Water-Injection Optimization for a Complex Fluvial Heavy-Oil Reservoir by Integrating Geological, Seismic, and Production Data

This paper (SPE 110492) was accepted for presentation at the SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition, Anaheim, California, USA, 11–14 November 2007, and revised for publication. Original manuscript received for review 2 August 2007. Revised manuscript received for review 28 January 2009. Paper peer approved 1 February 2009. Summary BZ25-1s field in Bohai Bay, China, is characterized as a complex channelized fluvial reservoir in which small meandering channels were deposited at different geological times stacking and cross cutting each other. There are many isolated small reservoir systems following channel distributions. Early production showed steep pressure and production decline. Quick implementation of water injection was needed to arrest the fast production decline and to stabilize reservoir pressure. While designing the water-injection plan, we faced a number of challenges, such as high oil viscosity (≈200 cp), strong heterogeneity, poor reservoir connectivity, complex channel geometry, and irregular well patterns. A workflow integrating geological, well-log, seismic, and dynamic production data was developed to optimize a water injection plan for this field after a short production history. Focuses of this workflow are the selection of injection wells (converted from existing producers), timing of water injection, and the optimization of injection rates. Following the workflow, the optimal water-injection design for the areas around Platforms D and E was developed and quickly implemented within the first year of production. We started with a relatively small water-injection rate and gradually increased the injection rate to avoid the fast water breakthrough and yet to limit the pressure-decline rate. The responses from the water injection were very positive and resulted in stable reservoir pressure and increase of oil production. Before water injection, the production-decline rates were 26 and 47% in Platforms D and E, respectively. After 1 year of water injection, oil-production-decline rates in these two platforms were reduced to 19 and 14%, respectively. The responses of water injection for different well groups were analyzed in a timely fashion and adjustments to injection/production strategies were implemented accordingly. New information revealed from the water-injection response analysis was used to update the geological model to reduce the model uncertainty, as well as to adjust the water-injection strategies for better sweep efficiency. Our experiences showed that such dynamic adjustment of injection and production schedule is very important to achieve better water-injection efficiency for this heavy-oil reservoir with complex channel geometry.