Optimization of multilayered water flooding using intelligent injectors and producers

Abstract

In many reservoirs, there are multiple sand layers separated by shale layers. Waterflooding is often applied to improve oil recovery. In many cases, the injectivity contrast between the major layer elements would result in poor sweep efficiency. This thesis objective is to study that how much intelligent water injection and intelligent production wells control would improve oil recovery from multi-layer reservoirs in comparison to recovery from a single intelligent injection scheme and a single intelligent production strategy. In this study, the reservoir consists of 3 layers pay zones separated by a shale layer is modeled. The multi-segment well model and choke model were selected to model both the producers and injectors. Then, waterflooding process simulations were performed to find the maximum oil production of each strategy. The simulation results indicate that using downhole flow control in both injector and producer well give a slightly higher oil recovery compared to recovery from a single intelligent injection and a single intelligent production if the permeability contrast is low. However, the approach significantly reduces the amount of water production. If the permeability contrast is high, utilization of downhole control valve can increase the oil recovery as much as 9.33%.