Optimizing Recovery for Waterflooding Under Dynamic Induced Fracturing Conditions
- 27 October 2009
- journal article
- Published by Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) in SPE Reservoir Evaluation & Engineering
- Vol. 12 (05), 671-682
- https://doi.org/10.2118/110379-pa
Abstract
Summary: It is well established within the industry that water injection mostly takes place under induced fracturing conditions. Particularly in low-mobility reservoirs, large fractures may be induced during the field life. This paper presents a new modeling strategy that combines fluid flow and fracture growth (fully coupled) within the framework of an existing "standard" reservoir simulator. We demonstrate the coupled simulator by applications to repeated five-spot pattern flood models, addressing various aspects that often play an important role in waterfloods: shortcut of injector and producer, fracture containment to the reservoir layer, and areal and vertical reservoir sweep. We also demonstrate how induced fracture dimensions (length, height) can be very sensitive to typical reservoir engineering parameters, such as fluid mobility, mobility ratio, 3D saturation distribution (in particular, shockfront position), 3D temperature distribution, positions of wells (producers, injectors), and geological details (e.g., layering and faulting). In particular, it is shown that lower overall (time-dependent) reservoir transmissibility will result in larger induced fractures. Finally, it is demonstrated how induced fractures can be taken into account to determine an optimum life-cycle injection rate strategy. The results presented in this paper are expected to also apply to (part of) enhanced-oil-recovery operations (e.g., polymer flooding).Keywords
This publication has 10 references indexed in Scilit:
- Waterflooding Conformance and Water Quality: Flow Partitioning During Produced Water InjectionPublished by Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) ,2006
- Managed Induced Fracturing Improves Waterflood Performance in South OmanPublished by Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) ,2005
- Modeling Water-Injection Induced Fractures in Reservoir SimulationPublished by Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) ,2005
- Impact of Induced Fractures on Sweep and Reservoir Management in Pattern FloodsPublished by Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) ,2004
- New Iterative Coupling between a Reservoir Simulator and a Geomechanics ModulePublished by Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) ,2002
- Large-Scale Produced Water Re-Injection Under Fracturing Conditions in OmanPublished by Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) ,2000
- Injectivity Decline in Water Injection Wells: An Offshore Gulf of Mexico Case StudyPublished by Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) ,1997
- New 3D Model for Optimised Design of Hydraulic Fractures and Simulation of Drill-Cutting ReinjectionPublished by Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) ,1993
- A Fractured Reservoir Simulator Capable of Modeling Block-Block InteractionPublished by Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) ,1989
- Waterflood-Induced Fractures: A Simulation Study Of Their Propagation And Effects On Waterflood Sweep EfficiencyPublished by Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) ,1987