Reservoir management of the mature Windalia waterflood field by optimising water injection allocation
A. Haynes A , L. Hartanto A , W. Gan A and M. Sayarpour BA Chevron Australia Pty Ltd.
B Chevron Energy Technology Company Pty Ltd.
The APPEA Journal 52(2) 705-705 https://doi.org/10.1071/AJ11119
Published: 2012
Abstract
Barrow Island’s Windalia reservoir is Australia’s largest onshore waterflooding operation, developed in 1965 with waterflooding starting in 1967. The Windalia reservoir is highly heterogeneous and geologically complex, showing low permeabilities and extensive fault networks. Presently, injection rates are constrained by water availability because of ageing source water facilities and increased injector failures because of high integrity risks, highlighting the importance of optimised distribution of injection volumes.
Static allocation of injection water has historically been conducted on a pattern basis. This approach, however, is not grounded on the relationships between injection and production wells; instead, it honours the geometric layout of the wells. A more dynamic approach was required to account for the changes in status of injectors and water availability that are often encountered in mature waterflood systems.
The successful completion of the Windalia capacitance-resistance model (CRM) was leveraged to develop a comprehensive ranking system of all capable injectors, quantifying short-term normalised oil response to maximise the oil production achieved for a given volume of water injected. Improved understanding of injector-producer communication has also provided the ability to extract the maximum value from limited injection water volumes and has the potential to reduce water cycling and the associated water-handling costs. It can also improve the ability to identify and prioritise workover and stimulation opportunities. This work describes the advances in reservoir management capabilities by quantifying the relationships between injector-producer pairs and the dynamic allocation of injection volumes.
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). |
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. |
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 PhD (chemical engineering) from UNSW. |
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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Hartanto, L., Muna, D., and Widjanarko, W., 2011—The success story of Windalia waterflood optimisation through integrated asset management in a mature field. APPEA Conference, Perth, Australia, 10–13 April.
Sayarpour, M. Zuluaga, E., and Kabir, C.S., 2007—The use of capacitance-resistance models for rapid estimation of waterflood performance and optimisation. SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition, Anaheim, California, USA, 11–14 November, SPE 110081-MS.
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