Innovative Business Partnership Produces Effective Water Conformance Treatments

Abstract

Historically, water conformance treatments have often proved to be problematic and unreliable. Often, expectations are unrealistic and candidates poor. In addition, wells are treated individually and subsequent unrepresentative results are taken to be the norm. Products or processes that are genuinely effective under the right conditions are often written off as failures, due to ineffective placement or use on unsuitable candidates. However, this does not have to be the case. With proper candidate identification, correct treatment selection and effective treatment placement, water conformance treatments can be placed with a high degree of success. This paper will describe the processes necessary for this to be achieved. These fall into three main stages - candidate selection, treatment selection and treatment execution. Each one of these stages is critical. For the process to work, the right treatment has to be placed at the right point, in the right well. The paper will also detail the care taken in the candidate selection process and illustrate just how critical this is. It will go on to discuss the need for good treatment design and the effective placement of the system selected. The paper will conclude by providing case histories from the offshore Java Sea area, to illustrate just how effective this process can be. Introduction Water conformance treatments have a reputation that can only be described as mixed. Too often, expectations are unreasonable (for a variety of reasons) and systems are evaluated by treatments on single wells. Moreover, in many cases, the engineers involved do not spend enough effort to diagnose the source of the water conformance problem, and can often lack a thorough understanding of the various products and services that can be applied. What many practitioners fail to appreciate - or more often, fail to implement - is that a systematic approach must be adopted if success is to be achieved. The whole process, encompassing activities and information influenced or controlled by both the operating and service companies, must be considered. Hunter et al1 provided a succinct, five point analysis of the processes involved. If water conformance treatments are to be successful, three main processes must be effectively completed, as illustrated in figure 1. Candidate Selection In order for any water conformance treatment to be successful, a suitable candidate must be selected. The problems associated with selecting suitable candidates for water conformance treatments have long been recognised:-It is essential, however, that problem wells and fields be carefully analysed to determine the cause of low sweep efficiency and high or increased water production so that the correct material and placement method is used.2

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