A Strategy for Attacking Excess Water Production

Abstract

TX 75083-3836, U.S.A., fax 01-972-952-9435. AbstractThis paper describes a straightforward strategy for diagnosing and solving excess water production problems. The strategy advocates that the easiest problems should be attacked first and diagnosis of water production problems should begin with information already at hand. A listing of water production problems is provided, along with a ranking of their relative ease of solution.Conventional methods (e.g., cement, mechanical devices) normally should be applied first to treat the easiest problemsi.e., casing leaks and flow behind pipe where cement can be placed effectively and for unfractured wells where impermeable barriers separate water and hydrocarbon zones. Gelant treatments normally are the best option for casing leaks and flow behind pipe with flow restrictions that prevent effective cement placement. Both gelants and preformed gels have been successfully applied to treat hydraulic or natural fractures that connect to an aquifer. Treatments with preformed gels normally are the best option for faults or fractures crossing a deviated or horizontal well, for a single fracture causing channeling between wells, or for a natural fracture system that allows channeling between wells. Gel treatments should not be used to treat the most difficult problems-i.e., three-dimensional coning, cusping, or channeling through strata with crossflow.

A critical review on use of polymer microgels for conformance control purposes

“…Polymer flooding (Needham and Doe, 1987;Sheng, 2011;Sorbie, 1991), polymer in-situ gel flooding (Abdo et al, 1984;Avery et al, 1986;Kabir, 2001;Kim May, 1995;Norman et al, 2006;Seright and Liang, 1994;Seright et al, 2003;Sydansk and Southwell, 2000), and polymer microgel flooding (Al- Anazi and Sharma, 2002;Chauveteau et al, 2001;Coste et al, 2000;Cozic et al, 2009;Frampton et al, 2004;Mack and Smith, 1994;Spildo et al, 2009;Zaitoun et al, 2007) are three distinct improved oil recovery techniques, and it is important to be able to differentiate them from each other. Before proceeding with this distinction, a few key terms need be briefly defined.…”

“…The latter is important because water disposal costs are high and its disposal regulation is becoming increasingly strict. It has been estimated that for every barrel of oil produced worldwide, an average of roughly 3 barrels of water are produced as well, and the water disposal cost is estimated to be as high as $40 billion globally per year (Seright et al, 2003). Decreasing the amount of water produced can also decrease the load on surface facilities, and decrease corrosion and scale levels (Bai et al, 2008).…”

Advances of Produced Water Management

“…Four main reasons exist for the inadequate diagnosis of water-production problems. [5] First, operators often do not feel that they have the time or money to perform the diagnosis, especially on marginal wells with high water cuts. The performance of the oil production wells traditionally receives their greatest attention, since it directly impacts on achieving the daily oil production target.…”

Improving sweep efficiency of edge-water drive reservoirs using induced formation damage

“…Many different methods are used to slow down the water tongue including: production rate control, management of the total oil production pattern and injection of barrier fluids. Most commonly used barriers fluids are cement, gels, resins, foams and polymers (Karp et al, 1962;Seright et al, 2001;Zaitoun and Pichery, 2001). A large treatment volume is required to divert water away from the area that has been already swept by water, which is generally uneconomic (Bailey et al, 2000).…”