Oil and Gas
Oil and Gas | Reservoir Engineering
Reservoir and Production Engineering Aspects of Waterflooding
Format and Duration:
4 days
Waterflooding is the dominant injection method and is without question responsible for the high level of producing rates and reserves within the global oil industry. The success of waterflooding as a method of improving oil recovery is accounted for by (1) the availability of water, (2) the relative ease of water injection, (3) the ability of water to spread through the oil-bearing formation, and (4) the efficiency of water in displacing oil. This course describes the tools used by Petroleum Engineers to analyse and predict the performance of waterflooding reservoirs. It covers methods for interpreting reservoir performance, estimating recovery factors, predicting flowrates from oil wells and assessing the performance of reservoirs. Also included are the production engineering aspects of designing water injection plant, water quality and treatment, monitoring, surveillance and data management.
Schedule
Duration and Training Method
This is a 4-day course consisting mainly of lectures, supplemented by integrated class exercises which apply the techniques described to typical subsurface datasets. Extensive use is made of water flood field-case-studies to establish world-wide best practice.
Course Overview
Learning Outcomes
- Understand the principles and mechanism of waterflooding.
- Investigate the flood displacement process and factors that control recovery and performance.
- Design water floods my considering rate, pattern, timing and well spacing.
- Assess qualitatively the dynamic performance of waterflooding reservoirs.
- Estimate optimum operating injection rate, reservoir pressure, hydrocarbon pore volume, and voidage replacement.
- Understand water injection systems, water sources and treatment, to gauge and monitor injection quality.
- Plan water flood surveillance and data management.
- Understand water shut-off techniques (chemical and mechanical), conformance evaluation and how to manage water production.
- Discuss future trends, EOR applications, low-salinity and WAG flooding.
Course Content
Day 1
- Introduction
- Basic water-oil properties of reservoir rock
- Rock wettability, capillary pressure, relative permeability, connate water saturation
- Efficiency of oil dispacement by water
- Frontal advance theory, water tonguing, viscous fingering, Buckley-Leverett
- Mobility ratio concept
Day 2
- Areal sweep efficiency
- Efficiency at water breakthrough, injectivities for various waterflood patterns, areal sweep prediction
- Reservoir heterogeneity
- Types of heterogeneity, conformance factors, geological zonation
- Vertical and volumetirc sweep efficiency
- Influence of mobility ratio, influence of gravity forces, influence of capillary forces, crossflow between layers
Day 3
- Predicting waterflood performance
- Analytical methods of Stiles and Dykstra Parsons, reservoir simulation, factors affecting water flood recovery
- Group simulation exercise
- The Tullig field simulation
Day 4
- Pilot waterflooding
- Waterflood design
- Data management
- Flood surveillance and monitoring.
- Water injection operation
- Water treatment, water injection systems, water quality
- EOR
- Low-salinity and WAG flooding, surfactants and polymers
- Field case studies
- Forties, Wara, Minagish oolite waterflood project descriptions
- Conclusions and summary
Who Should Attend and Prerequisites
This course is designed for mid to senior level production and reservoir engineers, for geoscientists or managers involved in operational projects and those seeking a more detailed knowledge of waterflooding and its application to real-life problems. The course is also suitable for Reservoir & Petroleum engineers who require a refresher in this area.
Instructors
Pete Smith
Background
Pete Smith is Director of ReganSmith Associates, a company offering training and consultancy to the Oil and Gas Industry. Pete trained as a reservoir engineer and researcher firstly at the UK government research Institute of Hydrology, Oxford, before joining BP’s research team to lead the development of novel modelling methods; building the first stochastic models to describe multi-phase fluid-flow in reservoir rocks. Moving into BP operational activities, he was responsible for creating the processes for managing the uncertainty in value and reserves in new field developments that became the BP standard approach.
Assignments with BP included lead engineer on Dukhan, Arab C Reservoir, Qatar; the appraisal and financial sanction of the Harding, Andrew, Foinaven and Schiehalion fields in the UKCS and managing the operated production in the Gulf of Mexico. Pete was also the founding director of the BP Institute at Cambridge University concerned with fundamental research in fluid-flow and was responsible for building their environmental technology across the BP group as Technology Vice President.
Pete helped establish the new Engineering University in Trinidad & Tobago as Associate Provost (R&D) and Professor of Petroleum Engineering between 2004 and 2008. On return to the UK, Pete became Principal Advisor in Reservoir Engineering at RPS Energy leading company reserve audits. In 2010 Pete led the Upstream Risk Management advisory activity and in 2011 became Chief Reservoir Engineer.
Affiliations and Accreditation
BSc Mathematics
MSc Differential Equations
PhD Earth Sciences
C Eng. FEI Chartered Petroleum Engineer
Courses Taught
N401: Multi-Disciplinary Skills for Field Development Planning and Approval
N412: A Critical Guide to Reservoir Appraisal and Development
N415: Reservoir Characterisation for Appraisal and Development
N541: Petroleum Economics, Rick and Uncertainty
N584: Storage Exploration – Screening and Selection of CO2 Sites
N680: Multi-Disciplinary Skills for Sustainable Field Development Planning for Hydrocarbon and CCS Projects
N716: Reservoir Engineering Aspects of Reservoir Modelling
N721: Resource Risk and Economic Evaluation
N952: Resource Assessment and Assurance
N954: Practical Approaches to Increased Recovery
N995: Managing Uncertainty and Risk in Appraisal and Development
N996: Gas Reservoir Engineering
Accreditation and Certification
CEU: 2.8 Continuing Education Units
PDH: 28 Professional Development Hours
Certificate: Certificate Issued Upon Completion
RPS is accredited by the International Association for Continuing Education and Training (IACET) and is authorized to issue the IACET CEU. We comply with the ANSI/IACET Standard, which is recognised internationally as a standard of excellence in instructional practices.
We issue a Certificate of Attendance which verifies the number of training hours attended. Our courses are generally accepted by most professional licensing boards/associations towards continuing education credits. Please check with your licensing board to determine if the courses and certificate of attendance meet their specific criteria.