Predicting and optimising the mature Windalia waterflood based on a capacitance-resistance model (CRM)

Abstract

Waterflood development drilling of the Windalia reservoir on Barrow Island at 40-acre spacing started in 1968, using five-spot and nine-spot inverted drive flood patterns. There was a general conversion to line drive in mid-1970 with various infill and realignment projects. The field comprises more than 220 active injectors and 400 producers. The reservoir is geologically complex, with low permeability and significant heterogeneity. Historically, empirical techniques and fractional flow models were used for forecasting, but these approaches have many inherent limitations; for example, they do not provide individual well performance and they are not sensitive to changes in operating conditions. More recently, a capacitance-resistance model (CRM) that uses historical injection and production data has been used to establish long-term behaviours between water injection and oil production wells, including inter-well connectivity, delay time constants and productivity indices. The evaluation of these behaviours allows direct quantification of waterflood efficiency at well-to-well level and improves identification of opportunities for changing injection patterns and prioritisation of operations and well workovers. Optimisation and forecasting of the Windalia waterflood is performed by maximising cumulative oil production by reallocating the available field wide injection water and evaluating individual injection wells target rates. Numerous optimisation scenarios were built into the models to account for the impact of changing operating conditions such as water availability and aging of wells and processing facilities. CRM is robust and is appropriate for simultaneous optimisation of well rates in a field where water injection and oil production wells are shut-in frequently. The PowerPoint presentation is not available to APPEA.