Abstract
Managing a waterflooding project always has its sets of challenges and associated costs. The use of advanced completions can aid in minimizing such costs, while increasing the field recovery. This study highlights the deployment of an advanced completion in a waterflooding project in a newly developed field located in the Egyptian Western Desert.
Initially, a specific area of the field started to experience a decline in reservoir pressure. The operator decided to drill a new injection well to provide the required pressure support in this area. Unfortunately, the amount of water produced by the field wells was not sufficient to feed an additional injection well. Several solutions were explored to tackle this issue. The most straightforward, but costly, solution was to drill a new water source well. Another proposed method was to rely on a natural dump flood, by perforating both the injection and production zones within the same wellbore. The pressure difference should create a "natural injection" effect. However, the study showed that this method would not provide the required injection rate.
Finally, a novel solution was selected to provide the required injection rate with the aid of an advanced completion. The flow was assisted with an electrical submersible pump (ESP) to control the injection rate. The pressure support was successfully provided by producing water from the producing zone to be reinjected into the target injection zone, all within the same wellbore. The effectiveness of the solution was confirmed with the aid of a real-time monitoring and surveillance system. Later, this aided in optimizing the production of other nearby wells.
