ANÁLISIS DE SENSIBILIDAD DE VARIABLES QUE AFECTAN LA TÉCNICA TOE TO HEEL WATERFLOODING (TTHW) MEDIANTE MODELOS CONCEPTUALES DE SIMULACIÓN NUMÉRICA

Abstract

Waterflooding has been one of the most used oil recovery method around the world. However, this method may cause problems such as water channeling and low vertical sweep efficiency, due to reservoir heterogenety, carrying out the proyect economical failure. Previously, many authors have done studies over conventional waterflooding, using horizontal Wells in order to reudce the above problems. This technology called Toe To Heel Waterflooding (TTHW) has been classified as a short-distance, because the distance between the oil and the producer well is short due to the wells¿ configuration generating a reduction of the pressures drop between the horizontal well and the vertical well, making the gravity forces more important in the process. This work shows a study of conceptual models of simulation of waterflooding behavior by using horizontal Wells, in order to identify the principal parameters that affect the process and determine its technical factibility too, in a model with characteristics of a Colombian field. The evaluated parameters are: injection rate, permeabilities, oil viscosity; it was also done a comparative study between the conventional waterflooding and TTHW technology, identifying the conditions in which TTHW emerge as an alternative to counteract the negative results in the normal injection. Finally, it was built a layered conceptual reservoir with characteristics of Tello¿s field, in which it is analyzed the effect of gravitational drainage.

Keywords

• Waterflooding
• horizontal wells
• TTHW
• numerical simulation