Water drive is the most important recovery mechanism for oil production. In time, water breakthrough occurs in high permeable layers, leaving oil behind in unswept layers. For 1999, the worldwide daily water production associated with oil production has been reported as 33 million m3 or roughly 3 barrels of water for each barrel of oil. Therefore water production imposes an ever increasing burden on our industry. Brightwater is one of polymers that were developed to control water production and enhance sweep efficiecy. This microgels polymer is characterized by swelling if they are exposed to a high temperature. The main advantage of this product is that it can be deployed by adding directly to the injection line. No rig or coiled tubing is needed.
This paper present and analyze the first trial of using Brightwater as a shut off technique in Egypt. The main objective is to improve the sweeping efficiency of the water flooding in Belayim oil field by shutting off the water production. The study analyzed the flooding pattern in Petrobel Company and selected the suitable pattern. The selected pattern includes an ideal pattern of two wells. The layer between these two wells is highly heterogeneous, its permeability is 150 md and the thief zone permeability is 600 md. As a result, early breakthrough has been met after 180 days of injection start and the water cut increased to 86 ﹪. Based on reservoir condition, the suitable Brightwater grade have been selected. The performance of the Brightwater has been discussed.
The treatment results were successful in the short run but in the long run, it is not much economic since the water cut starts to increase again. Heterogeneity and permeability direction are very important in applying Brightwater as the production rate of the offset well has been increased as a response of treatment indicating that the plan was not prepared enough for that treatment.
