A series of laboratory flow experiments were conducted to examine the relative effects of various factors causing gradual losses in injectivities in fieldwide water injection operations. Injectivity losses were measured on a small scale during radial flow injection of carefully prepared particle suspensions with KCl as a base fluid.

Systematic matching of rocks mean pore sizes and the mean particle sizes in the suspension pointed out their effect and control on the mechanism of injectivity impairment.

Additional factors studied included the impact of prefiltration using microfilters and the role of differential pressure in enhancing the injectivities.

Keywords:
particle, upstream oil & gas, injectivity ratio, filtration, invasion, flow in porous media, injectivity loss, particle size distribution, experiment, enhanced recovery
Subjects:
Formation Damage, Reservoir Fluid Dynamics, Improved and Enhanced Recovery, Flow in porous media, Waterflooding
Copyright 1986, Society of Petroleum Engineers
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