Smart water management yields extra barrels

摘要

In a world where easy oil is a thing of the past, technology remains key to unleashing difficult resources. Successfully managing water is one of the key challenges for the oil industry. With three barrels of water produced on average for every barrel of oil, water disposal costs the industry more than USD125 million a day. Water plays a key role in oil production by helping to maintain reservoir pressure and by sweeping oil toward producing wells. Injecting water into a reservoir is a complex process that, if not managed properly, can result in bypass of oil and early water breakthrough into producing wells. Injection pressure that is too high can cause fracturing of the reservoir, which can create a short circuit between the injector and producers. In addition, horizontal permeability differences in the reservoir can create poor areal sweep or fingering effects. And vertical permeability differences can result in cusping or coning.