Analytical Model of Waterflood Sweep Efficiency in Vertical Heterogeneous Reservoirs under Constant Pressure

Abstract

An analytical model has been developed for quantitative evaluation of vertical sweep efficiency based on heterogeneous multilayer reservoirs. By applying the Buckley-Leverett displacement mechanism, a theoretical relationship is deduced to describe dynamic changes of the front of water injection, water saturation of producing well, and swept volume during waterflooding under the condition of constant pressure, which substitutes for the condition of constant rate in the traditional way. Then, this method of calculating sweep efficiency is applied from single layer to multilayers, which can be used to accurately calculate the sweep efficiency of heterogeneous reservoirs and evaluate the degree of waterflooding in multilayer reservoirs. In the case study, the water frontal position, water cut, volumetric sweep efficiency, and oil recovery are compared between commingled injection and zonal injection by applying the derived equations. The results are verified by numerical simulators, respectively. It is shown that zonal injection works better than commingled injection in respect of sweep efficiency and oil recovery and has a longer period of water free production.

Construction of approximate solutions to the riemann problem for two-phase flow of immiscible liquids by modifying the vanishing viscosity method

“…The Buckley-Leverett model (1942) is the basis of many modern studies. By applying the Buckley-Leverett displacement mechanism, a mathematical model was developed to predict the efficiency of flooding in stratified reservoirs [16]; a model is developed for the prediction of waterflooding performance in stratified reservoirs using the Buckley-Leverett displacement theory [17] and a theoretical relationship is deduced to describe dynamic changes of the front of water injection, water saturation of producing well [18].…”