Tight Oil Play Waterflood Pilot Study
An operator in the Lower Shaunavon required expert support to determine the optimal development strategy for a tight oil field through infill drilling and water injection conversions. Although there were some early vertical wells, the tight oil reservoir had been mainly developed with multi-stage fractured horizontal wells due to the low permeability nature of the field.
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Project Highlights
- Required optimal field development strategy
- Hydraulic fractures successfully modelled
- Water injection caused hydraulic fractures to propagate further
- Client provided with multiple options for optimizing their field
Challenges:
The client required help to determine the optimal development strategy for a tight oil field through infill drilling and water injection conversions
The Lower Shaunavon is a carbonate formation containing a medium viscosity reservoir oil
Although there were some early vertical wells, the tight oil reservoir had been mainly developed with multi-stage fractured horizontal wells due to the low permeability nature of the field
The Lower Shaunavon is a carbonate formation containing a medium viscosity reservoir oil
Although there were some early vertical wells, the tight oil reservoir had been mainly developed with multi-stage fractured horizontal wells due to the low permeability nature of the field
Solutions:
A geological model of the Lower Shaunavon was developed and a nine-section pilot region was exported for use in a simulation model
Local grid refinement was used to model the hydraulic fractures, and the model was calibrated to match performance data
An interesting finding of the study was that the hydraulic fractures at injectors propagated further into the reservoir during injection; this phenomenon was successfully modelled by using a dual porosity/dual permeability approach
Local grid refinement was used to model the hydraulic fractures, and the model was calibrated to match performance data
An interesting finding of the study was that the hydraulic fractures at injectors propagated further into the reservoir during injection; this phenomenon was successfully modelled by using a dual porosity/dual permeability approach
Values:
Production profiles and recovery factors were determined through performance forecasting, and the optimal field development strategy was determined