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CONTENTS
1 DEFINITION 2 NATURAL DRIVE MECHANISM TYPE 2.1 Depletion Drive Reservoirs 2.2 Water Drive 2.3 Compaction Drive 2.4 Gravity Drainage 2.5 Depletion Type Reservoirs 2.5.1 Solution Gas Drive 2.5.2 Gas Cap Drive 2.6 Water Drive Reservoirs 2.7 Combination Drives 3 RESERVOIR PERFORMANCE OF DIFFERENT DRIVE SYSTEMS 3.1 Solution Gas Drive 3.1.1 Solution Gas Drive, Oil Production 3.1.2 Solution Gas Drive, Gas / Oil Ratio 3.1.3 Pressure 3.1.4 Water Production, Well Behaviour, Expected Oil Recovery and Well Location 3.2 Gas Cap Drive 3.2.1 Oil Production 3.2.2 Pressure 3.2.3 Gas / Oil Ratio 3.2.4 Water Production, Well Behaviour, Expected Oil Recovery and Well Locations 3.3 Water Drive 3.3.1 Rate Sensitity 3.3.2 Water Production, Oil Recovery 3.3.3 History Matching Aquifer Characteristics 3.3.4 Well Locations 4 SUMMARY 4.1 Pressure and Recovery 4.2 Gas / Oil Ratio
LEARNING OBJECTIVES Having worked through this chapter the Student will be able to:
Define reservoir drive mechanism. Describe briefly with the aid of sketches a depletion drive reservoir. Describe briefly with the aid of sketches a water drive reservoir. Describe briefly with the aid a sketches a gravity drainage. Describe briefly with the aid of sketches solution gas drive distinguishing behaviour both above and below the bubble point. Describe briefly with the aid of sketches gas cap drive . Describe briefly with the aid of sketches the reservoir performance characteristics of a solution gas drive reservoir. Describe briefly with the aid of sketches the reservoir performance characteristics of a gas drive reservoir. Describe briefly with the aid of sketches the reservoir performance characteristics of water drive reservoir. Describe briefly with the aid of sketches the rate sensitivity aspect of water drive reservoir. Summarise the characteristics of solution gas drive, gas cap drive and water drive reservoirs.
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1 DEFINITION
A reservoir drive mechanism is a source of energy for driving the fluids out through the wellbore. It is not necessarily the energy lifting the fluids to the surface, although in many cases, the same energy is capable of lifting the fluids to the surface.
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A water drive reservoir is one in which the hydrocarbons are in contact with a large volume of water bearing sand. There are two types of water drive reservoirs. There are those where the driving energy comes primarily from the expansion of water as the reservoir is produced, as shown in figure 3 The key issue here is the relative size and mobility of the water of the supporting aquifer relative to the size of the hydrocarbon accumulation. Water drive may also be a result of artesian flow from an outcrop of the reservoir formation, figure 4. In this situation either surface water or seawater feeds into the outcrop and replenishes the water as it moves into the reservoir to replace the oil. The key issues here are the mobility of the water in the aquifer and barriers to flow from the outcrop to the reservoir. It is not often encountered, and the water drive arising from the compressibility of an aquifer, figure 3, is the more common.
Outcrop of sand
Oil well
Water flow
Oil
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with the later stages of drive for reservoirs where other drive mechanisms have been the more dominant energy in earlier years. Gravity drainage can be significant and effective in steeply dipping reservoirs which are fractured. Of the drive mechanisms mentioned the major drive mechanisms are depletion drive, which are further classified into solution gas drive and gas cap drive and water drive. Gravity Drive typically is active during the final stages of a depletion reservoir.
Closed in 1000
Inactive aquifer
compared to liquid and therefore the pressure decline is reduced. Solution gas drive only occurs once the bubble point pressure has been reached.
2.5.2. Gas Cap Drive Another kind of depletion type is where there is already free gas in the reservoir, accumulated at the top of the reservoir in the form of a gas cap (Figure 8), as compared to the undersaturated initial condition for the previous solution gas drive reservoir. This gas cap drive reservoir, as it is termed, receives its energy from the high compressibility of the gas cap. Since there is a gas cap then the bottom hole pressure will not be too far away from the bubble point pressure and therefore solution gas drive could also be occurring. The gas cap provides the major source of energy but there is also the expansion of oil and its dissolved gas and the gas coming out of solution. The oil expansion term is very low and is within the errors in calculating the two main energy sources. The two significant sources of driving energy are ; (1) (2) Gas cap expansion Expansion of gas coming out of solution
Gas cap present initially Oil at interface is at Pb
Gas cap
Oil
Oil may be above Pb With production - Gas cap expansion Solution gas liberation
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Edge water
Bottom water
Water coning
Gas Cap
Gas Cap
Sometimes it may be only water drive in the above situations. If the hydrocarbons are taken out at a rate such that for every volume of oil removed water readily moves in to replace the oil, then the reservoir is driven completely by water. On the other hand there may be only depletion drive. If the water does not move in to replace the oil, then only the gas cap would expand to provide the drive.
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permeabilties move in the same directions giving rise to reduced well productivity to oil and increased productivity to gas, figure 12. That is the oil relative permeability decreases and the gas relative permeability increases. The gas although providing the displacing medium is effectively leaking out of the system. Not only does the gas progress to the wellbore, depending on vertical permeability characteristics it will move vertically and may form a secondary gas cap. If this occurs it can contribute to the drive energy. Well location and rate of production can be used to encourage gas to migrate to form such a gas cap as against being lost through production from the wellbore.
Vertical gas migration
Rs Rsi
<
Rs< Rsi
Rs< Rsi
We will now review the various production profiles, specific to the drive mechanisms but before doing so we will review the various phases of production.
Plateau phase
Production
Production Phases (figure 13) The first phase, production build up, which may exist or not depending on the drilling strategy is the increased production as wells are brought on stream. Clearly, as in some cases, wells might be predrilled through a template and then all brought on stream together when connected to production facilities, such a build up of production will, therefore, not occur. The next stage represents the period when the productivity of the production facility is at its design capacity and the wells are throttled back to limit their productivity. This period is called the plateau phase when production is maintained at the design capacity of the facilities. Typical production rates for the plateau period cannot be presented since it depends on the techno-economics of the field. Clearly for a field with a very large front loaded capital investment there is an incentive to have a high production rate during the plateau phase , say 20% of the STOIIP, whereas for a lower
Institute of Petroleum Engineering, Heriot-Watt University
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cost onshore field 5% might be acceptable. Governments will also impose their considerations on this aspect as well. A time will come when the reservoir is no longer able to deliver fluids to match the facilities capacity and the field goes into the decline phase. This phase can be delayed by methods to increase production. Such methods could include artificial lift, where the effort required to lift the fluids from the reservoir is carried out by a downhole pump or by using gas lift to reduce the density of the fluid system in the well. There comes a time when the productivity of the reservoir is no longer able to generate revenues to cover the costs of running the field, This abandonment time again is influenced by the size and nature of the operation. Clearly a single, stripper well, carrying very little operational costs, can be allowed to produce down to very low rates. A well, as part of a very high cost offshore environment however, could be abandoned at a relatively high rate when perhaps the water proportion becomes too high or the productivity in relation to all production is not sufficient to meet the associated well and production costs. We will now review the performance characteristics of the various mechanisms in light of the forgoing production phases.
Reservoir Pressure
Oil Prod
G.O.R
Reservoir Pressure
Time-Year
12
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A good analogy for this type of reservoir is the champagne bottle opened by a champion to spray the contents over enthusiastic supporters - a short lived high production scenario followed by rapid decline!
Producing GOR.
Pb Pressure
When the pressure drops below the bubble point throughout the reservoir a secondary gas cap may be produced and some wells have the potential of becoming gas producers.
3.1.3 Pressure
At first the pressure is high but as production continues the pressure makes a rapid decline.
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3.1.4 Water Production, Well Behaviour , Expected Oil Recovery and Well Location
Since by definition there is little water present in the reservoir there should be no water production to speak of. Because of the rapid pressure drop artificial lift will be required at an early stage in the life of the reservoir. The expected oil recovery from these types of reservoirs is low and could be between 5 and 30% of the original oilin-place. Abandonment of the reservoir will depend on the level of the GOR and the lack of reservoir pressure to enable production. Well locations for this drive mechanism are chosen to encourage vertical migration of the gas, therefore the wells producing zones are located structurally low, but not too close to any water contact which might generate water through water coning. Figure 16
Secondary gas cap
Gas Cap
Water
Water
Gas Cap
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3.2.2 Pressure
With an associated gas cap a loss of volume of fluids from the reservoir is associated with a relatively low drop in pressure because of the high compressibility of the gas. In solution gas drive much of the driving gas is produced, but with a gas cap the fluid remains till later in the life of the reservoir. The pressure drop for a gas cap system therefore declines slowly over the years. The decline will depend on the relative size of the gas cap to the oil accumulation. A small gas cap would be 10% of the oil volume whereas a large gas cap would be 50% of the volume.
500
G.O.R
Pressure 5000 Pressure Gas Break through 5 Oil Prod Rate 2500 G.O.R BSW % 20 10 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
10
250
0 0
Time-Year
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3.2.4 Water Production, Well Behaviour, Expected Oil Recovery and Well Locations
Like solution gas drive there should be negligible water production. The life of the reservoir is largely a function of the size of gas cap but it is likely to be a long flowing life. The expected oil recovery for such a system is of the order of 20 to 40% of the original oil-in-place. The well locations, similar to solution gas drive, are such that the production interval for the wells should be situated away from the gas oil contact but not too close to the water oil contact to risk water coning.
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Outcrop of sand
Oil well
Water flow
Pi
Reservoir pressure
Rsi
Production GOR
Figure 20 illustrates a more typical water drive reservoir where the drive energy comes from the compressibility of the aquifer system. In this case if the oil withdrawal rate is less then the rate of water encroachment from the aquifer then the reservoir pressure will slowly decline, reflecting the decompression of the total system , the oil reservoir and the aquifer. Clearly this pressure decline is related to the size of the aquifer. The larger the aquifer the slower the pressure decline. As with all water drive reservoirs productivity of the wells remains high resulting from the maintained pressure, however the productivity of the well to oil reduces as water breakthrough occurs. So a characteristic of water drive reservoirs is the increasing water production alongside decreasing oil production.
Pi
Rsi
Production GOR
Reservoir pressure
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Figure 21 illustrates the rate sensitive aspect of water drive reservoirs. If the oil withdrawal rate is higher than the water influx rate from the aquifer then the oil reservoir pressure will drop at a rate greater than would be the case with aquifer support alone, as the compressibility of the oil reservoirs supports the flow. If this pressure drops below the bubble point then solution gas drive will occur, as evidenced by an increase in the gas-oil ratio. Cutting back oil production to a rate to less than the water encroachment rate restores the system to water drive, with the gas-oil ratio going back to its undersaturated level. When two drive mechanisms function as above then we have what is termed combination drive ( water drive and solution gas drive). Water drive reservoirs have good pressure support. The decline in oil production is related to increasing water production as against pressure decline.
GOR 500
2000 10000
BSW
Reservoir pressure Ps
psi
B/d
Reservoir pressure
25 Bsw Water 0 69 70 71 72 73 74 75
Water production
1000 5000
50
250
ratio
3.3.2 Water Production, Oil Recovery Because there is a large aquifer associated with the oil reservoir unlike depletion drive systems, water production starts early and increases to appreciable amounts. This water production is produced at the expense of oil and continues to increase until the oil/water ratio is uneconomical. Total fluid production remains reasonably steady. The expected oil recovery from a water drive reservoir is likely to be from 35 to 60% of the original oil-in-place. Clearly these recovery factors depend on a range of related aspects , including reservoir characteristics for example the heterogeneity as demonstrated by large permeability variations in the formation.
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not available during the exploration and development phase, the characteristics of the aquifer are only determined once production has been operational and the support from the aquifer can be calculated from production and pressure data. (History Matching). Getting such information may require producing a significant proportion of the formation say 5% of the STOIIP. RFT surveys have provided a very effective way of determining the aquifer strength as well as the communicating layers of the formation. Pressure depth surveys taken in an open hole development well after production has started will give indications of pressure support in the formation Because water drive, through pressure maintenance provides the most optimistic recoveries, artificial water drive is often part of the development strategy because of the uncertainties of the pressure support from the associated aquifer. In the North Sea for example many reservoirs have associated aquifers. The risk of not knowing either the extent or activity of the aquifers is such that many operators are using artificial water drive systems to maintain pressure so that solution gas drive does not occur with the consequent loss of oil production.
4 SUMMARY
The following summaries and tables give the main features associated with the various drive mechanisms.
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Trend
Declines rapidly and continuously First low then rises to a maximum and then drops First high, then decreases rapidly and continues to decline None Requires artificial lift at early stages 5-30% of original oil-in-place
Trend
Falls slowly and continuously Rises continuously First high, then declines gradually Absent or negligible Long flowing life depending on size of gas cap 20 to 40% of original oil-in-place
Trend
Remains high Remains steady Starts early and increases to appreciable amounts Flow until water production gets excessive up to 60% original oil-in-place.
Figures 22 and 23 give the pressure and gas-oil ratio trends for various drive mechanism types
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40
20
Dissolved gas drive 0 20 40 60 80 Oil produced - percent of original oil in place 100
Figure 22
Reservoir gas - oil ratio trends for reservoirs under various drives. 5 4 Dissolved gas drive
GOR MCF /BBL
1 Water drive 0
Figure 23
100
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