The Importance of Water Influx in Gas Reservoirs
Authors: Agarwal R.G. , Al-Hussainy R. , Ramey H.J. 
Published: December 2007

Although it has long been realized that gas recovery from a water-drive gas reservoir may be poor because of high residual saturations under water drive, it appears that only limited information on the subject has been available until recently. This study was performed to show the quantitative potential importance of water influx. Results indicate that gas recovery may be very low in some cases: perhaps as low as 45 per cent of the initial gas in place. Gas recovery under water drive appears to depend in an important way on:the production rate and manner of production;the residual gas saturation;aquifer properties; andthe volumetric displacement efficiency of water invading the gas reservoir.

The manner of estimating water-drive gas reservoir recovery can vary considerably. Examples are: the steady-state method, the Hurst modified steady-state method, and various unsteady-state methods such as those of van Everdingen-Hurst, Hurst, and Carter-Tracy. The Carter-Tracy water influx expression was used in this study.

In certain cases, it appears that gas recovery can be increased significantly by controlling the production rate and manner of production. For this reason, the potential importance of water influx in particular gas reservoirs should be investigated early to permit adequate planning to optimize the gas reserves.

Introduction

In recent years, the economic importance of natural gas production has become increasingly apparent. This has been evidenced by more intensive exploration efforts aimed at gas production, and exploitation of both deep, as well as low-permeability gas reservoirs. Technical developments such as deep-penetration fracturing have made development of such formations economically feasible. Unfortunately, water influx has forced abandonment of a number of gas reservoirs at extraordinarily high pressures.

Although reservoir engineering methods for estimating water influx have long been available, it appears that application of these methods to the water-drive gas reservoir has been sporadic.1–3 Available methods for estimating water influx which can be applied to the water-drive gas reservoir problem include the steady-state method,4 the Hurst modified steady-state method,5 and various unsteady-state methods such as those of van Everdingen-Hurst,6 Hurst,7 and Carter-Tracy.8 Interesting applications of these solutions to gas reservoir and the aquifer gas-storage problems have appeared recently.3,12,18

The experimental study of residual gas saturations under water drive by Geffen et al. in 1952 indicated that residual gas saturations could be extremely high.9 A value of 35 per cent of pore volume is often used in field practice when specific information is not available. The study of Geffen et al. showed that residual gas saturation might be much higher in some cases. Naar and Henderson concluded that the residual non-wetting phase saturation under imbibition should be about half of the initial non-wetting phase saturation.10 The Naar and Henderson result that residual gas saturation under water influx should be about half the original gas saturation is recommended as an estimate if laboratory measurements are not available.

Thus, it is clear that a considerable portion of the initial gas in place might be trapped in a water-drive gas reservoir as residual gas at high pressure. A full water-drive would result in loss of residual gas trapped at initial reservoir pressure. Consideration of transient aquifer behavior leads to the conclusion that high-rate production of water-drive gas reservoirs could result in improved gas recovery by reduction of the abandonment pressure. However, there appears to be little quantitative information on this possibility.

One of the few advantages of water-drive, gas production appears to be improved deliverability through water-drive support of the reservoir pressure. There may also be an advantage in higher condensate recovery caused by pressure maintenance for gas-condensate water-drive reservoirs.

In view of the preceding, this study was made to assess the potential importance of water-drive in gas reservoir engineering. The Carter-Tracy approximate water-influx expression was used because this equation offers some advantages in hand-calculation which do not appear to have been generally recognized.8 However, calculations were performed in the main with a high-speed digital computer to permit evaluation of the effect of water-drive under a large variety of conditions.