Design of Water Injection Programs: Lessons Learnt Over the Past 40 years
Wednesday, October 12, 2024, Noon Central
CSEE Webinar
Check it out here: Texas CSEE Youtube
Abstract
Water injection for waterflooding, disposal or pressure maintenance is the single biggest operating expense for most operators in mature fields. Case studies for seawater and produced water injection are presented to show that the injector performance can vary widely. In some instances injectivities can decline rapidly in unfractured injectors even when relatively clean water is injected, while in others no decline is observed while untreated produced water is injected. Guidelines are presented on what expect under a given set of injection conditions and how injectivity declines can be interpreted.
A vast majority of water injection wells have injection-induced fractures that grow with time (over a period of years). The growth of these fractures differs in important ways from the growth of typical hydraulic fractures. The injectivity behavior of such injectors in discussed in detail. Results of experiment work and models for fracture growth due to fracture face plugging and thermal stresses are compared with field data.
Growing injection well fractures can have a significant impact on reservoir performance (oil production rates, o/w ratio and ultimate recovery). Field-scale simulations show how the presence of fractures in the injectors affects the waterflood sweep efficiency. Results indicate that fracture orientation, rate of fracture growth, injection water quality and reservoir heterogeneity (including natural fractures) play an important role in determining the oil production rates and ultimate recovery. The results of the simulations can be used to design injection well completions (including ICVs), set injection well pressures and rates, specify water quality and to select injection well patterns to maximize oil recovery.
Bio
Mukul M. Sharma is Professor and holds the “Tex” Moncrief Chair in the Department of Petroleum, Geosystems & Chemical Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin where he has been for the past 39 years. He served as Chairman of the Department from 2001 to 2005. His current research interests include hydraulic fracturing, oilfield water management, formation damage and improved oil recovery. He has published more than 450 journal articles and conference proceedings and has 21 patents. He founded Austin Geotech Services an E&P consulting company in 1996. He also co-founded Layline Petroleum in 2006 (which had very successful exit in 2013), Navidad Energy in 2017 and Polaris Lithium, LLC and Geothermix, LLC in 2020. Sharma has a B. Tech in chemical engineering from IIT Kanpur and an MS and PhD in chemical and petroleum engineering from the University of Southern California.
Dr. Sharma is a member of the US National Academy of Engineering and an Honorary Member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE). He is the recipient of the 2017 John Franklin Carll Award and the 2009 Lucas Gold Medal, SPE’s highest technical awards. He has also received the 2004 SPE Faculty Distinguished Achievement Award, the 2002 Lester C. Uren Award, the 1998 SPE Formation Evaluation Award and the Distinguished Alumnus awards from IIT Kanpur and USC. He served as an SPE Distinguished Lecturer in 2002, has served on the Editorial Boards of many journals, and taught and consulted for industry worldwide.
