Development of Breakthrough Time Correlations for Coning in Bottom Water Supported Reservoirs

Abstract

This research work mainly investigates the development and the behavior of cones (both water and gas cones) in oil reservoirs supported by strong aquifer, and from which analytical correlations are developed for quick engineering estimates of the time for water/gas cones to break into the perforations of the producing wells. The studies treated the cone development and breakthrough times in both horizontal and vertical well producing reservoirs and made analysis on them. The Ozkan and Raghavan (1990) method was employed as the base approach in the modeling of the cones; as well as their breakthrough times and then compare with that of Chaperon’s approach(1986) with both the horizontal and vertical well applied. The developed models were then run on field data, the results were graphically represented in both the horizontal and vertical well cases. Analytical correlations were then developed from the results obtained for breakthrough time estimation and compared with literature on example case.

This work actually employs the dimensionless (or the normalized approach) system to curtail the units complexities and represent the results in a more generalized form. These analytical correlations can be leveraged on to plan better future re-completion strategy as they provide an engineering estimate of when water breaks into the production wells.