10 – Reservoir Engineering Objectives

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COURSE OUTLINE

PART II – RESERVOIR ENGINEERING METHODS

 10 - Reservoir Engineering Objectives

 11 - Material Balance Calculations

 12 - Decline Curve Analysis

 13 -Two-Phase Immiscible Displacement

 14 - Displacement Efficiency

 15 - Well Performance

 16 - Introduction to Well Testing

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RESERVOIR ENGINEERING …
 Definition
– The art of developing and producing oil and gas fluids in such a manner as to obtain a
high economic recovery

 Typical Tasks
– How much oil and gas is originally in place?
– What are the drive mechanisms for the reservoir?
– What will the recovery factor be by primary depletion?
– What will future production rates be?
– How can the recovery be increased economically?

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RESERVOIR ENGINEERING …
 Example

– Estimation of Hydrocarbons in Place

 Determination of Fluid Pressure Regimes
 Location of Fluid contacts

– Calculation of a Recovery Factor

– Time Scale to Recovery

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CALCULATION OF HYDROCARBONS IN PLACE
 Oil Volume in the Reservoir

– OIP = Vf(1-Swi)

where
 V ... Net bulk volume of the reservoir rock
 f ... Porosity of the reservoir
 Swi ... Connate or irreducible water saturation

– Existence of Swi is a natural phenomenon fundamental to fluid flow in porous media.

Typical range is 10-35%
 When one fluid displaces another, the displaced fluid saturation can never be reduced to zero
 Effect of immobile water is that it reduces the reservoir volume occupied by hydrocarbons and
shields the contact between hydrocarbon phases and rock

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CALCULATION OF HYDROCARBONS IN PLACE
 Oil Volume in the Stock Tank (Surface)

– To convert the volume from reservoir volume to surface (Stock Tank) volume, a
conversion factor, so called formation volume factor, is used.

– STOIIP = V*f*(1-Swi)/Boi

 Boi ... Oil Formation Volume Factor [ResVol/STVol]

− I.e.: a volume of 1.2 rbbl of oil will produce 1 STB of oil at the surface together with the
volume of gas which was originally dissolved in the oil in the reservoir
 … f and Swi are determined from petrophysical analysis
 The net bulk volume, V, is obtained from geology and fluid pressure analysis.

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 FLUID PRESSURE REGIMES

Pressure  Typical pressure gradients:

- Water = 0.45 psi/ft or 0.1 bar/m
- Oil = 0.35 psi/ft or 0.08 bar/m
Depth
- Gas = 0.08 psi/ft or 0.018 bar/m

 Overburden pressure:
- Varies approx. linearly in
Fluid pressure Grain pressure
sedimentary basins
Overburden pressure
over pressured - = Fluid pressure + Grain pressure
under pressured
- = approx. 1 psi/ft (0.225 bar/m)
Normal hydrostatic pressure

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FLUID PRESSURE REGIMES
 Fluid pressure regimes in hydrocarbon columns are dictated by the prevailing
water pressure in the vicinity of the reservoir
 In a normal case:
 dp 
pw     z  14.7
 dz  w

– Assumes continuity of water pressure to surface and that salinity does not vary with
depth.

 In contrast to normal gradient (due to sealed off sands, temperature change,

salinity changes, geological changes), abnormal gradients can exist:
 dp 
pw     z  14.7  C
 dz  w

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EXAMPLE
– Normal hydrostatic reservoir
 WOC = 5500 ft, GOC = 5200 ft,
 Top of structure = 5000 ft
 (dp/dz)w = 0.45 psi/ft
 (dp/dz)o = 0.35 psi/ft
 (dp/dz)g = 0.08 psi/ft
– What is the pressure at the top of the structure?
 (For simplicity, here we assume the Free-Water Level to be an approximation of the WOC)
pw  0.45  z  15
 We use 15 here as approximation instead of 14.7 psia for 1 atm
pTop, Hydro  0.45  z  15
 0.45  5000  15
 2265 psi Is this correct??

pw,WOC  0.45  5500  15  2490  po,WOC

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 EXAMPLE
2265 2369 Pressure pg ,TOP  0.08  5000  1969  2369

5000 Top pg  0.08  z  C2 C2  2385  0.08  5200  1969

po,GOC  0.35  z  565  0.35  5200  565  2385

5200 GOC
po  0.35  z  C1 C1  2490  0.35  5500  565

pw,WOC  0.45  5500  15  2490  po,WOC

5500 WOC pw  0.45  z  15

Depth 2490

 p at top of reservoir is 2369 psia. This pressure exceeds the normal hydrostatic
pressure by 104 psia (phydro=2265 psia)
 When drilling through a sealing shale on the crest, a sharp pressure kick will
occur at 5000 ft. The magnitude of the pressure kick depends on the vertical
extension and will be much greater for gas reservoirs.
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 EXAMPLE
Surface Depth Pressure
Pressure @ surface =14.7 psia 2369-5000*0.45 =118.7 psia
TOP 5000 ft
5000*0.45+15 = 2265 psia
5200*0.45+15 = 2355 psia GOC 2385-200*0.08 = 2369 psia
5200 ft
2490-300*0.35 = 2385 psia
5500*0.45+15 = 2490 psia WOC 5500 ft

5500*0.45+15 = 2490 psia

Communicating System
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RESULT ANALYSIS
 As we have seen, small uncertainties in pressure gradients can cause large
effects

 Therefore, reservoir engineers spend a lot of effort in defining the hydrostatic

pressure regime in a new field.
– E.g.: from wireline formation tests in exploration wells prior to casing

 These test (RFT, MDT, …) are used to measure pressure in the water bearing
sands above and below the reservoir and help defining the water pressure line

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NEXT STEPS …
 Having defined fluid contacts, it is possible to calculate the net bulk volume of
the reservoir to calculate the hydrocarbons in place
– E.g digitizing the contours above the WOC

 Finally, entering the values into

STOIIP = Ahf(1-Swi)/Boi

– will result in correct value, if all parameters are truly representative of their average
throughout the reservoir

 Typically, parameters are represented by probability distributions rather than a

single value.

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RESERVOIR ENGINEERING …
 Example
– Estimation of Hydrocarbons in Place
 Determination of Fluid Pressure Regimes
 Location of Fluid contacts
– Calculation of a Recovery Factor
– Time Scale to Recovery

– Recovery Factor
 represents the fraction of recovered or recoverable oil

– Determination of the recovery factor is the most important single task of the reservoir
engineer!

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HYDROCARBON RECOVERY
 Primary Recovery:
– Volume of hydrocarbons that can be produced by utilizing the natural energy available
in the reservoir and its adjacent aquifer
 E.g.: Fluid expansion

 Supplementary (Secondary and Tertiary) Recovery:

– Volume of hydrocarbons that can be produced by adding supplementary energy to the
reservoir-fluid system.
 E.g. Water flooding, CO2 Flooding, Steam Injection, …
– Secondary Recovery
 Predominantly water injection to maintain reservoir pressure
– Tertiary Recovery (Enhanced Oil Recovery)
 Different EOR methods available (e.g. Polymer flooding, surfactant flooding, steam injection,
CO2, N2 – injection, ...)
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PRIMARY RECOVERY
 Mechanics of primary recovery rely on the expansion of fluids in the reservoir.
– Isothermal compressibility
1  V 
c 
 p 

V  T
– When used in isolation

dV  c V  p

– Goal in Reservoir Engineering is to ensure that dV is from the most commercially

valuable fluid, namely from the oil utilizing the natural reservoir energy.

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PRIMARY RECOVERY
 Total production is dVtot  dVo  dVw  dVg

 This can be expressed as dVtot  coVo p  cwVw p  cgVg p

 Typical figures for compressibilities at 2000 psi

co  15  10 6 / psi
cw  3  10 6 / psi
c g  500  10 6 / psi
dVtot= oil production

Due to dP: Vw dVw Vo dVg Vg

aquifer oil gascap

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RESULT ANALYSIS
 It is evident that the contribution supplied by the oil and water expansion will
only be significant if both, the initial volumes of oil and water are large.

 In contrast, because of its high compressibility, even a relatively small volume

of gascap gas will contribute significantly to the oil production.

 Therefore, the gas in the gascap, although having some commercial value, is
frequently kept in the reservoir and allowed to play its role in contributing to the
primary recovery through expansion drive.

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HISTORY OF RESERVOIR ENGINEERING
 1930-1940:
– Studies on fluid flow in porous media (Muskat, 1937)
– Studies on fundamental Rock and PVT properties (Schilthuis)
– Formulation of first material balance equations (1936)

 1940 – 1950:
– Multiphase flow investigations (Buckley and Leverett)
– Oil and gas displacement, capillary pressure, relative permeability concepts
– Tarner equation for solution-gas drive
– Water influx models (van Everdingen and Hurst)

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HISTORY OF RESERVOIR ENGINEERING
 1950-1960:
– Early simulation models
– Well test interpretations
– Decline curve analysis (Arps, Fetkovich)

US (Texas), 1903

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HISTORY OF RESERVOIR ENGINEERING
 Today:
– Most tools are available in software programs:
 Especially probabilistic and economic calculations are performed using spreadsheet applications
 Reservoir Characterization and Simulation are part of everyday work for Reservoir Engineers

– Software available for

 Volumetrics
 Material Balance
 Decline Curve Analysis
 Well Test Interpretation
 Reservoir Simulation

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RECOMMENDED READING
 Fundamental Principles of Reservoir Engineering,
– by B.F. Towler, SPE Textbook Vol. 8, ISBN 1-55563-092-8, 2002.
 The Practice of Reservoir Engineering,
– by L.P. Dake, Elsevier Science Publisher, ISBN 0-444-50670-5, 2001.
 Reservoir Engineering Handbook,
– by T. Ahmed, Gulf Professional Publishing, ISBN 0-8841-5770-9, 2001.
 Petroleum Engineering Handbook, Volume V: Reservoir Engineering and
Petrophysics,
– Edited by E. Holstein, SPE, ISBN 978-1-55563-120-8, 2007.

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