Waterflood Profiles and Oil Recovery with Vertical and Horizontal Wells

Abstract

Experimental and numerical study is conducted to investigate the performance of a horizontal well during waterflooding of a sandstone outcrop. Three different well configurations, viz., vertical injection-vertical production (VI-VP), vertical injection-top horizontal production (VI-HPT), and vertical injection-bottom horizontal production (VI-HPB) are considered. The commercial simulator, ECLIPSE, is used for the numerical study, and history matching technique has been used to obtain the relative permeability characteristic of the sandstone outcrop. The results show that VI-HPT configuration provides nearly the same oil recovery as that of VI-VP pattern but in less time. It is also observed that the VI-HPB well pattern provides the lowest breakthrough and final oil recovery, whereas the VI-VP pattern provides the highest breakthrough recovery. Moreover, the post-breakthrough recovery by horizontal production wells is higher than that of vertical production well. The experimental and numerical simulation results are found to be in good agreement.

New Laboratory Core Flooding Experimental System

“…It can be observed that the first two water flooding runs ended with recovery around 60% and 75% for Run #1 and Run #2, respectively. The obtained numbers were similar to the published data for unconsolidated sand packs with similar properties. − It was observed that after 2 PV of injection of water, the ultimate recovery increased by only 6% and 8% for Run #1 and Run #2, respectively. The data suggest that the pore volumes used in the experiments and the corresponding increase in the recovery are similar to the field applications .…”

“…The core holder, shown here, is designed to perform one-dimensional core flooding experiments. However, any other two-dimensional or three-dimensional , core holders, as and when available, can be plugged into the system through appropriate connections to 3.175 mm (1/8 in) stainless steel tube. The dimensions of the core holder used here as an example are length = 284 mm (11.18 in) and diameter = 38.1 mm (1.5 in).…”

“…To this extent, the oil and gas industry heavily relied on laboratory core flooding experiments, where a core pack, often unconsolidated sand particles − or, in some cases, consolidated cores (sandstone and carbonate outcrops), − mimicking the porous natural reservoir, are traditionally flooded with an injection fluid and the resultant output in terms of oil recovery is measured. However, this age old core flooding system and the process need to be made more robust, automated, and more in tune with the advancements of fluid machineries of the twenty-first century, rather than relying on a core flooding system, which was introduced way back in early 1930s .…”

Bioconversion of coal: new insights from a core flooding study

“…This will allow researchers to perform laboratory core ooding experiments, which are commonly conducted by petroleum reservoir engineers for studies related to the crude oil and gas recovery. [25][26][27][28][29] In such cases, the reservoir is mimicked by packing sand particles [27][28][29] or by using an actual core sample from the reservoir. 25,26,30 Such a technique provides an effective means to understand and quantify the oil/gas recovery process due to a ooding uid.…”

“…[25][26][27][28][29] In such cases, the reservoir is mimicked by packing sand particles [27][28][29] or by using an actual core sample from the reservoir. 25,26,30 Such a technique provides an effective means to understand and quantify the oil/gas recovery process due to a ooding uid.…”