Formation damage

Integrated Approach To Managing Formation Damage in Waterflooding

Understanding of formation damage is a key theme in a waterflood project. An integrated multidisciplinary approach is required to determine an optimal design and strategy.

jpt-2017-02-fdmanform-hero.jpg
Fig. 1—Formation damage as a function of solids size (FORDAM).

Understanding of formation damage is a key theme in a waterflood project. An integrated multidisciplinary approach is required to determine an optimal design and strategy. An operator has developed a suite of tools to tackle these issues and help in adequate design and optimization of waterfloods.

Introduction

Many waterfloods in the operating phase do not perform as expected. Often this is because of well-injectivity issues where the required water quality for the injected water is either not properly defined (i.e., by the subsurface disciplines) or not properly managed (i.e., at the surface facilities). A rapid decline in well injectivity can result when injecting under matrix conditions, and a loss in reservoir containment caused by out-of-zone injection (OOZI) or a short-circuiting injector and producer can occur when injecting under fractured conditions, all negatively affecting reservoir sweep.

Subsurface and Subsurface-Modeling Work Flows

To determine an optimal waterflooding concept, it is important for the integrated work flow that the outcome of the subsurface assessment be a range of technically feasible scenarios.

×
SPE_logo_CMYK_trans_sm.png
Continue Reading with SPE Membership
SPE Members: Please sign in at the top of the page for access to this member-exclusive content. If you are not a member and you find JPT content valuable, we encourage you to become a part of the SPE member community to gain full access.