A novel injectivity decline prediction model for waterflooding with analytical solutions and field applications

Abstract

Well injectivity decline during waterflooding is primarily attributed to retention of injected particles within pores, subsequently blocking flow channels in near-wellbore regions. Developing a predictive model to describe this problem holds significant value as it can inform the development of strategies aimed at preventing or mitigating such damage. Previous research has typically assumed a linear suspension flow or a constant filtration coefficient, which does not represent the near-wellbore suspension flow very well. In this paper, an analytical model for the radial suspension transport in porous media is derived based on the Langmuirian blocking filtration mechanism. Considering the dimensionless distance from the wellbore as a small parameter, we attain the analytical solution through an asymptotic expansion. To provide a basis for comparison, we also obtain numerical solutions using Shampine's code, which is based on the explicit central finite difference method. Comparison of the analytical and numerical solutions shows that their difference errors remain below 5% under waterflooding conditions. Based on the analytical solution for retained particle concentration, expressions for injection pressure, damage factor and damaged zone radius are also derived and are also expressed explicitly. In the end, we discuss two practical applications of our model: evaluation of existing acidizing jobs and designing new acidizing jobs, based on real field data from Tarim Basin, western China. The results indicate our model is practical in field operations.

Keywords

Waterflooding / Injectivity decline / Langmuirian blocking / Filtration coefficient / Damage zone / Analytical model

CRediT authorship contribution statement

Huifeng Liu: Resources, Methodology, Investigation, Funding acquisition, Formal analysis, Data curation, Conceptualization. Yuri Osipov: Writing-original draft, Validation, Methodology, Formal analysis. Zebo Yuan: Validation, Software, Investigation. Siqing Xu: Resources, Funding acquisition. Jorge Costa Gomes: Writing-review & editing, Validation. Zhangxin Chen: Writing-review & editing, Supervision, Project administration, Methodology.

Declaration of competing interest

Zhangxin Chen is an Editorial Board Member for Petroleum and was not involved in the editorial review or the decision to publish this article. All other authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the CNPC Scientific Research and Technology Development Project “Integration and industrialization of Improved Waterflooding Development Technologies for Thin Carbonate Reservoirs in Ahdab and Oman Block 5” (NO. 2023ZZ19-08), for which we express our sincere gratitude.

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