About this Training Course

One of the key challenges for oil companies to maximise recovery is from existing waterfloods. Besides water availability and quality, the subsurface displacement process is of key importance to understand field performance and maximising waterflood reserves. This 3-day course addresses the basic Reservoir Engineering concepts of waterflooding. The course will discuss the target ultimate recovery to be expected from a waterflood based on the Complexity Index analysis. It will then explain the key fluid and rock properties which influence the recovery. Subsequently, the key analytical techniques will be explained which a reservoir engineer can apply to understand and manage their waterfloods optimally, such as the Buckley Leverett analysis, the Welge analysis, Dykstra Parson analysis, Dietz displacements, stability criteria and stream line analysis. Attention will be given to the impact of wettability and complex geological structures. Especially the impact of well architecture and pattern effects will be explained. Various options for production optimisation will be discussed. A novel technique to quickly estimate the target recovery factor for a specific field will be explained. Various monitoring techniques and performance analysis will be explained with an aim to optimise field performance. Furthermore, a brief outline of waterflood EOR options will be discussed which should be taken into account to ensure that the waterflood is compatible with long-term EOR options. The course will not discuss the fundamentals of flow through porous media, the workings of numerical modelling of subsurface flow, detailed well testing or detailed surface engineering aspects.