Analyzing the Influence of Salinity on Produced Water Re-Injection

Abstract

Abstract Produced water reinjection (PWRI) is one of the methods employed by oilfield operators to optimize production while conforming to increasingly stringent produced water disposal policies. Different produced water species from different facilities also have different salinities as a result of entrainment of treatment fluids, precipitation of salts at surface conditions, etc. During re-injection operations, the salinity of the injection fluid has to be accounted for as it affects the production. Previous studies have focused on laboratory analysis by core flooding. While this approach is indeed reasonable and offers a first-hand impression of the reservoir conditions, it presents a problem of cost and the age-old opinion that the core sample may not be representative of the entire reservoir. Therefore, I have employed a computer modeling approach using a commercial simulator to analyze the influence of salinity on production during produced water re-injection. It was found that the salinity truly affects production. Re-injection of produced water with salinity equal to the reservoir salinity of 1000 ppm was compared to three cases of re-injection of produced water from extraneous sources having salinities of 100 ppm, 500 ppm and 10000 ppm. It was found that salinity of 10000 ppm gave the best oil production performance for the reservoir model; a daily rate of 40 STB/DAY and an oil cumulative production of 40,000 STB. Incremental salinity of injected produced water led to incremental oil recovery. The mechanism resulting in incremental recovery was attributed to the increase in viscosity and decrease in mobility as the salinity increases.