Improved Control of Water in Producing Wells and Injection Wells
Authors: Goddard J.E. , White J.L. , VanLandingham J.V. 
Published: December 2007

American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical, and Petroleum Engineers, Inc.

This paper was prepared for the Oklahoma City SPE Regional Meeting, to be held in Oklahoma City, Okla., March 24–25, 1975. Permission to copy is restricted to an abstract of not more than 300 words. Illustrations may not be copied. The abstract should contain conspicuous acknowledgment of where and by whom the paper is presented. Publication elsewhere after publication in the JOURNAL OF presented. Publication elsewhere after publication in the JOURNAL OF PETROLEUM TECHNOLOGY or the SOCIETY OF PETROLEUM ENGINEERS JOURNAL is PETROLEUM TECHNOLOGY or the SOCIETY OF PETROLEUM ENGINEERS JOURNAL is usually granted upon request to the Editor of the appropriate journal provided agreement to give proper credit is made. provided agreement to give proper credit is made. Discussion of this paper is invited. Three copies of any discussion should be sent to the Society of Petroleum Engineers office. Such discussion may be presented at the above meeting and, with the paper, may be considered for publication in one of the two SPE magazines.

Recent developments in job design have improved the success of polymer treatments for water control. The purpose of this paper is to briefly discuss the need for polymer as a secondary recovery tool, materials, polymer effects, treatment designs, and field results. New treating designs have made it possible to tailor the treatments to fit the reservoir conditions. These designs have provided very successful treatments as shown by the field results. Moreover, the tailored treatments provide better application to individual provide better application to individual problems such as coning or channeling. problems such as coning or channeling

Introduction

The addition of water soluble polymers to increase the effectiveness of waterflooding is a well established concept. Polymers have also been useful in controlling water problems in producing wells. The successful use of polymers to control water problems in polymers to control water problems in producing wells and injection wells has been producing wells and injection wells has been demonstrated in many areas of the Mid-Continent. The growing need for increased domestic production has increased efforts to seek improved production has increased efforts to seek improved production methods. production methods. The necessity for improved secondary recovery methods is evident when reviewing the production for Oklahoma, Kansas, and Texas in production for Oklahoma, Kansas, and Texas in Table 1. Nearly 70% of the oil in Oklahoma is produced by secondary recovery which is produced by secondary recovery which is proportionally much greater than Texas or Kansas. proportionally much greater than Texas or Kansas. oil produced by secondary recovery in Texas and Kansas was 31% and 23.6% respectively. An average of 41% of the production from these three states comes from flooding operations. As shown in Table 1, the injected to produced fluid ratio is not very efficient, ranging from 13:1 to 20:1. These values are near the economic limit of several years ago. A recent article indicates new prices may increase the recovery efficiency by 10% from 31.6% to 41.6%. This will increase the economic limit for the water/oil ratio. The article indicates for one field the economic limit for the water/oil ratio as 16:1 at an oil price of $2.61/bbl, 26:1 at $4.21/bbl, and 58:1 at $9.21/bbl. With increased oil prices and greater water/ oil ratios, the economic incentive to reduce water/oil ratios and to increase oil production is greatly enhanced. Thus, proper production is greatly enhanced. Thus, proper utilization of polymers to control water in injection wells or producing wells will be more beneficial.