Scale Deposition During Water Flooding and the Effect on Reservoir Performance
Abstract
1. Background
2. Literature Review
3. Methodology and Results
3.1. Methodology
- Set up a 5-layer reservoir model with oil and water zones.
- Add one injector and one producer spaced 700 ft apart.
- Use field data to assign porosity (0.2), permeability (500 mD), and fluid densities.
- Run simulations at three different seawater injection rates.
- Track water flow, scale deposition, pressure, and PI using Eclipse.
- Analyze how scale affects performance over time using graphs and tables.
3.2. Results
3.2.1. Water Cut
3.2.2. Field Liquid Production Rate and Oil Production Rate
3.2.3. Injected Water Fraction
3.2.4. Scale Deposition
3.2.5. Productivity Index Reduction
3.2.6. Permeability Reduction
4. Discussion
5. Conclusions and Recommendations
- Produced water or fresh water is preferable for injection. If seawater must be used, sulfate ions should be removed, as their elimination would significantly reduce the potential for scale formation.
- Repositioning the injection well farther from the production well can help reduce scale. While it may not prevent scaling entirely, it shifts the mixing zone deeper into the reservoir, away from the wellbore. Scale inhibition treatments should be applied before initiating waterflooding. These treatments help prevent scale buildup both within the reservoir and around the wellbore.
- For the reservoir studied, milling and jetting are recommended to remove existing scale deposits. Following removal, scale inhibitor treatments should be applied to prevent recurrence.
Author Contributions
Funding
Data Availability Statement
Conflicts of Interest
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Well dimensions | 30 ft × 34 ft × 5 ft |
Number of layers | 5 |
Pore content of layers 1 to 4 | Oil |
Pore contents of layer 5 | Underlying water aquifer |
Porosity | 0.2 |
Permeability | 500 mD |
Oil density | 49.9 lb/ft3 |
Water density | 62.3 lb/ft3 |
Time (Days) | Injector Pressure (psi) | Producer Pressure (psi) | Delta P (psi) | PI (stb/day/psi) | Production Flow Rate (q) (stb/day) | K (mD) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
0.0 | 3634.2 | 3634.2 | 0.0 | 77.0 | 0.0 | 500.0 |
1.0 | 3446.8 | 3234.8 | 212.0 | 73.1 | 15,506.5 | 500.0 |
51.0 | 2916.6 | 2781.8 | 134.8 | 64.7 | 8723.5 | 442.4 |
151.0 | 2866.9 | 2774.8 | 92.1 | 43.2 | 3982.9 | 295.6 |
301.0 | 2813.9 | 2723.4 | 90.5 | 38.5 | 3484.0 | 263.2 |
501.0 | 2659.0 | 2589.5 | 69.5 | 38.5 | 2675.5 | 263.2 |
750.0 | 2580.0 | 2512.3 | 67.7 | 38.5 | 2606.2 | 263.2 |
1051.0 | 2525.9 | 2460.7 | 65.2 | 38.5 | 2510.0 | 263.2 |
1401.0 | 2482.0 | 2418.5 | 63.5 | 38.5 | 2444.5 | 263.2 |
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Irogbele, A.B.; Ibrahim, B.A.; Adjei, D.; Amponsah, V.N.B.; Trabelsi, R.; Trabelsi, H.; Boukadi, F. Scale Deposition During Water Flooding and the Effect on Reservoir Performance. Processes 2025, 13, 2645. https://doi.org/10.3390/pr13082645
Irogbele AB, Ibrahim BA, Adjei D, Amponsah VNB, Trabelsi R, Trabelsi H, Boukadi F. Scale Deposition During Water Flooding and the Effect on Reservoir Performance. Processes. 2025; 13(8):2645. https://doi.org/10.3390/pr13082645
Chicago/Turabian StyleIrogbele, Adaobi B., Bilal A. Ibrahim, Derrick Adjei, Vincent N. B. Amponsah, Racha Trabelsi, Haithem Trabelsi, and Fathi Boukadi. 2025. "Scale Deposition During Water Flooding and the Effect on Reservoir Performance" Processes 13, no. 8: 2645. https://doi.org/10.3390/pr13082645
APA StyleIrogbele, A. B., Ibrahim, B. A., Adjei, D., Amponsah, V. N. B., Trabelsi, R., Trabelsi, H., & Boukadi, F. (2025). Scale Deposition During Water Flooding and the Effect on Reservoir Performance. Processes, 13(8), 2645. https://doi.org/10.3390/pr13082645