R.H. Morales; A.S. Abou-Sayed; A.H. Jones; A. Al-Saffar
Source: SPE 13747 in SPE Journal of Petroleum Technology, p. 1113, 1986.
Detection of a Formation Fracture in a Waterflooding Experiment
Abstract
A procedure to detect and to evaluate fracturing during waterflooding is described. The approach requires (1) use of a radial-flow analysis to detect changes in fluid transmissibility, (2) determination of the in-situ stress changes, caused by pore pressure buildup and temperature decrease, and comparison of the modified stresses with the bottomhole pressure (BHP), and (3) modeling of the fracture by means of a pressure (BHP), and (3) modeling of the fracture by means of a three-dimensional(3D) hydraulic fracture simulator. This procedure is applied to 30-day waterflooding injection into a limestone oil reservoir located in an offshore well within the Idd el Shargi reservoir (Qatar) in which fracture occurrence was suspected. Both the radial-flow analysis and the quantification of stress changes indicated the occurrence of fracture. Finally, the resulting fracture geometry was delimited by simulation of the fracturing process.