The New Generation of Outflow Control Devices Autonomously Controlling the Conformance of Water Injection Well- A Case Study with ADNOC Onshore

Abstract

Several techniques have been applied to improve the water conformance of injection wells to eventually improve field oil recovery. Standalone Passive flow control devices or these devices combined with Sliding sleeves have been successful to improve the conformance in the wells, however, they may fail to provide the required performance in the reservoirs with complex/dynamic properties including propagating/dilating fractures or faults and may also require intervention. This is mainly because the continuously increasing contrast in the injectivity of a section with the feature compared to the rest of the well causes diverting a great portion of the injected fluid into the thief zone which ultimately creates short-circuit to the nearby producer wells. The new autonomous injection device overcomes this issue by selectively choking the injection of fluid into the growing fractures crossing the well. Once a predefined upper flowrate limit is reached at the zone, the valves autonomously close. Well A has been injecting water into reservoir B for several years. It has been recognised from the surveys that the well passes through two major faults and the other two features/fractures with huge uncertainty around their properties. The use of the autonomous valve was considered the best solution to control the water conformance in this well. The device initially operates as a normal passive outflow control valve, and if the injected flowrate flowing through the valve exceeds a designed limit, the device will automatically shut off. This provides the advantage of controlling the faults and fractures in case they were highly conductive as compared to other sections of the well and also once these zones are closed, the device enables the fluid to be distributed to other sections of the well, thereby improving the overall injection conformance. A comprehensive study was performed to change the existing dual completion to a single completion and determine the optimum completion design for delivering the targeted rate for the well while taking into account the huge uncertainty around the faults and features properties. The retrofitted completion including 9 joints with Autonomous valves and 5 joints with Bypass ICD valves were installed in the horizontal section of the well in six compartments separated with five swell packers. The completion was installed in mid-2020 and the well has been on the injection since September 2020. The well performance outcomes show that new completion has successfully delivered the target rate. Also, the data from a PLT survey performed in Feb 2021 shows that the valves have successfully minimised the outflow toward the faults and fractures. This allows achieving the optimised well performance autonomously as the impacts of thief zones on the injected fluid conformance is mitigated and a balanced-prescribed injection distribution is maintained. This paper presents the results from one of the early installations of the valves in a water injection well in the Middle East for ADNOC onshore. The paper discusses the applied completion design workflow as well as some field performance and PLT data.