Predicting and optimising the mature Windalia waterflood based on a capacitance-resistance model (CRM)
W. Gan A , L. Hartanto A , A. Haynes A and M. Sayarpour BA Chevron Australia Pty Ltd.
B Chevron Energy Technology Company Pty Ltd.
The APPEA Journal 52(2) 656-656 https://doi.org/10.1071/AJ11070
Published: 2012
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.
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Wee Yong Gan joined Chevron in 2008 and is now the WA oil waterflood coordinator and Reservoir Engineer. As part of the fully integrated, multi-disciplinary waterflood optimisation team, he provides oversight and co-ordination of all activities and stakeholder engagement. He graduated with a BEng (chemical) and a PhD (chemical engineering) from UNSW. |
Lina Hartanto has been the WA oil lead reservoir engineer since 2009. She assumed the role of waterflood coordinator between 2010 and 2011. She has more than 10 years of experience at various oil and gas companies, including as reservoir engineer at Woodside Energy and consultant at Roxar in reservoir engineering and reservoir characterisation. She has a PhD (chemical engineering) and a BEng (chemical) from Curtin University of Technology, Perth. |
Andrew Haynes is a reservoir engineer for Chevron’s WA oil team, focusing on reservoir surveillance, waterflood management, and simulation activities, as well as providing reservoir engineering support to a variety of projects. He graduated from the University of Melbourne in 2008 with a BEng (hons) (chemical engineering) and a BSc (chemistry). |
Morteza Sayarpour is a research reservoir engineer working at Chevron Energy Technology Company in Houston. He joined Chevron in 2008 after receiving his PhD in petroleum engineering from the University of Texas, Austin. He received his BS and MS in mining engineering (Exploration) from the University of Tehran in 1995 and 1998, respectively. He has experience in reservoir and production engineering in waterfloods and performance evaluation and optimisation, with background work in mining engineering, engineering geology, and geotechnique. |
References
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