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Core Course

(PET3006: Advanced Petroleum Reservoir


Engineering)

Module-2 Improved Oil Recovery and Immiscible


Displacement
[9 Lectures]

Dr. Rohit Kumar Saw


Assistant Professor
Department of Petroleum Engineering
Content:
There are 4 Modules have been included in this course:

Module 1: Water Influx

Module 2: Improved Oil Recovery and Immiscible Displacement

Module 3: Oil Reservoir Performance

Module 4: Introduction to Reservoir Management


Stages of Oil Production

Course instructor- Dr. Rohit Kumar Saw


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EOR vs IOR
• These two terms, IOR (Improved Oil Recovery) and EOR
(Enhanced Oil Recovery) , are often time overlapping in meaning.
• The main difference between IOR and EOR is that EOR approach is
used to recover mostly immobile oil that remains in the reservoir
after application of primary and secondary methods while IOR
strategies are used to recover mobile oil. But sometimes, IOR is
used to recover a immobile oil as well.
• Normally, IOR is a method for recovering additional oil further
than primary recovery methods (fluid expansion, rock
compressibility, gravitational drainage and natural water flow or gas
drive) or any activity that increases oil production and increases
recovery factor.
• This implies that IOR include application of technological advances
over life of a field and encompasses all secondary and tertiary
recovery methods.

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• Primary oil recovery describes the production of
hydrocarbons under the natural driving mechanisms
present in the reservoir without supplementary help
from the injected fluids such as gas or water.
• Primary recovery stages reaches its limit either when
the reservoir pressure is so low that the production
rates are not economical or production of gas/ water
in the production stream are too high.
• During primary recovery, only a small percentage of
hydrocarbons in place are produced.

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• Secondary oil recovery refers to the additional recovery
that results from the injection of external fluid such as
water and gas into the reservoir.
• The main purpose of secondary oil recovery is to maintain
the reservoir pressure and to displaces oil towards the
wellbore.
• Usually, the selected secondary recovery process follows the
primary recovery but it can also be conducted concurrently
with the primary recovery.
• The most common secondary recovery techniques are gas
injection and waterflooding. Normally, gas is injected
into the gas cap and water is injected into the
production zone to sweep oil from the reservoir.

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• Waterflooding is most common method of secondary recovery.
• Secondary recovery assumes that the injected fluid is
immiscible with the displaced hydrocarbon.
• Tertiary oil recovery is that additional recovery over and
above what could be recovered by primary and secondary
recovery methods.
• Various methods of EOR are essentially designed to recover
oil commonly known as residual oil, left after both primary
and secondary recovery methods have been exploits to their
respective economic limits.
• Secondary and EOR methods are needed because only a
small portion of the oil in a reservoir can be produced by
primary means (natural drives).

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Secondary Recovery Techniques
• Secondary oil recovery procedure can be classified into two types:
(i) pressure maintenance
(ii) water flooding.
• Pressure maintenance means the injection of gas or other fluid into
a reservoir, either to increase or maintain the existing pressure in such
reservoir or to retard the natural decline in the reservoir pressure.
• The main effect of pressure maintenance is to mitigate the
reservoir’s pressure decline and conserve its energy. The purpose
of pressure maintenance is ultimately to improve oil recovery.
• The most common injected fluids for pressure maintenance are water
and separator or residue gas.

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• “Partial" and "complete" pressure maintenance describe
the general effectiveness of a given pressure-maintenance
operation to retard the rate of pressure decline.
• Partial pressure maintenance refers to fluid injection
while a general state of pressure decline still exists.
• Full or complete pressure maintenance refers to fluid
injection while the reservoir pressure remains
essentially constant.
• Secondary-recovery methods such as waterflooding are not
strictly pressure-maintenance operations because they
begin after pressure depletion.
• Waterflooding consists of injecting water into selected wells
while producing from the surrounding wells .

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• Water is an efficient agent for displacing light or medium
gravity oil in a relatively homogeneous formation where
high permeability channels are not encountered .
• In earlier days, waterflooding had often been initiated in
depleted or nearly depleted reservoirs with a free gas phase
present. In the initial stage of the waterflooding process,
injected water fills up the pores previously occupied by gas,
which is redissolved in solution, and the reservoir pressure
is restored.
• More efficient waterflooding practices, however, require
water injection above the bubble point pressure of oil in
order to avoid the evolution of gas in the reservoir.
Liberation of dissolved gas leads to lower relative permeability
to the oil phase, and lower production rates, as gas becomes
mobile.

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The practice of waterflood

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• A typical waterflood response is characterized by an
increase in oil rate, followed by a decline, and an eventual
breakthrough of injected water at the producers.
• It can be said that. The water–oil ratio continues to
rise with time, and the economic limit is reached
when water Production Becomes Excessive.

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The following reservoir characteristics must be considered
for determining the suitability of a candidate reservoir for
waterflooding:
• Reservoir geometry
• Fluid properties
• Reservoir depth
• Lithology and rock properties
• Fluid saturations
• Reservoir uniformity and pay continuity
• Primary reservoir driving mechanism

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Reservoir geometry
• The areal geometry of the reservoir will influence the
location of wells and if offshore , will influence the
location and number of platforms required.
• If a water drive reservoir is classified as active water
drive , injection may be unnecessary.
Fluid properties
• The viscosity of crude oil is considered the most
important fluid property that affects the degree of
success of a waterflooding projects.
• The oil viscosity has the important effect of determining
the mobility ratio that in turn, controls the sweep
efficiency.

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Reservoir Depth
• Affects both technical and economic aspects of
secondary and tertiary project.
• Maximum injection pressure will increase with depth.
• Shallow reservoir imposes restraint on injection
pressure that can be used, because it must be less that
the fracture pressure.
• The cost of lifting oil from very deep well will limit the
maximum oil-water ratios that can be tolerated.
Lithology and Rock properties
Porosity, Permeability, Clay content, Net thickness

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Fluid saturations
• A high oil saturation that provides a sufficient supply of
recoverable oil is the primary criterion for successful
water flooding.
• Higher oil saturation at the beginning of flood operation
increases the oil mobility that in turn give higher
recovery.
Reservoir Uniformity and Pay Continuity
• Substantial uniformity is one of the major criteria for
successful water flooding.
• If the formation contains a stratum of limited thickness
with a very high permeability (i.e. thief zone), rapid
channeling and bypassing will develop. Unless his
zone is plugged, water-oil ratio will become too high.

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Optimum Time to waterflood
The most common procedure for determining the optimum
time to start waterflood is to calculate:
a) Anticipated oil recovery
b) Fluid production rate
c) Monetary investments
d) Availability and quality of water supply
e) Cost of water treatment and pumping equipment's
f) Cost of maintenance and operation of water installation
facilities
g) Cost of drilling a new injection wells and cost of
converting an existing production well into injector
well.

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Factors Considered to Determine the Reservoir
Pressure to Initiate Waterflooding
• F. W Cole(1969) lists the following factors are important
while determining the reservoir pressure (or time ) to
initiate water flooding.
a) Reservoir viscosity
b) Free gas saturation
c) Cost of injection equipment's
d) Productivity of wells
e) Overall life of reservoir

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• The principal requirement for a successful fluid
injection project is that sufficient oil must remain in the
reservoir after primary operations have ceased to
render economic the secondary recovery operations.
• This high residual oil saturation after primary recovery
is essential not only because there must be a sufficient
volume of oil left in the reservoir, but also because of
relative permeability considerations.
• A high oil relative permeability, i.e., high oil saturation,
means more oil recovery with less production of the
displacing fluid. On the other hand, low oil saturation
means a low oil relative permeability with more
production of the displacing fluid at a given time .

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Factors affecting waterflood performance
The response to waterflooding primarily depends upon
the following:

• Well spacing, i.e., distance between producers and injectors


• Waterflood pattern, i.e., relative location of injectors and
producers
• Schedule of conversion from producer to injector and vice-
versa
• Fluid properties, including viscosity and gravity

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Selection of Flooding Patterns

• One of the first steps in designing a waterflooding


project is flood pattern selection.
• The objective is to select the proper pattern that will
provide the injection fluid with the maximum possible
contact with the crude oil system.
• This selection can be achieved by
a) Converting existing production wells into injectors or
b) Drilling infill injection wells.

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When making the selection of pattern, the following
factors must be considered:
• Reservoir heterogeneity and directional permeability
• Direction of formation fractures
• Availability of the injection fluid (gas or water)
• Desired and anticipated flood life
• Maximum oil recovery
• Well spacing, productivity, and injectivity

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Factors affecting waterflood performance

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Flooding Patterns

Essentially four types of well arrangements are used in fluid


injection projects:
• Irregular injection patterns
• Peripheral injection patterns
• Regular injection patterns
• Crestal and basal injection patterns

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Selection of Flooding Patterns

• Peripheral injection patterns


In peripheral flooding, the injection
wells are located at the external
boundary of the reservoir and the oil
is displaced toward the interior of the
reservoir .

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• The peripheral flood generally yields a maximum oil recovery
with a minimum of produced water.
• The production of significant quantities of water can be delayed
until only the last row of producers remains.
• Because of the unusually small number of injectors compared
with the number of producers, it takes a long time for the
injected water to fill up the reservoir gas space. The result is a
delay in the field response to the flood.
• For a successful peripheral flood, the formation permeability
must be large enough to permit the movement of the injected
water at the desired rate over the distance of several well
spacings from injection wells to the last line of producers .

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• To keep injection wells as close as possible to the
waterflood front without bypassing any movable oil,
watered-out producers may be converted into injectors.
However, moving the location of injection wells frequently
requires laying longer surface water lines and adding costs.
• Results from peripheral flooding are more difficult to
predict. The displacing fluid tends to displace the oil bank
past the inside producers, which are thus difficult to
produce.
• Injection rates are generally a problem because the
injection wells continue to push the water greater
distances.

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Regular Injection Pattern
• Oil leases are divided into square miles and quarter
square miles, fields are developed in a very regular
pattern. such as:
a) Direct line drive
b) Staggered line drive
c) Four spot
d) Five spot
e) Seven spot
f) Nine spot

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• Direct line drive. The lines of injection and production
are directly opposed to each other. The pattern is
characterized by two parameters:
a = distance between wells of the same type, and
d = distance between lines of injectors and producers.
• Staggered line drive. The wells are in lines as in the
direct line, but the injectors and producers are no longer
directly opposed but laterally displaced by a distance of
a/2.

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• Five spot. This is a special case of the staggered line
drive in which the distance between all like wells is
constant, i.e., a = 2d. Any four injection wells thus form
a square with a production well at the centre.
• Seven spot. The injection wells are located at the corner
of a hexagon with a production well at its centre.
• Nine spot. This pattern is similar to that of the five spot
but with an extra injection well drilled at the middle of
each side of the square. The pattern essentially contains
eight injectors surrounding one producer.
• The patterns termed inverted have only one injection
well per pattern. This is the difference between normal
and inverted well arrangements.

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Crestal and Basal Injection Patterns
• In crestal injection, as the name implies, the injection is
through wells located at the top of the structure. Gas
injection projects typically use a crestal injection
pattern.
• In basal injection, the fluid is injected at the bottom of
the structure. Many water injection projects use basal
injection patterns with additional benefits being gained
from gravity segregation.

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Recovery Efficiency
• The overall recovery factor (efficiency) RF of any
secondary or tertiary oil recovery method is the product
of a combination of three individual efficiency
factors as given by the following generalized expression:

• In terms of cumulative oil production,

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Volumetric Sweep Efficiency
The product of areal sweep efficiency and vertical
sweep efficiency is known as the volumetric sweep
efficiency. This depends on the following factors:
a) Injection pattern selected
b) Fractures in the reservoir
c) Reservoir thickness and Permeability
d) Areal and vertical heterogeneity
e) Mobility ratio
f) Flow rate

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Areal Sweep Efficiency
The areal sweep efficiency, EA, is defined as the
fractional area of the pattern that is swept by the
displacing fluid (or total oil) that is contacted by the
displacing fluid. It increases steadily with injection from
zero at the start of the flood until breakthrough occurs,
after which EA continues to increase at a slower rate.

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• The areal sweep efficiency depends basically on the
following factors:
a) Mobility ratio (M)
b) Flood pattern
c) Well spacing
d) Cumulative water injected (Winj )
e) Areal heterogeneity
f) Fluid and rock properties

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• Craig et al. (1955) performed experimental
studies on the influence of fluid mobilities on
the areal sweep efficiency resulting from water
or gas injection.
• Craig and his coinvestigators used horizontal
laboratory models representing a quadrant of
five spot patterns. Areal sweep efficiencies were
determined from x-ray shadowgraphs taken
during various stages of the displacement as
illustrated in following Fig. Two mobility ratios,
1.43 and 0.4, were used in the study.

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• Fig. shows that at the start of the flood, the water front
takes on a cylindrical form around the injection point
(well). As a result of the continuous injection, pressure
distribution and corresponding streamlines are
developed between the injection and production wells.
• The contacted fraction when water breakthrough
occurs is defined as the areal sweep efficiency at
breakthrough, as denoted by EABT.
• In general, lower mobility ratios would increase the
areal sweep efficiency and higher mobility ratios
would decrease the EA.
• Fig. also shows that with continued injection after
breakthrough, the areal sweep efficiency continues to
increase until it eventually reaches 100%.

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Vertical Sweep Efficiency

• The vertical sweep efficiency, EV, is defined as


the fraction of the vertical section of the pay
zone that is contacted by injected fluids. As a
consequence of the non-uniform permeabilities,
any injected fluid will tend to move through the
reservoir with an irregular front.
• In the more permeable portions, the injected
water will travel more rapidly than in the less
permeable zone.

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• The vertical sweep efficiency mainly depends on the following
factors:
a) Vertical heterogeneity
b) Degree of gravity segregation
c) Mobility ratio
d) Cumulative water injection
e) Well spacing
f) Fluid and rock properties
• Perhaps the area of the greatest uncertainty in designing a
waterflood is the quantitative knowledge of the permeability
variation within the reservoir.
• The degree of permeability variation is considered by far the most
significant parameter influencing the vertical sweep efficiency.

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Calculation of Vertical Sweep Efficiency

• To calculate the vertical sweep efficiency, the engineer


must be able to address the following three problems:
1. How to describe and define the permeability variation
in mathematical terms?
2. How to determine the minimum number of layers that
are sufficient to model the performance of the fluid?

3. How to assign the proper average rock properties for


each layer (called the zonation problem)?

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Displacement Efficiency
• The displacement efficiency ED is the fraction of
movable oil that has been displaced from the swept
zone at any given time or pore volume injected.
• Because an immiscible gas flooding or waterflooding will
always leave behind some residual oil, ED will always
be less than 1.
• It will be assumed here that areal and vertical sweep
efficiencies are unity and that initial gas saturation is
negligible so that emphasis can be placed upon the
determination of ED.
• Accordingly, linear flow models will be used to study
the mechanism of immiscible fluid displacement.

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• Mathematically, the displacement efficiency is expressed
as:

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• The problem, of course, lies with developing an
approach for determining the increase in the
average water saturation in the swept area as a
function of cumulative water injected (or injection
time).

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b

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Frontal Displacement and Advancement Theory
• Buckley and Leverett in 1942 introduced the fractional flow and computed the
sharp saturation front position to model the displacement behaviour of fluids
through porous media.
• The fractional flow equation is used to describe the flow of two immiscible fluids
under a steady state, diffuse flow condition.
• Diffuse flow means that the viscous, or dynamic, forces are more dominant than
the gravity forces, so the vertical variation in saturations may be neglected. The
typical characteristics for this type of flow condition occur in a low vertical
permeability reservoir combined with a high horizontal pressure gradient
• Buckley and Leverett (1942) developed a well-established theory, called the
frontal displacement theory, consists of two equations:
1) Fractional flow equation or formula
2) Frontal advance equation or formula or Rate of frontal advance equation

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Fractional flow equation

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Fractional flow equation

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• The fractional flow equation as expressed by the above
relationship suggests that for a given rock–fluid system,
all the terms in the equation are defined by the
characteristics of the reservoir, except:
a) water injection rate, iw
b) water viscosity,
c) direction of the flow, i.e., updip or downdip
injection

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• From the definition of water cut, i.e.,
fw = qw/(qw + qo),
we can see that the limits of the water cut are 0 and
100%.
• At the irreducible (connate) water saturation, the
water flow rate qw is zero and, therefore, the water
cut is 0%.
• At the residual oil saturation point, Sor, the oil flow
rate is zero and the water cut reaches its upper limit
of 100%. The shape of the water cut versus water
saturation curve is characteristically S shaped, as
shown

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• The limits of the fw curve (0 and 1) are defined by the
end points of the relative permeability curves.

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• Any influences that cause the fractional flow curve to
shift upward (i.e., increase in fw) will result in a less
efficient displacement process.
• Displacement of oil by waterflood, an increase in fw at
any point in the reservoir will cause a proportional
decrease in fo and oil mobility.
• Therefore, the objective is to select the proper
injection scheme that could possibly reduce the water
fractional flow.
• This can be achieved by investigating the effect of the
injected water viscosity, formation dip angle, and
water-injection rate on the water cut.

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Effect of Water and Oil Viscosities
• Regardless of the system wettability, a higher oil viscosity
results in an upward shift (an increase) in the fractional
flow curve.
• Higher injected water viscosities will result an overall
reduction in fw (i.e., a downward shift).

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Effect of Dip Angle
• Updip flow, i.e., sin(alpha) is positive. when the water
displaces oil updip (i.e., injection well is located
downdip), a more efficient performance is obtained .
• Downdip flow, i.e., sin(alpha) is negative. When the oil is
displaced downdip (i.e., injection well is located updip),
causes an increase (upward shift) in the fw curve.

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• Note that for a horizontal reservoir, i.e., sin(alpha) = 0,
the injection rate has no effect on the fractional flow
curve. When the dip angle is zero.

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Frontal advance equation
• It is basically a study of saturation profile.
• It is based on volumetric balance.
Assumptions:
• Immiscible displacement so that piston like
displacement can take place.
• Capillary and gravitational forces are neglected.

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• The equation is derived based on developing a material
balance for the displacing fluid as it flows through any given
element in the porous media.
Volume entering the element – Volume leaving the element =
change in fluid volume

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For two phase flow, the total flow rate qt is essentially equal to
the injection rate iw .

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The above equation also suggests that the position of any
value of water saturation Sw at given cumulative water
injected Winj is proportional to the slope (dfw/dSw) for this
particular Sw.

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The derivative curve is
also plotted along with
the fw versus Sw curve.

However,
mathematical difficulty
arises when using the
derivative curve to
construct the water
saturation profile at
any given time.

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• The Fig. indicates that both derivatives are identical, i.e.,
(dfw/dSw)A = (dfw/dSw)B,
which implies that multiple water saturations can
coexist at the same position—but this is physically
impossible.
• Buckley and Leverett (1942) recognized
the physical impossibility of such a condition. They
pointed out that this apparent problem is due to the
neglect of the capillary pressure gradient term in the
fractional flow equation .

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Including the above capillary
term when constructing the
fractional flow curve would
produce a graphical
relationship that is
characterized by the following
two segments of lines.

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a) A straight line segment with a constant slope of
(dfw/dSw) from Swc to Swf.
b) A concaving curve with decreasing slopes from Swf to (1
– Sor).
• Terwilliger and his co-authors termed the reservoir-
flooded zone with this range of saturations the
stabilized zone.
• They define the stabilized zone as that particular
saturation interval (i.e., Swc to Swf) where all points
of saturation travel at the same velocity.

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• The authors also identified another saturation zone
between Swf and (1 – Sor), where the velocity of any
water saturation is variable. They termed this zone as
the non-stabilized zone.
• Experimental core flood data show that the actual water
saturation profile during water flooding is similar to that
of the above Figure. There is a distinct front, or shock
front, at which the water saturation abruptly increases
from Swc to Swf.

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Numerical-1
• For waterflood recoveries from a five-spot well pattern, the
following data are
given

If the injection rate is 200 reservoir barrels per day, calculate the
oil recovery at breakthrough and the time needed to break
through.

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Numerical-2
• Use the relative permeability as shown to plot the fractional
flow curve for a linear reservoir system with the following
properties:

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Numerical-3
• The linear system is under consideration for a
waterflooding project with a water-injection rate
of 1,000 bbl/day. The oil viscosity is considered
constant at 1.0 cp. Calculate the fractional flow
curve for the reservoir dip angles of 10, 20, and
30˚, assuming (a) updip displacement and (b)
downdip displacement.

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Thank You

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