Integration of analytical methods and CRM modeling in order to clarify the sources of water flooding in oil wells

During field development, water cuts in well production are inevitable. This may be the result of ineffective reservoir pressure maintenance (RPM) systems, natural bottomwater coning, or geomechanical changes. A thorough understanding of the nature and causes of water cuts enables successful management of the RPM system, timely adjustments to the workover program and maintenance of oil production levels. One of the well-known analytical methods for determining the causes of water cut is the analysis of Chan plots. Combining this method with methods for determining well interaction coefficients enables to identify the areas of the interwellbore space that most significantly influence water cut dynamics. This article proposes a rapid method for determining the source of water cuts, including an analysis of the well interaction coefficient dynamics and time constants obtained by history matching the Capacitance-Resistance Model Injector-Producer Pair Based Representation (CRMIP). The variability of the CRMIP parameters and the relationship to the causes of water flooding were analyzed using synthetic data obtained using a hydrodynamic model. The applicability of an integrated approach to identifying the causes of well water cut is examined using field data from one of the Western Siberia fields. The retrospective analysis of the causes of increasing water cut in production wells was carried out. The author's method established the existence and direction of induced fracture (waterflooding fracture) development, which was confirmed by more advanced, resource-intensive methods such as hydrodynamic survey interpretation and multiwell deconvolution.

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