Abstract
Bahrain oil Field being the first oil discovery in the gulf region in 1932 is now in a mature stage of development. Crestal gas injection in the oil bearing, under saturated, layered and heavily faulted carbonate Mauddud reservoir has continued to be the dominant drive mechanism since 1938. Thirty-eight 40-acre 5-spot waterflood patterns were implemented from 2011 to 2012. These patterns were located in both South East and North West part of Mauddud reservoir with a maximum injection rate of 80 MBWPD. With less than 10% PV water injected as of December 2012, premature water breakthrough was observed in most of the producers. Rapid water breakthrough in Mauddud A (Ba) is attributed to presence of high permeability vugs and layers resulting water cycling and poor sweep in the matrix leaving bypassed oil. Following recommendations from the 2013 partner Peer Assist, the South East and North West waterfloods have been converted from pattern to peripheral with down dip wells providing water injection. Peripheral re-alignment has arrested the production decline, reduced water cut and stabilized the production.
Surveillance data such production logs, reservoir saturation logs, noise logs, temperature and tracer data form the basis of understanding waterflood performance. Additionally, an array of analytical tools were used for diagnosis and analysis. Amongst the diagnostic tools, the Y- function helped to understand water cycling and sweep; the modified-Hall plot helped understand high-permeability channel or lack thereof and water-oil-ratio (WOR) gave the clue on fluid displacement. Additional plots such as "X" plot, hydrocarbon pore volume injected vs. recovery, Jordan plot, Cobb sweep plot, Stagg's plot and decline curve analysis were generated to gain insight on the sweep, recovery and remaining moveable oil of the waterflood.
Based on the waterflood analysis, a field study was initiated in December 2016 by shutting more than 80% of water injection followed by complete shut-in in September 2017. The motivation was to reduce the water cut, improve production taking advantage of gravity drainage effect of gas injectors located up dip of waterflood areas. The implementation of water injection shut-in is still ongoing in the field and pressure/production performance is being closely monitored.
This study underscores the importance of fit-for-purpose surveillance data along with ensemble of modern analytical tools to diagnose and analyze waterflood performance. This understanding also paves the way for much improved learning to take appropriate actions and help devise long-term reservoir management strategy.