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Geomechanical Influences in Water Injection Projects: an Overview

Article in Oil & Gas Science and Technology - Revue de l IFP · September 2002
DOI: 10.2516/ogst:2002027

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Oil & Gas Science and Technology – Rev. IFP, Vol. 57 (2002), No. 5, pp. 415-422
Copyright © 2002, Éditions Technip

Geomechanical Influences
in Water Injection Projects: An Overview
K. Heffer1
1 Industrial Fellow, Heriot-Watt University - United Kingdom
e-mail: [email protected]

Résumé — Présentation générale des effets géomécaniques induits par l’injection d’eau dans les
réservoirs — Au cours de l'injection d'eau, l'augmentation des pressions interstitielles et la diminution de
température entraînent une diminution des contraintes effectives horizontales, notamment à proximité des
puits d'injection. Ce déchargement mécanique peut activer des failles et des fractures naturelles au sein du
réservoir, du recouvrement, des couches inférieures ou des fractures hydrauliques à proximité des puits
d'injection. Ces effets géomécaniques induisent des modifications anisotropes de la perméabilité,
généralement en augmentation, qui devraient être intégrées dans la simulation du réservoir, particu-
lièrement du point de vue de la configuration des puits, afin d'en obtenir les meilleurs avantages
commerciaux.

Abstract — Geomechanical Influences in Water Injection Projects: An Overview — During water

injection, increasing pore pressures and decreasing temperatures imply reductions in effective horizontal
stresses, particularly in proximity to injection wells. This unloading can lead to activation of the natural
faults and fractures by brittle failure in the body of the reservoir, over- or under-burden, or to the
creation of hydraulic fractures in the vicinity of injection wells. These geomechanical changes will be
associated with anisotropic permeability changes, usually increases, that should be incorporated into
reservoir simulation, particularly with the objective of configuring the original, or infill, well pattern to
the best commercial advantage.
416 Oil & Gas Science and Technology – Rev. IFP, Vol. 57 (2002), No. 5

STRESS STATE CRITICALITY phenomenon of “thermal fracturing”. Pressure fall-off and

hydraulic impedance tests generally indicate that a typical
Strongly controlling these effects is the in situ stress state. The distance for propagation of continuous hydraulic fractures
evidences of earthquake statistics, earthquakes triggered by from injectors is of order 100 m. However the stress
other earthquakes, fault and fracture statistics, intepretations perturbations can still be sufficient for shear failure across
of full in situ stress tensors from image logs, and occurrences large parts of a critically stressed reservoir, and widespread
of microseismicity during perturbation, all point to stress anisotropic changes to the effective permeability can be
states in the lithosphere being naturally in a self-organized induced by the waterflooding.
critical state (e.g. Bak, 1997; Grasso and Sornette, 1998;
Sanderson and Zhang, 1999; Townend and Zoback, 2000).
Data from seismicity studies indicate that small stress changes FLOOD DIRECTIONALITY – AGGREGATED FIELD
(~1 bar [0,1MPa]) are often sufficient to induce further DATA STATISTICS
seismicity (e.g. Stein, 1999). Therefore it is likely that the
comparatively large stress changes induced by the field Aggregations of data from many field cases of secondary and
development will perturb this generally metastable state. tertiary floods support the above statements. Heffer and Lean
(1993) examined the flood breakthrough characteristics
(Fig. 2a) of over 80 fields and determined that the anisotropy
STRESS-DEPENDENT PERMEABILITY of breakthrough was strongly correlated with the local
azimuth of maximum principal horizontal stress axis (Fig. 2b
As waterflooding moves the stress state in the formation and Fig. 3). The data was also consistent with the activation,
towards brittle failure, the permeability is likely to increase. particularly in shear, of natural fractures by the flooding as an
This is certainly true for hard rock formations. Laboratory explanation for this correlation, even though the natural
experiments have indicated that permeability of high fractures do not provide an obvious contribution to the initial
porosity, weaker, sands tends to decrease despite dilatancy on permeability in the reservoir (i.e. the field may not be
brittle failure (e.g. Zhu and Wong, 1997). However, those “naturally fractured” with its conventional meaning).
experiments have all been run with increasing average Numerical geomechanical modeling of the areal influence of
stresses; it is arguably more probable that decreasing stress cooling, coupled with fluid flow gave rise to an areal pattern
states will also cause conductive fractures as they fail in of shear zones (relative to Shmax) that closely resembles the
brittle shear. The map of Figure 1 generalises the stress peaks in the frequencies of the field breakthrough
dependence of permeability. The stress perturbations will orientations for “unfractured” reservoirs (Fig. 2c; Heffer and
be most intense close to injector wells, and hence the Koutsabeloulis, 1993).

Permeability scale
Increase
Depends on
Differential stress, q stress path?
Critical state line

Perm. decrease ?
Perm. increase ? Shear-enhanced compaction
re
ilu
fa
tle Decrease
rit
Po

l ,b
re

na
io
co

at
lla

t Elastic
la
Di
ps
e

Hydrostatic compaction

Average effective stress, p'

Initial yield cap
Onset of plastic hardening

Over-consolidation Normal consolidation

Conceptual after Zhu and Wong (1997) and Crawford et al. (1999)

Figure 1
Generalised permeability-stress map.
 K Heffer / Geomechanical Influences in Water Injection Projects: an Overview 417

Shmax

Shmax

47 field cases Numerical modeling

("unfractured")

(a) (b) (c)

Figure 2
Stress and flood directionality.
a): example of breakthrough paths from an injector; b): orientational frequency of major axes of breakthrough in 47 “unfractured” fields
shows peaks at small angles either side of Shmax, as reproduced in numerical modeling (c).

Unfractured reservoirs Fractured reservoirs All reservoirs

(47 cases) (33 cases) (80 cases)

0 0
Shmax
360 1020 0
350
340 30 360 1020 360 1020
320 350
340 30 350
40 320 340 30
310 50 40 320 40
300 60 310 50 310 50
70 300 60 300 60
290 70
290 290 70
280 80
280 80 280 80
270 90 270 90 270 90
260 100
260 100 260 100
250 110
120 250 110 250 110
240 120
230 130 240 240 120
220 140 230 130 230 130
210 150 220 140 220 140
200
190 160
170 210 150 210 150
200
190 160
170 200
190 160
170
180 180 180

(a) (b) (c)

Figure 3
Flood directionality and “fractures”. The bias in major azimuthal axes of breakthrough towards Shmax is irrespective of whether the reservoir
is deemed “naturally fractured” or not.

FLOOD DIRECTIONALITY – SPECIFIC FIELDS (Fig. 4) implying that the minimum principal stress axis was
acting suborthogonally to those faults, giving the best chance
Field A. Extensive tracer studies in this large field under for dilatation and conductivity (Fig. 5).
pattern waterflood were able to distinguish tracer break- Field B. A measure of areal anisotropy that was used in
throughs along conductive faults. Prediction of heterogeneities this field (which is also under a pattern waterflood) was
in the modern-day stress distribution across the field was obtained from the temporal correlations of fluctuations in
made with areal distinct element modeling, in which fault production or injection rates at pairs of wells across the field
traces were allowed to slip according to a simple Mohr (Fig. 6). If rates at a well pair fluctuated in phase together, a
Coulomb’s Law. With boundary tractions on the model positive correlation coefficient was calculated; whilst nega-
chosen to match the average stress state orientation measured tive correlation coefficients were obtained for anti-phase
at a number of wells, an equilibrium distribution of stresses fluctuations. Strengths of the correlation coefficients were
was obtained, which could be interrogated at all fault trace examined according to the orientations of the lines between
segments. It was found that the modeled axes of Shmax close injector-producer pairs relative to the local azimuth of Shmax.
by the conductive faults were all subparallel to the fault strike It was found that the field could be split into roughly equal
418 Oil & Gas Science and Technology – Rev. IFP, Vol. 57 (2002), No. 5

Fault strike

(a) Stress vectors predicted by (b) Orientation of modeled Shmax near

distinct element modeling conductive faults relative to strike of fault

Figure 4
Field A. a): modeled axes of principal horizontal stresses (maximum is longer); b): orientational distribution of conductive faults relative to
local directionof Shmax.

Shmax

Fractures aligned parallel

to Shmax open, increasing
conductivity Injection
rates

Time

In situ faults
and fractures Production
rates
Water injection
Shmax

Preferred flooding direction

Figure 6
Idealised depiction of rate correlations. The (Spearman rank)
correlation coefficients range from –1 for perfectly anti-
Figure 5
correlated; to 0 for completely uncorrelated; to +1 for a
Fault strike and stress. Faults subparallel to Shmax are more perfectly correlated pair of sequences (as shown in this
easily dilated to become conductive to water. example).

areas, between which the orientational distributions of watercut were observed to be very closely aligned with one
measured Shmax were approximately orthogonal; the or other of the fault trends across the field. The interpretation
respective azimuthal distributions of the strengths of of this observation is that faults are conductive when striking
correlation coefficients in the 2 parts of the field also showed subparallel to the local orientation of Shmax; in such situations
the same approximate 90 degree rotation (Fig. 7). the faults are more conductive and allow water to
Furthermore, an areal interpolation of Shmax orientations breakthrough to producers more readily. VISAGETM (VIPS,
allowed the watercut observations at wells to be plotted as a 2001) finite element modelling allowed estimation of the
function of the local orientation of Shmax (Fig. 8): the peaks in magnitudes of the stresses that are consistent with the
 K Heffer / Geomechanical Influences in Water Injection Projects: an Overview 419

N
Basement fault trend

Northeast region

Shmax from borehole breakout

Southwest region
Principal horizontal stress direction (Shmax)

Spearman rank correlation analysis results

Figure 7
Results of rate correlation analysis for 2 parts of field B. The orientational distribution of strengths of correlation coefficient follow those of
the maximum horizontal principal stresses. The line dividing the 2 parts of the field overlies a major basement fault.

360 0
10
350 20
340 30
320 40
310 50
300 60
290 70
280 80 Average WOR
270 90 Fault strike
260 100 frequency
250 110
240 120
230 130
220 140
210 150
200 190 170 160
180

(a) (b)

Figure 8
Field B. a): interpolated map of orientations of Shmax across field; b): (red) average produced water/oil ratio at producing wells as a function
of the local orientation of Shmax, compared with (green) the azimuthal distribution of fault strikes.

observed stress orientations and also with equilibrium on the RATE CORRELATIONS AS STRAIN INDICATORS
faults in the field. It was found that the areas of low modeled
magnitudes of minimum principal stress (where the rock- Similar exercises in 6 other fields gave an aggregated
fracture complex is loosely compressed) were collocated orientational distribution of strengths of rate correlations that
with areas of high watercuts in the field, again suggesting the was markedly biased towards Shmax (Fig. 10a). In fact, on
involvement of conductive faults in water breakthrough average, the correlation coefficient for well pairs aligned
(Fig. 9). This field data strongly supports the concept that the along the local direction of Shmin was found to be negative.
conductivity of faults is dependent upon both the orientation This implies, for example, that an increase in rate at an
and the magnitudes of the local stress state (e.g. Townend injector is associated with a decrease at a producer offset
and Zoback, 2000). Further details of these and other field aligned along Shmin; ostensibly a contradiction of Darcy’s
studies are given in Heffer et al. (1995). Law! However, the orientational variations make good sense
420 Oil & Gas Science and Technology – Rev. IFP, Vol. 57 (2002), No. 5

On 54 x 66 grid
1.100
990
880
770
660
550
440
330
220
110
(a) (b) 0

Figure 9
Field B. a): map of magnitudes of maximum principal horizontal stress modelled with VISAGE geomechanical simulator (stresses are more
compressional in the sequence orange-yellow-green-turquoise-blue). b): map of cumulative water/oil ratios at producing wells across field
(ignore artefacts of interpolation routine outside field area). There is a good spatial correlation between the areas of low stress magnitude
(orange-yellow) and high water/oil ratio (red).

Shmax

z
(a) (b)

Figure 10
a): aggregated orientational distribution of rate correlation coefficients relative to direction of local Shmax. The data was taken from 8 field
areas and summarises the rate correlation coefficients of over half a million well pairs (green = raw data used; red = hi-pass filter applied to
data before correlations; black circle = zero correlation line).
b): theoretical areal distribution of correlaton in xx-strain at critical point (fall-offwith lag distance ~1/r).

in terms of strain correlations: changes in strain in the vicinity exemplified in the data from field B, which is shown as
of one well, which will be manifest as fracture/fault conduc- stacked correlation coefficients in Figure 11 (consider this
tivity changes, are associated with particular orientational diagram as having all injectors stacked at the central point,
patterns of strain changes at offset locations. Figure 10b and the colours as indicating the average strength of rate
shows the theoretical spatial autocorrelation of xx-strains, correlation coefficients at offset points around the injectors).
which would be pertinent to Shmax directed along the y-axis. The high values of correlation at points near the edges of the
A further feature of the field data that is even more at odds spatial lags can be seen in the figure. Although the long-
with conventional hydrology is that some of the most range nature of the correlations is not yet fully understood, a
significant correlations are large-range; indeed between well clue exists in yet another feature of the data: there is a strong
pairs at opposite ends of the field. The latter finding is hint of the fault trends in the field in the autocorrelation
 K Heffer / Geomechanical Influences in Water Injection Projects: an Overview 421

From raw rate data From rate data after

Fault trends
hi-pass frequency filter
(a) (b)

Figure 11
Field B. Stacked rate correlations. Colours depict the average strength of rate correlation coefficient for spatial lags relative to the central
point. Red indicates highly positive. Dark blue indicates highly negative. Note the boundary highs and the trends parallel to faulting trends in
the field.

100
90 Isotropic
Favourable
80
Areal sweep efficiency

Unfavourable
to breakthrough (%)

70
60
50
40
5 spot pattern
30 Ky/Kx = 16
20
10
0
0.1 0 10
Mobility ratio

Figure 12
The prize – theory. Classical calculations of the sensitivity of areal sweep efficiency of a flood to the alignment of the five-spot well pattern
in a reservoir of anisotropic permeability. The sweep efficiency is quoted for the time of water breakthrough. The efficiency is highly
dependent upon whether the well pattern is aligned favourably (green) or unfavourably (red). Compared with curve for an isotropic reservoir
(blue). All plotted against the mobility ratio of the injected/swept fluids (after Caudle and Loneric, 1960).

(Fig. 11). General deformation occurring during field PRACTICALITIES/CONCLUSIONS

development involves movement on the pre-existing faults
and fractures under the influence of the in situ stress state and The above field data and theoretical considerations imply that
induced stress changes, and is thus strongly coupled with stress state characterization should be a prime component of
permeability changes and the fluid flow in the reservoir. The most, if not all, reservoir description and simulation exercises
coupled system is at or near a critical point which is for waterflood and IOR projects. Current industry practice
characterised by long-range correlations. It is surmised that generally ignores this parameter for reservoir engineering,
the boundary to the field focuses correlated strain changes. despite having realized for many decades the strong
422 Oil & Gas Science and Technology – Rev. IFP, Vol. 57 (2002), No. 5

sensitivity of sweep efficiency to any anisotropy in the REFERENCES

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