The Influence of Different Strategies on the Production of Oil Fields Stimulated by Waterflooding

Abstract

Quality map is an important tool which can assist in the definition andrefinement of production strategies, since it indicates the production potentialof each place of the reservoir, combining several parameters that influence oilrecovery efficiency. This work has used numerical simulation to analyse theperformance of different production strategies used in waterflood projects foran offshore reservoir; these strategies included peripheral injection/centralproduction, a 5-spot injection/production scheme and a strategy defined withthe assistance of a quality map; after the initial process of strategy definition,all schemes were optimised. The refinement procedure was assisted by anexpert system, which proposes well modifications based on the analysis ofeconomic and technical parameters and stores the analysed parameters in adatabank. The results show that the use of the quality map improved to agreat extent the processes of strategy definition and refinement, yielding better results and requiring fewer simulation runs. The application of qualitymaps to petroleum reservoirs is still quite recent, with very few workspublished; however, they present great potential for the E&P industry, aspresented here.