A Strategy for Attacking Excess Water Production

Abstract

Abstract This paper describes a straightforward strategy for diagnosing and solving excess water production problems. The strategy advocates that the easiest problems should be attacked first and diagnosis of water production problems should begin with information already at hand. A listing of water production problems is provided, along with a ranking of their relative ease of solution. Conventional methods (e.g., cement, mechanical devices) normally should be applied first to treat the easiest problems-i.e., casing leaks and flow behind pipe where cement can be placed effectively and for unfractured wells where impermeable barriers separate water and hydrocarbon zones. Gelant treatments normally are the best option for casing leaks and flow behind pipe with flow restrictions that prevent effective cement placement. Both gelants and preformed gels have been successfully applied to treat hydraulic or natural fractures that connect to an aquifer. Treatments with preformed gels normally are the best option for faults or fractures crossing a deviated or horizontal well, for a single fracture causing channeling between wells, or for a natural fracture system that allows channeling between wells. Gel treatments should not be used to treat the most difficult problems—i.e., three-dimensional coning, cusping, or channeling through strata with crossflow. Introduction On average in the United States, more than seven barrels of water are produced for each barrel of oil.1 Worldwide, an average of three barrels of water are produced for each barrel of oil.2 The annual cost of disposing of this water is estimated to be 5–10 billion dollars in the US and around 40 billion dollars worldwide.2 Many different causes of excess water production exist (Table 1). Each of these problems requires a different approach to find the optimum solution. Therefore, to achieve a high success rate when treating water production problems, the nature of the problem must first be correctly identified.3 Many different materials and methods can be used to attack excess water production problems. Generally, these methods can be categorized as chemical or mechanical (see Table 2). Each of these methods may work very well for certain types of problems but are usually ineffective for other types of problems. Again, for effective treatment, the nature of the problem must first be correctly identified. Four problem categories are listed in Table 1 in the general order of increasing treatment difficulty. Within each category, the order of listing is only roughly related to the degree of treatment difficulty. Category A, "Conventional" Treatments Normally Are an Effective Choice, includes the application of water shutoff techniques that are generally well established, utilize materials with high mechanical strength, and function in or very near the wellbore. Examples include Portland cement, mechanical tubing patches, bridge plugs, straddle packers, and wellbore sand plugs. A few comments may be helpful to clarify some of the listings in Table 1. First, the difference between Problems 1 and 4 is simply a matter of aperture size of the casing leak and size of the flow channel behind the casing leak. Problem 1, involving casing leaks without flow restrictions, is where the leak is occurring through a large aperture breach in the piping (greater than roughly 1/8 in.) and a large flow conduit (greater than roughly 1/16 in.) behind the leak. The use of Portland cement is favored for treating Problem 1. Problem 4, involving casing leaks with flow restrictions, is where the leak is occurring through a small aperture breach (e.g., "pinhole" and tread leaks) in the piping (less than roughly 1/8 in.) and a small flow conduit (less than roughly 1/16 in.) behind the leak. The use of gel is favored to successfully treat Problem 4. In this paper, the gels under discussion may include those formed fromchemically crosslinking water-soluble organic polymers,water-based organic monomers, orsilicates.