.
Eq. 6 and the corresponding plot for the G However, this should not be construed
function. Finally, in Table 3 are listed the as an inaccuracy in the theory of water
calculated values for all 10 surveys drive for early times, qut rather as a
against actual values for water influx, limitation of the volumetric-balance equa-
which were determined from the volu- tion, which is fairly insensitive to small
metric-balance equation using the geologi- pressure drops from the original reservoir
cal estimate of the oil originally in place. pressure. The numerical coefficient of
It is observed that in Table 2, and also Eq. 6, which is determined' from the
in Fig. 5, there is fairly good agreement volumetric and calculated water influx
64 WATER INFLUX INTO A RESERVOIR AND VOLUMETRIC BALANCE
given in Table 2, is also listed. The con- In all fields where this theory has been
stancy of this coefficient is a further check applied, the calculated water-drive values
on the two sets of data. Thus for the last give results that agree with the propor-
eight surveys the numerical average of tional variation of the comparable term in
TABLE r.-Pressure-time Data the volumetric-balance equation.
0 0 0 0 0
18 4 1,100 0.001 56 0.0052 20
366 433,000 0.0408 247 0.0229 1,753
550 531,000 0.0501 657 0.0608 808
731 1,120,000 0.106 1,40 3 0.130 798
9 15 2,000,000 0.189 2,449 0.227 817
1,096 3,320,000 0·313 3,737 0.346 888
1,280 4,980,000 0·470 5,295 0.490 941
1,461 6,900,000 0.651 7,142 0.661 966
1,645 9.000,000 0.848 9,30 4 0.861 967
1,766 10,600,000 1.000 10,808 1,000 981
WILLIAM HURST
The rate of water influx into the reservoir case, with each term referred to its initial
is established by Darcy's law for the flow time of corresponding pressure change in
of fluids. This law, as applied to a slightly the reservoir. The comparable values to
compressible fluid, is the basis for the G' were determined by the author in an
derivation of Eq. I in the equation of the earlier study of the constant terminal
continuity of flow. The law, stated briefly, pressure case. 3 The analytics of this work
is that the linear velocity of flow of a is essentially that of Eq. 7, for which PI
fluid along its stream line is directly is held constant for the entire period of
proportional to the pressure drop per unit production, or
length of flow. Therefore, the rate of water
movement into the reservoir, given as
barrels per day, is expressed as
dZ = (I44)KO"A
dO 5.62J1,
(ap)
ar [4] The corresponding term to G' in the
r_R paper cited 3 is computed for a large range
using the engineering units listed in the of time arguments. Its transformation to
Nomenclature of this paper, with K the this analysis is given as follows: In Fig. 4
normal permeability of the water forma- of the paper cited 3 is given a family of
tion, JI, the viscosity of the water, 0" the curves in which the branch curves cor-
fraction of the perimeter of the field respond to closed-in reservoirs of varying
exposed to water drive, and A = 271"RH dimensions, but the envelope of these
the peripheral area of the reservoir, or curves is the rate-time relationship of
the constant terminal pressure case for
dZ = 271"(I44)KO"H
dO 5.62J1,
(rap)
ar r~R
[5] the infinite concentric radial system. The
rate terms qR of Fig. 4 and dZjdO of
with H the thickness of the sand. this analysis are interchangeable, and as
For the purpose of simplifying the this theory applies to a slightly com-
calculus involved in applying Eq. 5, the pressible fluid,
differentiation of F(r, 0) may be defined
by the expression G' (aR220) I
= 271"
[
KH(I -
qRC
f: C(PB PW»
]
ar 0»)
( raF(r, = G' (aR20)
2
r_R
[6]
in which the conversion factor 5.62 has relation in the paper (Fig. 5) is given by
been introduced to convert barrels per
day to cubic feet per day. = 27rH q,a 2(I - E C(PII Pw»
The values of G'(a 2(0 - On)/ R2) versus QR
a 2(0 - On)/ R2 are given in Fig. I for
time arguments from a 20/R2 = 0.0001
to 1,000,000. where QR and Z as well as a 2 and R2 are
The cumulative water influx into the interchangeable, with 0' = 1. The expres-
reservoir is established by the integration sion for G, then, is equal to the ordinate of
of Eq. 7 with time. In carrying out this the main stem of the family of curves
step, however, it is necessary to take into divided by 27r. These values are given in
account the fact that each term in this Figs. 2a and 2b of this paper.
equation is dependent on the relative In this analysis, the influx of water into
time that its pressure drop is effective in the reservoir from the adjacent water
the history of the pressure change in the formation has been restricted to the" step-
reservoir. The integration, then, of Eq. 7 fashion" pressure variation in the field.
is expressed as That the pressure does not necessarily
Further, if the time of duration for each hood of 01 2(0 - 0')/ R2 = 0, in order to
plateau is reduced to an infinitesimal, satisfy the convergence of the integrals
there will be an infinite number of "steps," expressed by Eqs. 9 and 10.
and this expansion approaches as a limit Thus for extremely small time argu-
the integral ments, 01 2(0 - O')/R2, the problem is
dZ comparable to the case in which the time
2'11"(I44)KuHI
is finite but the radius of the reservoir is
e
dO = s·62J.L
extremely large. Under these conditions,
foB :; G' 2(0R-; 0')) dO' [9] then, the influx of fluid into the reservoir
approximates a solution to an infinite
to which the negative sign is prefixed to solid bounded by a plane, and the analysis
correct for the order of occurrence of is essentially that of linear flow. For the
(P,Y-1 - P'Y) with time. Likewise the linear flow problem, the corresponding
cumulative water influx is expressed as values for the functions are
+ ;: JoBI (PR - P)G" (01 2(0R-; 0')) dO' - ~: J:~ G' (01 2(0R-; 0')) dO' ~
= 2'11"(I44)KuH 5(P R _ PiG' (01 2(0 - 01 ) ) + 01 2 (B1 (PR _ P)G" (01 2(0 - 0')) dO'
S.62J.L 1 R2 R2 Jo R2
_ 2 dP R 1(0 - 01) l [12]
dO '\J '11"01 2 )
70 WATER INFLUX INTO A RESERVOIR AND VOLUMETRIC BALANCE
[151
WILLIAM HURST
Therefore, by Eqs. 15 and 17, the rate centric with an oil field, and subtended by a
of water influx is expressed as spherical angle at the center of the field.
and the cumulative water influx by the An examination of the literature, however,
relation has failed to reveal the constant terminal