Water Injection

This article needs additional citations for verification.
Please help improve this article

by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and
removed. (September 2008)
Water injection or water flooding refers to the method in the oil industry where water is
injected into the reservoir, usually to increase pressure and thereby stimulate production.
Water injection wells can be found both on- and offshore, to increase oil recovery from an
existing reservoir.
Water is injected (1) to support pressure of the reservoir (also known as voidage
replacement), and (2) to sweep or displace oil from the reservoir, and push it towards a
well.
Normally only 30% of the oil in a reservoir can be extracted, but water injection increases
that percentage (known as the recovery factor) and maintains the production rate of a
reservoir over a longer period
Any and every source of bulk water can be, and has been, used for injection. The
following sources of water are used for recovery of oil:
Produced water is often used as an injection fluid. This reduces the potential of causing
formation damage due to incompatible fluids, although the risk of scaling or corrosion in
injection flowlines or tubing remains. Also, the produced water, being contaminated with
hydrocarbons and solids, must be disposed of in some manner, and disposal to sea or
river will require a certain level of clean-up of the water stream first. However, the
processing required to render produced water fit for reinjection may be equally costly.
As the volumes of water being produced are never sufficient to replace all the production
volumes (oil and gas, in addition to water), additional "make-up" water must be provided.
Mixing waters from different sources exacerbates the risk of scaling.
Seawater is obviously the most convenient source for offshore production facilities, and
it may be pumped inshore for use in land fields. Where possible, the water intake is
placed at sufficient depth to reduce the concentration of algae; however, filtering,
deoxygenation and biociding is generally required.
Aquifer water from water-bearing formations other than the oil reservoir, but in the same
structure, has the advantage of purity where available.
River water will always require filtration and biociding before injection.
Secondary production methods are employed to increase production by boosting depleted
pressure in a formation. As the oil or natural gas in a formation is produced, the
hydrocarbons remaining in the reservoir may become trapped because the pressure in the
formation has lessened, making production either slow dramatically or stop altogether.
Filters[edit]
The filters must clean the water and remove any impurities, such as shells and algae.
Typical filtration is to 2 micrometres, but really depends on reservoir requirements. The
filters are so fine so as not to block the pores of the reservoir. Sand filters are a common
used filtration technology to remove solid impurities from the water. The sand filter has
different beds with various sizes of sand granules. The sea water traverses the first,
coarsest, layer of sand down to the finest and to clean the filter, the process is inverted.
After the water is filtered it continues on to fill the de-oxygenation tower. Sand filters are
bulky, heavy, have some spill over of sand particles and require chemicals to enhance
water quality. A more sophisticated approach is to use automatic selfcleaning
backflushable screen filters (suction scanning) because these do not have the
disadvantages sand filters have.
The importance of proper water treatment is often underestimated by oil companies and
engineering companies. Especially with river-, and seawater, intake water quality can
vary tremendously (algae blooming in spring time, storms and current stirring up
sediments from the seafloor) which will have significant impact on the performance of
the water treatment facilities. If not addressed correctly, water injection may not be
successful. This results in poor water quality, clogging of the reservoir and loss of oil
production.[citati
De-oxygenation[edit]
Oxygen must be removed from the water because it promotes corrosion and growth of
certain bacteria. Bacterial growth in the reservoir can produce toxic hydrogen sulfide, a
source of serious production problems, and block the pores in the rock.
A deoxygenation tower brings the injection water into contact with a dry gas stream (gas
is always readily available in the oilfield). The filtered water drops into the deoxygenation tower, splashing onto a series of trays, causing dissolved oxygen to be lost to
the gas stream.
An alternative method, also used as a backup to deoxygenation towers, is to add an
oxygen scavenging agent such as sodium bisulfite and ammonium bisulphite.
Water injection pumps[edit]

The high pressure, high flow water injection pumps are placed near to the de-oxygenation
tower and boosting pumps. They fill the bottom of the reservoir with the filtered water to
push the oil towards the wells like a piston. The result of the injection is not quick, it
needs time.
Water injection is used to prevent low pressure in the reservoir. The water replaces the oil
which has been taken, keeping the production rate and the pressure the same over the
long term.

Water Injection

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Water Injection

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Water Injection

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

This article needs additional citations for verification.

Please help improve this article

Water injection pumps[edit]

You might also like

Pfad - The Proxy pFad of © 2024 Garber Painting. All rights reserved.