Reservoir Formation Damage Due to Water Injection Wells

Abstract

Water injection is an integral constituent of most field development scenarios, It has been considered for
enhanced oil recovery (the heavy oil). This injection may take place for secondary recovery and pressure
maintenance such as sea water injection associated with most injection schemes is injectivity decline; where
the rate of injection decreases over time at a given constant injection pressure gradient. The phenomenon
of injectivity decline is comprised of multiple phenomena such as internal filtration, external filter cake
build-up, fracture propagation, relative phase changes within the matrix rock and the associated
permeability decline due to each of the described phenomena.
In this thesis addresses some of the key phenomena associated with injectivity decline. Most of the transport
models describing the transport and capture of contaminants in the injection fluid within the matrix porous
medium. The external filter cake build-up, an erosion model was derived based on the interaction of forces
acting on a retained particle on the surface of the external-filter cake for both rectilinear and radial
geometries. We postulate that during some initial period, an internal filter cake is formed. We refer to the
time at which no more particles invade the rock, i.e. the time at which the initial layer of external filter cake
is completely formed, as the transition time.
The prediction of particle capturing and particle retention by mathematical model is an essential stage
during planning and design of above-mentioned industrial processes.