Hydrodynamic aquifer or reservoir compartmentalization?

Ann Muggeridge and Hisham Mahmode

AUTHORS Ann Muggeridge $ Imperial College London SW7 2AZ, United Kingdom; a.muggeridge@ic.ac.uk Ann Muggeridge is a reader in reservoir physics in the Department of Earth Science and Engineering, Imperial College, London. She holds a B.Sc. degree in physics from Imperial College and a Ph.D. in atmospheric physics from the University of Oxford. Her research interests include reservoir characterization, determining the impact of reservoir heterogeneity on fluid flow, and enhanced oil recovery processes. Hisham Mahmode $ Imperial College London SW7 2AZ, United Kingdom; present address: BP Exploration and Production, Wareham, Dorset BH20 5JR, United Kingdom; hisham.mahmode08@imperial.ac.uk Hisham Mahmode is currently a petroleum engineer working on the Wytch Farm oil field. He worked as a reservoir engineer at RPS Energy before joining BP. He holds a B.Eng. degree in civil engineering from City University, London, and an M.Sc. degree in petroleum engineering from Imperial College, London. His interests include artificial lift, well performance, and understanding dynamic reservoir behavior.

ABSTRACT Changes in oil-water contact (OWC) depth across a field are often a signature of reservoir compartmentalization as a result of faulting or stratigraphic barriers, such as shales, but may equally well be caused by an underlying hydrodynamic aquifer. In particular, the pressure-depth data obtained from an aquifer whose flow is changing over time can look very similar to that obtained from a compartmentalized reservoir. Misunderstanding which of these mechanisms causes the observed changes in OWC across the field may result in poor estimates of oil in place and reduced recovery. To address this problem, an analytic expression is presented to estimate the time taken for a steady state tilted OWC to be established once an aquifer starts flowing. A comparison with simulations of hydrodynamic aquifers in homogeneous, compartmentalized, and heterogeneous reservoir models shows that this expression can be used in combination with the one derived by M. K. Hubbert, for the steady state tilt of the OWC, to clarify whether a reservoir contains barriers or baffles to flow or may simply have not yet reached equilibrium.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We thank Schlumberger-GeoQuest for providing the reservoir simulation software used in the course of this work. We also thank Jason Go for his helpful comments on the manuscript. The AAPG Editor thanks the following reviewers for their work on this paper: John B. Curtis and William A. Hill.

INTRODUCTION Changes in oil-water or gas-water contact depth across reservoirs have been observed in many fields around the world. These are typically observed by analysis of data from repeat formation testers (RFTs, Goetz et al., 1977) or modular formation dynamics testers (MDTs, Badry et al., 1993) and may be associated with spatially varying pressures in the hydrocarbon column or the aquifer and sometimes spatially varying temperature. These changes in contact depth may indicate

Copyright 2012. The American Association of Petroleum Geologists. All rights reserved. Manuscript received October 28, 2010; provisional acceptance April 5, 2011; revised manuscript received May 10, 2011; final acceptance June 14, 2011. DOI:10.1306/06141110169

AAPG Bulletin, v. 96, no. 2 (February 2012), pp. 315 336

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either barriers to flow within the reservoir (e.g., Weber, 1987; Brehm, 2003; Guscott et al., 2003; Muggeridge et al., 2005; Talukdar and Brusdal, 2005; Sweet and Sumpter, 2007; Underschultz et al., 2008; Bakker et al., 2009) or a hydrodynamic aquifer (e.g., Pelissier et al., 1980; Zawisza, 1986, 2004; Berg et al., 1994; Thomasen and Jacobsen, 1994; Dennis et al., 2000; Underschultz, 2005; Tozer and Borthwick, 2010), although in the Ghawar oil field in Saudi Arabia, they have also been ascribed to thermal convection (e.g., Stenger, 1999; Stenger et al., 2001). Distinctly different oil-water contact (OWC) depths, otherwise known as perched OWCs, are associated with reservoir compartmentalization and often occur in reservoirs in formations that have undergone significant faulting (Weber, 1987; Brehm, 2003; Guscott et al., 2003; Talukdar and Brusdal, 2005; Bakker et al., 2009). In the Niger Delta, oil appears to have migrated into these traps via the fault system, probably during one of several faulting episodes (Weber, 1987). The OWCs may also be associated with changes in observed oil pressures in different wells or abnormal reservoir pressures. Continuously tilting OWCs occur in reservoirs underlain by hydrodynamic aquifers (e.g., Pelissier et al., 1980; Zawisza, 1986, 2004; Berg et al., 1994; Thomasen and Jacobsen, 1994; Dennis et al., 2000; Underschultz, 2005; Tozer and Borthwick, 2010). These very slow subsurface flows are commonly natural, resulting from meteoric waters recharging aquifers via outcrops (Hubbert, 1967) or expulsion of water from porous sediments during basin subsidence (Hubbert, 1967; Grosjean et al., 2009), sometimes combined with aquifer discharge at surface outcrops (Tozer and Borthwick, 2010). In these cases, the reservoir is commonly normally pressured and the observed oil pressure is constant between wells. Occasionally, tilted contacts are man made, caused by pressure depletion in neighboring fields (e.g., Van Kirk, 1976; Coutts, 1999; Hortle et al., 2010). Stenger (1999) and Stenger et al. (2001) proposed that tilted contacts may be caused by lateral temperature gradients within reservoirs. They demonstrated that temperature gradients within the Haradh Arab D reservoir of the Ghawar field cor316 Hydrodynamic Aquifer or Reservoir Compartmentalization?

related with varying oil densities across the field and hypothesized that these, in turn, resulted in changing OWC depths. Natural convection was invoked as a mechanism for preventing gravitational overturning (as described by England et al., 1995), equalizing these horizontal density gradients. However, they did not discuss the possibility that the lateral temperature gradients may actually be an indication of a hydrodynamic aquifer (Anderson, 2005). Being able to distinguish between these possibilities during appraisal is important because they will result in a different topology of the contact depth across the prospect (and thus different values of estimated hydrocarbons in place) as well as different models of the reservoir connectivity. Undiagnosed reservoir compartmentalization can have a significant adverse impact on oil recovery (Dromgoole and Speers, 1997; Smalley and Muggeridge, 2010). In contrast, it is generally possible to mitigate the impact of such compartmentalization on recovery provided that it is identified during appraisal (e.g., Talukdar and Brusdal, 2005; Bakker et al., 2009). Aquifer hydrodynamics and potential barriers to flow are also important considerations when designing subsurface carbon dioxide storage schemes (Bachu et al., 1994; Hortle et al., 2010; Larkin, 2010). Unfortunately, distinguishing between changes in contact depth resulting from compartmentalization and those resulting from a hydrodynamic aquifer can be difficult, particularly if the lateral pressure gradients causing aquifer flow have changed in the recent past (e.g., Underschultz, 2005; Hortle et al., 2010). A typical signature of compartmentalization is assumed to be different oil pressures in different parts of the reservoir, but this can also be evidence that the system has not yet reached steady state (Dennis et al., 2000; Dennis et al., 2005; Underschultz, 2005). Similarly, the existence of a horizontal pressure gradient in the aquifer but no such gradient in the oil leg is commonly assumed to be indicative of a hydrodynamic aquifer and good lateral communication; however, it is equally possible that pressures may have equilibrated through a low-permeability baffle on geologic time scales but would not equilibrate through such a baffle on production time scales (Dennis et al., 2000;

Muggeridge et al., 2005). Areal variations in aquifer permeability may result in significant variations in contact tilt across a field (Dennis et al., 2005), which might be interpreted as being caused by barriers to flow when in fact, good communication exists. Although many articles describe field evidence for hydrodynamic aquifers, few articles investigating the influence that reservoir and aquifer properties and changing aquifer flux have on contact tilt have been published since the classic work of Hubbert (1953). Hubbert (1953) provided a relationship that related the fluid and rock properties and the hydrodynamic head to the final steady state inclination of the oil-water (or, indeed, gas-water) contact; however, he did not provide any expression for determining the time scales over which that steady state is established. Dennis et al. (2000, 2005) showed that it could take 20 k.y. for steady state to be established after the onset of aquifer flux in a model of the Pierce field (central North Sea, United Kingdom). Underschultz (2005) estimated, using Darcys law, that it should take between 46 k.y. and 110 k.y. to reach steady state in the Zeepard and Griffin (North West Shelf, Australia) reservoirs, respectively; however, geologic evidence suggested that the aquifer pressure field had last changed at 5.6 m.y. ago. To achieve this time scale, they had to reduce the aquifer permeability from 500 md (490 1015 m2) to 10 md (9.9 1015 m2) or invoke capillary barriers to flow. In this article, we used an analytic expression, originally derived by Gardner et al. (1962) for the gravitational overturning of miscible fluids, and later applied to gravitational overturning in oil reservoirs by England et al. (1995), to estimate the time scales for tilted OWCs to reach steady state after an aquifer starts or stops flowing. This expression is compared with the time scales that were predicted using numerical simulation to ensure that the reservoir simulation was properly modeling the very low flow rates in the aquifer and the response of the contact. Numerical simulation was then used to investigate the impact of a range of reservoir heterogeneities, such as a low-permeability fault, a water-wet fault forming a capillary barrier to oil flow, a tar mat, and a shale, on the final steady state geometry of the OWC and the time scales to reach

that steady state. The results suggest that the time scales for tilted contacts to be established after an aquifer starts flowing or to relax back to the horizontal after the aquifer stops flowing may be several hundred thousand years. Examination of the associated pressure-depth profiles highlights the fact that use of such data in isolation may suggest that a reservoir is compartmentalized when it is still relaxing back to steady state or that good communication on production time scales exists when in fact this is only the case on geologic time scales. Estimation of time scales to reach steady state using the analytic expression given here in combination with regional investigations into changes in aquifer flux may reduce this uncertainty and highlight when further detailed modeling or data acquisition is required.

HUBBERT S STEADY STATE ANALYSIS First, we review Hubberts (1953) steady state analysis for the tilt of the OWC resulting from a hydrodynamic aquifer flowing at a constant rate in the absence of capillary pressure. As discussed in the introduction, this flow may result from meteoric waters entering the aquifer via an outcrop or discharge of an aquifer at the surface. Figure 1 shows a vertical cross section through an oil reservoir underlain by a hydrodynamic aquifer. A pressure gradient across the aquifer in the reservoir, DPaq, resulted in an aquifer flux from left to right with a mean interstitial velocity in the aquifer of v (in meters per second). By Darcys law, the mean interstitial velocity of water in the aquifer, v, is given by v kres DPaq mw L 1

where kres is the effective aquifer permeability for the whole reservoir (in square meters), L is the length of the reservoir in the direction of aquifer flow (in meters), and mw is the water viscosity (in pascal-seconds). Two vertical appraisal wells in the reservoir are separated by a distance, L12 m. By Darcys law, the observed pressure difference between the wells in
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Figure 1. A schematic diagram showing the vertical cross section through an oil reservoir underlain by a hydrodynamic aquifer flowing from left to right.

the aquifer will be related to the interstitial water velocity by DP12 P1 P2 nmw L12 k12 2

the aquifer, k12, the water viscosity, mw, the interstitial velocity of the water in the aquifer, v, and the acceleration caused by gravity, g : tan q h2 h1 keff DPaq k12 Drg L L12 4

where k12 is the permeability of the rock in the aquifer between the wells (in square meters) that may be different locally from that over the whole field because of heterogeneity. As the water is flowing very slowly in the aquifer, we can assume that the vertical pressure gradient at any location is hydrostatic (Coats et al., 1971). In this case, we can write P1 P0 + ro gh1 + rw g H h1 P2 P0 + ro gh2 + rw g H h2

where the OWC has been measured at a depth of h1 (in meters) below the reservoir top in well 1 and at a depth of h2 (in meters) below the reservoir top in well 2. We have assumed a datum pressure, Po (in pascals), at the top of the reservoir, which is H (in meters) above the depth of observation. The density of oil is ro (in kilograms per cubic meter) and the density of water is rw (in kilograms per cubic meter). The acceleration caused by gravity is g (in meters per square second). Thus, substituting equation 3 into equation 2 and combining the result with equation 1, we obtain an expression relating the angle of dip of the contact, q, to the water-oil density difference, Dr, the effective permeability seen between wells in
318 Hydrodynamic Aquifer or Reservoir Compartmentalization?

This is the same as the original expression derived by Hubbert (1953), except that he expressed the dip in terms of the gradient of the potentiometric surface in the horizontal direction. Examining equation 4, we see that for a constant pressure drop across the reservoir, contact tilt will be greater when the density difference between the hydrocarbon and water is lower. The contact tilt will be higher in regions of the aquifer where permeability is lower and lower in regions of higher permeability. The OWC tilts have been observed ranging from 3 to 200 m/km equivalent to angles of dip ranging from 0.1 to 10 (Dennis et al., 2000). The resulting interstitial velocities in the aquifer are on the order of centimeters per year.

TRANSIENT ANALYSIS Although hydrodynamic aquifers are common in hydrocarbon reservoirs (e.g., Pelissier et al., 1980; Zawisza, 1986, 2004; Berg et al., 1994; Thomasen and Jacobsen, 1994; Dennis et al., 2000; Underschultz, 2005; Tozer and Borthwick, 2010), it is highly unlikely that they have flowed at the same rate since

the reservoir filled (Dennis et al., 2000, 2005; Underschultz, 2005). Aquifer flux will be affected by any geologic events that change the regional pressure distribution; for example, erosion can result in flow in a previously static aquifer, whereas subsidence or uplift may cause horizontal pressure gradients within a basin. In addition, human activity can result in changing regional pressure gradients when, for example, a nearby oil field is depleted (Hortle et al., 2010) or an aquifer is used to supply water to nearby cities. It is, therefore, of interest to establish how long it takes for a tilted contact to reach the steady state described by Hubbert (1953) or, indeed, for such a contact to relax back to the horizontal when aquifer flux ceases. Aquifer flux through a reservoir is driven by the regional pressure gradient in the aquifer. This results in a horizontal pressure gradient being established in the aquifer underneath the oil reservoir. This occurs very rapidly on a geologic time frame (a few years, Muggeridge et al., 2005). These horizontal pressure changes are also rapidly transmitted vertically into the oil leg, so that initially, a horizontal pressure gradient exists in the oil leg, although the contact is still horizontal. As a result of the horizontal pressure gradient in the oil leg, the oil starts to flow. In some cases, this can lead to the shifting of the oil pool to a position away from the original structural trap, resulting in a so-called hydrodynamic trapping (e.g., Berg et al., 1994). This may also be an important consideration during geologic sequestration of carbon dioxide in saline aquifers (Bachu et al., 1994; Larkin, 2010). More commonly, the oil simply moves within the original trap, resulting in the OWC tilting until, at steady state, the horizontal pressure gradient in the oil is zero. Gardner et al. (1962) derived an analytic expression to describe the time over which an initially vertical contact between two miscible fluids of different densities returned to the horizontal. Following England et al. (1995), for fluids whose viscosity ratio is less than 10, the time t (in seconds) taken for the interface to become approximately horizontal is given by  2 H L 25fm t H 4kh g Dr 5

where H is the reservoir thickness (in meters), f is the porosity, kh is the horizontal permeability (in  is the arithmetic mean vissquare meters) and m cosity of the two fluids (in pascal-seconds). Note that the time scale is controlled by the horizontal, instead of the vertical, permeability because at a later time, overturning is dominated by horizontal flow. Equation 5 was used by England et al. (1995) to assess the connectivity between Forties and South East Forties (central North Sea, United Kingdom). They did this by comparing the time needed for the two oils of different densities to overturn in the absence of barriers to flow as determined by the Gardner et al. (1962) expression with the actual time since the reservoir filled. Their calculations showed that the observed differences in oil density should have equalized within approximately 100 k.y., whereas basin modeling suggested that the reservoir had filled more than 1 m.y. ago. Numerical modeling showed that the present-day observed oil density difference could only be preserved over these time scales if a reduction in transmissibility by a factor of 0.01 exists between the two regions of the reservoir. England et al. (1995) also examined the time that it would take for an initially tilted OWC to relax back to the horizontal, assuming a static aquifer and a baffle to flow that was 0.01 the permeability of the reservoirs. They showed that the time scale for overturning of the contact was much quicker than that for the gravitational overturning for the different oils because of the higher density contrast between oil and water. In the case of Forties and South East Forties, this meant that the two reservoirs would have the same OWC depth, although a low transmissibility baffle exists between that had prevented mixing of the oils. In the rest of this article, we shall examine whether the same expression (equation 5) can be used to estimate the time taken for an initially horizontal OWC to reach the steady state tilt predicted by Hubbert (1953).

NUMERICAL SIMULATION METHODOLOGY Numerical simulation, using the commercial reservoir simulator Eclipse 100, was used to investigate
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Figure 2. The two-dimensional simulation model used to investigate the impact of various parameters on the time for a tilted contact (oil-water contact [OWC]) to be established and the factors affecting that tilt itself. (A) The model with an initially horizontal contact (hydrostatic equilibrium). (B) The model after being subjected to a potentiometric gradient (hydrodynamic flow in the aquifer). See Table 1 for abbreviations.

the factors affecting tilted contacts and the time scales for the steady tilt to be established. A simple model representing a two-dimensional (2-D) vertical cross section through a reservoir was built

and gridded using a Cartesian blockcentered grid (Figure 2). The grid dimensions were chosen to be between 50 20 and 50 100, depending on the magnitude of the expected tilt of the OWC:

Table 1. Mathematical Symbols, Property Descriptions, and Units Used* Symbol L12 P1 P2 P0 V kaq k12 H1 H2 L W H ho f kh kv /kh Co Cw Cr mo mw ro rw Sor Swc n Property Distance between wells 1 and 2 Pressure measured in well 1 in aquifer Pressure measured in well 2 in aquifer Datum pressure Interstitial velocity of water in aquifer Effective permeability in aquifer Effective permeability measured between wells 1 and 2 Depth of oil water contact in well 1 Depth of oil-water contact in well 2 Length of reservoir Width of reservoir Thickness of reservoir Thickness of oil leg Porosity Reservoir permeability Vertical-to-horizontal permeability ratio Oil compressibility Water compressibility Bulk rock compressibility Oil viscosity Water viscosity Oil density Water density Irreducible oil saturation Connate water saturation Corey exponent Value and Units ft psi psi psi ft day1 md md ft ft 10,000 ft 1 ft 200 ft 20 ft 0.2 100 md 0.1 1 105 psi1 1 106 psi1 2.8 106 psi1 1.0 cp 1.0 cp 39.6 lb ft3 61.2 lb ft3 0.2 0.2 2 SI Equivalent m Pa Pa Pa m s1 m2 m2 m m 3048 m 0.3048 m 60.96 m 6.096 m 1013 m2 1.45 109 Pa1 1.45 1010 Pa1 4.06 1010 Pa1 103 Pa s 103 Pa s 630 kg m3 980 kg m3

*Values used in the standard model are given where appropriate. All fluid data are at reservoir conditions.

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Table 2. Range of Properties Investigated Property kh (md) H (ft) Co (psi1) Cw (psi1) Drw (lb ft3) Dro (lb ft3) L (ft) ho (ft) F mw (cp) mo (cp) Lower Range 10 200 107 107 10 10 1000 20 0.05 0.5 0.5 Upper Range 1000 500 104 104 40 40 100,000 60 0.60 2.5 2.5

the smaller the tilt, the larger the vertical resolution that was needed to model it accurately. Initially, we investigated the impact of changing rock and fluid properties in a homogeneous reservoir on the steady state contact tilt and the time scales for that tilt to be established and compared results with those predicted by equations 4 and 5 to ensure that the numerical model was properly modeling the very slow flow rates and contact responses seen in reservoirs with hydrodynamic

aquifers. We then used numerical simulation to investigate the impact of various generic heterogeneities on the development of aquifer tilt over time and its final geometry. The base case properties are given in Table 1, and the range of properties investigated is given in Table 2. Table 3 lists the different heterogeneities investigated and the ranges of their properties used in simulations. Each model was initialized with a flat OWC (Figure 2A). A zero capillary pressure was assumed so that the OWC was coincident with the free water level. Water injection and production wells were used at the opposite end of each of the models (in the aquifer) to represent the aquifer flux and thus produce a tilted OWC (Figure 2B). For base case simulations, the wells were set at a constant injection and production rate corresponding to an influx of 3.5 105 ft3 yr1 (106 m3 yr1). This resulted in a pressure drop across the model of 3.75 psi (25,900 Pa). These flow rates and pressure drop were chosen to be typical of those encountered in real reservoirs. Typical potentiometric gradients in the North Sea range from 0.5 to 9 psi per thousand feet (11204 kPa km1), (Moss et al., 2003), corresponding to a groundwater interstitial velocity of

Table 3. Description of Heterogeneities and Ranges Investigated Property Fault: fault transmissibility (ft md cp1) Fault: threshold pressure (psi) Description The transmissibility of the fault was varied, and the flow rate was kept constant. The fault had a thickness of 100 ft and a threshold pressure of zero. The threshold pressure of the fault was varied, and the flow rate was kept constant. The fault had a thickness of 100 ft and a transmissibility of 0.01 (ft md cp1). The thickness of the fault was varied and the flow rate was kept constant. The fault transmissibility was set to 0.01 (ft md cp1) with a threshold pressure of zero. The permeability of the right side of the reservoir was varied and the left side was kept constant at 100 md. A constant pressure drop was maintained across the reservoir. A zero permeability horizontal shale with a gap of 200 ft was placed at different heights from the top of the reservoir (the oil-water contact was at 20 ft). The flow rate was kept constant. A zero permeability horizontal barrier was placed at 20 ft from the top of the reservoir (the oil-water contact was at 20 ft), and the gap width was varied. The flow rate was kept constant. Lower Range 0.00001 Upper Range 0.01

150

Fault: thickness (ft)

100

Change in sand quality (md)

0.1

10

Shale with gap position (ft)

25

Shale with gap width (ft)

200

6000

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0.002 to 0.4 ft yr1 (0.00060.12 m yr1), as calculated by Darcys law. Using equation 4 and a typical medium gravity oil, these potentiometric gradients correspond to a 3 to 60 ft OWC tilt per thousand feet (i.e., 120 m/km). The simulations were assumed to have reached steady state when the maximum change in pressure in any grid cell was less than 0.01 psi (<69 Pa) between time steps. This criterion was determined based on the minimum detectable pressure change in common pressure measurement tools. The location of the injection and production well completions below the OWC was chosen such that when the contact reached its steady state position, no oil was produced. Similarly, the thickness of the oil leg was chosen so that the contact did not reach the top of the reservoir (consistent with the derivation of equation 5 in Gardner et al., 1962). A very high productivity index was used for both the injection and production well to minimize the pressure drop between the well and the aquifer and thus reduce nonlinear flow effects near the well that would result in a curvature of the contact near the well. To investigate the range of values for which Hubberts analysis is valid, the base model was varied one property at a time while maintaining the constant pressure drop of 3.75 psi (25,900 Pa) across the model. Initially, the reservoir was modeled as being homogeneous in which common reservoir parameters were varied by an order of magnitude. After that, a series of common idealized heterogeneities were introduced into the base model to examine their effect on contact tilt. These heterogeneities included vertical baffles to flow (faults) and horizontal discontinuous barriers to flow (shales or tar mats), as well as a sudden change in sand quality from one side of the reservoir to the other (see Table 3 for more information).

Figure 3. The water saturation distribution predicted by numerical simulation at steady state with a 3.75-psi drop across the base case reservoir. The overall difference in depth of the contact (oil-water contact [OWC]) across the model is 25 ft, which agrees well with the tilt predicted by Hubbert (1953).

RESULTS Homogeneous Reservoir with Good Communication Here, we examine the impact of changing reservoir rock and fluid properties in a homogeneous
322 Hydrodynamic Aquifer or Reservoir Compartmentalization?

reservoir with no baffles or barriers to flow on the time to establish a tilted contact and the final tilt of that aquifer. Simulation results were compared with the predictions of equation 4 for steady state tilt and equation 5 for the time required to achieve that steady state. Earlier works have looked at Hubberts equation and its ability to predict the final tilt of the OWC by comparing its predictions with experimental results (Hubbert, 1953; Dennis et al., 2000), 2-D reservoir simulations (Dennis et al., 2000), and three-dimensional reservoir simulations (Dennis et al., 2005). The experimental results of Dennis et al. (2000, 2005) were limited, however, as only flow rate was varied (inducing different pressure drops and hence different OWC tilts), with no consideration of the other parameters that affect pressure drop. No literature examines the influence of reservoir properties on the time scale for a tilted contact to be established. The closest investigation is that of England et al. (1995), discussed earlier. First, we consider our base case model. Using equation 4 and the base case properties given in Table 1, we expect there to be a 25-ft (7.6-m) drop in contact depth from left to right of our model. This was indeed observed (Figure 3). Using equation 5, we predict a time scale of 17,600 yr for steady state to be established. This time scale was consistent with that observed in the simulation results. From Figure 4, we see that the contact had almost reached its steady state position after 10 k.y., and little change occurred between this time and 100 k.y. Figure 5 shows the pressure-versus-depth plots that would have been observed by RFT or MDT at

Figure 4. Oil-water contact (OWC) depth across the base case model reservoir as a function of time, assuming that the aquifer only starts flowing from left to right at time t = 0 yr. The stepped appearance of these graphs is because the contacts were defined to be at the boundary between the grid blocks of water saturation 1 and 0. The contact has almost reached its steady state position after 10 k.y. This is consistent with the analytic prediction of time taken to reach steady state of 17 k.y.

two vertical wells in the model reservoir. Well 1 was completed 3400 ft (1036 m) from the left edge of the reservoir, and well 2 was completed 6600 ft (2012 m) from the left edge of the reservoir. It can be seen when comparing the data from these two wells that at intermediate times (20100 yr), a pressure shift is observed in both the oil and water leg pressures. However, at late times (10 k.y.), when steady state is almost established, the pressure observed in the oil leg is the same in both wells, but a shift in pressure occurs in the water leg. This is

consistent with water flowing horizontally in the aquifer but no flow in the oil leg. We then varied various rock and fluid properties in our homogeneous base case model. Figure 6 compares the simulated steady state OWC tilt with that predicted by Hubbert (1953). We see that a good agreement overall occurred between the predictions of Hubbert (1953) and those obtained by simulation. The two major discrepancies occurred when a significant viscosity contrast occurred between the oil and the water (because the Hubbert

Figure 5. Pressure-versus-depth plots observed at different times after the aquifer started flowing at two vertical wells, one 3400 ft (1036 m) from the left side of the model (well 1) and the other 6600 ft (2011 m) from the left side of the model (well 2). At intermediate times (1001000 yr), the pressureversus-depth plots of the two wells show a pressure difference in both the oil and water legs. After 10 k.y., when steady state is almost established, the pressures in the oil legs are the same, but a significant pressure difference occurs in the water leg. OWC = oil-water contact.

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Figure 6. Comparison between the oil-water contact (OWC) tilt predicted by the steady state analysis of Hubbert (1953) and the OWC tilt observed in numerical simulations of the base case reservoir model (Table 1) when different rock and fluid properties are varied as in Table 2. Overall agreement is very good except that the Hubbert formula does not take viscosity contrasts between oil and water into account and that the reservoir simulation results are influenced by boundary effects for short (1000-ft [304 m]) reservoirs.

analysis assumes equal viscosities) and when the reservoir model was very short (1000 ft [305 m]). This latter discrepancy was caused by the fact that the steady state profile was strongly influenced by the inlet and outlet boundary conditions used in the simulation. The simulated pressure field near the inlet and outlet had a radial character caused by the well models used in the simulator. Figure 7 compares the time scales to reach the steady state inclination of the OWC predicted by equation 5 (England et al., 1995) with those obtained from simulation. Overall, a reasonable agreement occurred between the analytic method and the simulation. The main differences were that (1) the time scales predicted by the England et al. (1995) solution did not depend on the oil leg thickness, whereas the simulation predicted a small decrease in time to reach equilibrium as the oil leg thickness increases and (2) the dependency of time
324 Hydrodynamic Aquifer or Reservoir Compartmentalization?

scale on viscosity. The simulation predicted a higher dependency on oil viscosity and a lower dependence on water viscosity than equation 5. However, these are minor effects. Figure 8 compares the ranges of time scales to reach steady state based on the ranges for reservoir size and rock and fluid properties given in Table 2. Permeability and system length have a major influence on the time taken to reach steady state. Using the base case dimensions, a 20-md (9.9 1015 m2) reservoir may take 90 k.y. to reach steady state, whereas a 1000-md (990 1015 m2) reservoir will reach steady state in less than 10 k.y. Similarly, using the base case permeability (100 md, 99 1015 m2), we see that a large reservoir 80,000 ft (24,000 m) long may take more than 1 m.y. to reach steady state. Water and oil compressibility have a negligible effect on time scales. From these results, we concluded that the simulation model of a dynamic aquifer produced steady

Figure 7. Comparison of time scales for tilted oil-water contact to reach equilibrium as predicted by numerical simulation and England et al. (1995), equation 5 as a function of (A) porosity, (B) permeability, (C) reservoir length, (D) thickness of oil leg, (E) water viscosity, (F) oil viscosity, (G) oil-water density difference (Dr), and (H) total thickness of oil + aquifer. Note that in H, the oil leg was always 10% of the total thickness. In general, reasonable agreement occurred between the simulation and the analytic expression, although (1) the time scales predicted by equation 5 do not depend on the thickness of the oil leg and the simulation time scales do not depend on system thickness and (2) equation 5 does not predict as much dependency on oil viscosity. Muggeridge and Mahmode 325

Figure 8. Summary of the impact of reservoir size and rock and fluid properties on time taken for oilwater contact to reach its steady state tilt using the ranges of properties given in Table 2. Reservoir length and permeability have the major impact on time scales. It would appear that a typical time scale to reach steady state is between 10 and 100 k.y.

state and transient behavior that were consistent with Hubberts calculation of the steady state tilt and the analytic solution originally derived by Gardner et al. (1962). We, therefore, felt that it was reasonable to use this simulation model to investigate the impact of heterogeneities on both the steady state distribution of the OWC and the time scales to reach that steady state. Heterogeneous and Compartmentalized Reservoirs Reservoirs can be compartmentalized by vertical barriers to flow such as faults and horizontal barriers to flow such as shales or tar mats (which often form close to the OWC). Sometimes, these features can be inferred from seismic data or from logs but, in many cases, the only evidence for their existence is from RFT or MDT data. Typically, engineers assume that a flow barrier is present when a horizontal pressure gradient exists in the oil leg, possibly combined with a change in OWC between two wells. As we have seen in the previous section, this may also be a signature of an aquifer whose flux has changed and thus the oil and water are still moving toward their steady state orientation, although the time scales for this are relatively short compared with geologic time, unless the reservoir
326 Hydrodynamic Aquifer or Reservoir Compartmentalization?

is very large. Conversely, these features may act only as baffles on geologic time scales, in which case, there may be little or no evidence of their existence in pressure data, although they may act as barriers to flow on reservoir production time scales because of their low permeability. In this section, we focus on the impact that some common idealized barriers and baffles may have on OWC tilt and on observed synthetic RFT or MDT data. In addition, we examine how a change in reservoir quality in the direction of flow may affect pressure-versus-depth data and thus the inferred tilt of the OWC. Table 3 gives a brief description of the features investigated, the range of properties varied, and the boundary conditions used in the simulations. Faults are one of the most significant influences on reservoir communication (Yielding et al., 1999) and can seriously affect petroleum recovery (Corrigan, 1993). The resolution of data on faults varies greatly from low-resolution seismic data to high-resolution core samples taken from the fault itself. Seismic data can provide information about the extent of faults and their locations, whereas core samples can provide information on the percentage of shale within the samples and the threshold pressure of the fault; however, in many cases, the existence of a fault and its impact on flow can only be

Figure 9. Effect of a clean fault (<15% shale) with a transmissibility of 0.00001 ft md cp1 on oil-water contact (OWC) tilt at steady state. (A) The OWC tilt across the length of a reservoir. This is a large change in contact depth across the fault compared with the gentle tilt seen within the reservoir compartments. (B) The pressure as a function of depth in the four wells shown in A. All four wells see the same pressure with depth in the oil leg, confirming that communication exists across the fault, but the wells on the left see a much higher water pressure than those on the right as well as seeing a higher contact depth. There is little to distinguish between the pressure versus depth seen in wells 1 and 2 and similarly between wells 3 and 4.

inferred from well tests, production data, or changes in OWC depth across a reservoir. Pressure and total flow are influenced by the transmissibility of the fault (Manzocchi et al., 1999), but the flow of oil may be affected differently from the water flow if a change in wettability occurs between the reservoir rock to fault rock. Typical reservoir rocks exhibit a mixed wettability, whereas the rocks within the fault zone may well be waterwet, particularly if there has been smearing of clay (Fisher and Knipe, 1998; Fisher et al., 2001). If this is the case, then the nonwetting phase (commonly oil) will be trapped until the capillary pressure (threshold pressure) is exceeded. Great uncertainty exists in all fault properties (Lia et al., 1997; Chambon et al., 2006), and hence, an orderof-magnitude study was performed to investigate the effect of these properties on the final tilt of an OWC resulting from aquifer flux through such a fault and the time scales to reach this steady state. The fault permeabilities investigated ranged from than 0.1 to less than 0.0001 md (90.009 1017 m2), whereas the threshold pressure ranged between 1 and 150 psi (69001 106 Pa). Fault thickness ranged between 1 and 100 ft (0.330 m).

Figure 9 shows the OWC seen at steady state for the minimum fault transmissibility examined (1 105 m2 ft md cp1, 3 1018 m4 s2 kg1), together with the pressures versus depth that would be seen in four wells, two being completed in different places in each compartment on either side of the fault. The tilt of the contact was very small within each reservoir compartment but, as expected, a huge change in contact depth occurred across the fault. A very small horizontal pressure gradient was present across the compartment, as shown by the small difference between the pressure-versusdepth data seen in wells in the same compartment because of the small change in contact depth. Comparing the data seen on either side of the fault, it can be seen that oil pressures fall on the same line for all wells, but water pressures were much higher to the left of the fault (upstream direction for aquifer flux) than to the right. Examination of these data would suggest that communication exists across the fault; however, as the time taken for this steady state to be established was 14 m.y., this fault would act as a barrier to flow on reservoir time scales. In this case, it would be possible to infer the existence of the fault if RFT or MDT data from all four wells
Muggeridge and Mahmode 327

Figure 10. Effect of a clay-rich fault (40%) with a transmissibility of 0.01 ft md cp1 and a threshold pressure of 10 psi (69 kPa) on oilwater contact (OWC) tilt at steady state. The effect of the clay is to allow water to flow through the fault, but oil cannot flow. (A) A gentle tilt of the OWC exists across the length of a reservoir that does not appear to be influenced significantly by the fault. (B) The pressure as a function of depth in the four wells shown in A. Although the depth of OWC appears to exhibit a constant tilt across the reservoir, a different pressure is present in the oil leg with depth seen in wells on either side of the fault, corresponding to the fact that oil cannot flow across the fault.

shown in the figure existed; however, this would be more difficult even if data from one well on either side of the fault existed. Calculations of the large aquifer interstitial velocity needed to sustain the observed oil-water tilt based on the observed reservoir sand permeability (1.8 ft yr1, 0.54 m yr1) would probably warn the engineer or geoscientist that a significant barrier to flow potentially existed. Figure 10 shows the results obtained when a dynamic aquifer flowed through a clay-rich fault. The fault had a relatively high transmissibility of 0.01 ft md cp1 (3 1015 m4 s2 kg1) but, because of the clay, had a threshold pressure of 10 psi (69 kPa) for oil to flow through the fault. A gentle constant tilt of the OWC occurred across the field in this case because of the high fault transmissibility to water flow. In contrast, examination of the pressureversus-depth plots for four wells completed at different locations across the field shows that a large drop in pressure occurred in the oil leg between wells on either side of the fault. This was a result of there being no oil flow through the fault so pressures in the oil could not equalize even when the contact had reached its steady state tilt. The time taken to reach steady state in this case was 40 k.y. There would be communication between compart328 Hydrodynamic Aquifer or Reservoir Compartmentalization?

ments during reservoir production if this resulted in a differential pressure drop between compartments greater than 10 psi (69 kPa), although the pressure-versus-depth plots would suggest that no communication existed. We also examined the influence of horizontal baffles and barriers on contact tilt over time. These could be tar mats or shales. Tar mats form as the result of biodegradation and are typically found at the contact between oil and water. They are encountered in many Middle Eastern oil fields and can be described as sharply limited reservoir levels enriched with heavy compounds ranging from a few inches to hundreds of feet (centimeters to tens of meters) thick (Carpentier et al., 1998) commonly found at the OWC. Their presence in any reservoir can severely impede the communication between the oil leg and aquifer (Al-Kaabi et al., 1988) because of their extremely high viscosity at reservoir temperatures (Wadman et al., 1979). Unlike tar mats, shales can be found at any depth within a reservoir because they are formed during the deposition of the reservoir sediments; however, they are similar in the sense that they result in a thin barrier to vertical flow. In this work, we examined the impact of a thin horizontal barrier to flow on

contact tilt as a function of the depth of the barrier in the reservoir and the size of a gap within that barrier. Figure 11 shows the steady state location of the OWC for different depths of the shale or tar mat and the associated pressure-versus-depth data that would be observed in two wells 3000 ft (910 m) apart. The effect of the barrier was to prevent the upward motion of the aquifer. When the barrier was within the aquifer before it started to flow, then no tilt was seen in the contact, although a pressure drop resulting from the flow of water in the aquifer was observed in the pressure-versus-depth plots. When the barrier was in the oil leg, then a tilted contact was established, unless the water rose up to the barrier, and again a pressure drop would be observed in the water below the shale resulting from the flow of the water. In all cases, the gap in the barrier had little effect; this was because it had been placed in the center of the model where little change in pressure occurred when the aquifer started flowing. The pressures in the oil leg above the barrier were not influenced by the changes in pressures in the aquifer during the transient period. As a result, steady state was established more quickly the closer the barrier was to the OWC. Steady state was established in approximately 16 k.y. when the barrier was near the top of the reservoir but in less than 1 k.y. when it was lower down near the aquifer. This model barrier in the oil leg would form a significant impediment to vertical flow on production time scales, but it would be difficult to identify this from the pressure-versus-depth plots. The model barrier in the aquifer would restrict the ability of the aquifer to provide pressure support, but in this case, this could be identified from the pressure-versusdepth plots. Figure 12 shows how the steady state tilt of the OWC was altered when a larger gap of 2000 ft (610 m) existed in the shale or tar mat at the original OWC. In this case, the water from the aquifer spilt backward over the top of the shale into the original oil leg and, at the same time, oil was displaced below the horizontal barrier, resulting in an isolated wedge of oil below the barrier at steady state. Above the barrier, the OWC was horizontal, but below the barrier, a tilt corresponding to the background permeability of the reservoir sand

formed; however, this is not immediately apparent in the pressure-versus-depth plot for well 2. In this case, the existence of the oil leg underneath the shale likely would be missed, and it would probably be inferred that the shale or tar mat was continuous. However, the existence of the same pressures in the oil leg at a given depth combined with a horizontal pressure gradient in the aquifer would be a strong indication that the shale or tar mat was not continuous. Indeed, the time taken to reach the steady state in this case was 16 k.y., suggesting that the barrier had very little influence on the vertical communication. Finally, we examined the impact that a change in reservoir quality would have on OWC tilt. The base reservoir permeability of 100 md (99 1015 m2) was maintained in the left part of the model, and the permeability in the right part of the model was reduced. Figure 13 shows the steady state location of the OWC when the right side had a permeability of 10 md (9.9 1015 m2). The tilt of the OWC abruptly changes from that predicted by equation 4 for a permeability of 100 md (99 1015 m2) to that predicted for a permeability of 10 md (9.9 1015 m2) at the boundary between the two types of sand. The tilt inferred from the pressure-versusdepth plots for the two wells shown would be midway between the two tilts; however, inspection of logs might lead the engineer to conclude that a change of sand quality was present between the two wells. If this was not correctly identified, then extrapolating the OWC inferred from the pressureversus-depth plots would result in an underestimation of the oil in place, as shown in Figure 13. The time taken to reach steady state in this case was 80 k.y.midway between that would be inferred from equation 5 for a 100-md (99 1015 m2) reservoir and for a 10-md (9 1015 m2) reservoir. The effect of reducing the permeability of the right side to 1 md (9.9 1016 m2) or 0.1 md (9.9 1017 m2) was to increase the time taken to reach steady state to more than 600 k.y. (1 md [9.9 1016 m2]) and 2 m.y. (0.1 md [9.9 1017 m2]), as well as to increase the tilt of the OWC in the right side still further. Figure 14 compares the times taken to reach steady state for each of the compartmentalized
Muggeridge and Mahmode 329

330

Hydrodynamic Aquifer or Reservoir Compartmentalization?

Figure 11. Continued.

heterogeneous models with the time taken to reach steady state in the homogeneous base case model. In general, heterogeneity tended to increase the time taken for the OWC to reach its steady state shape, in many cases, by at least an order of magnitude (fault thickness, threshold pressure of the same order as seen in the aquifer, large gap seen in horizontal barrier). In some cases, the time to reach steady state was greater than 1 m.y. (very low fault transmissibility, <0.0001 ft md cp1 [3 1020 m4 s2 kg1] or very poor quality reservoir on the left side, <0.1 md [9.9 1017 m2]). In contrast, in some cases, the time taken to reach steady state was much quicker than in the homogeneous reservoir (threshold capillary pressure greater than pressure drop in aquifer, horizontal barrier at original OWC) because the reservoir was effectively compartmentalized. In the case of a water-wet fault with a high threshold pressure, the effective length of the compartment was halved so the time taken to reach steady state is quartered (see equation 5). Although most of the heterogeneities caused a monotonic change in time to reach steady state as a function of the change in heterogeneity (e.g., decreasing fault transmissibility increased time to reach steady state), the size of the gap in the hori-

zontal barrier had a decidedly nonlinear impact on time scale. This was because the time scale was also related to the thickness of the barrier. Water could only flow up through the gap (or oil downward) if the horizontal pressure drop along the gap caused by the hydrodynamic aquifer was greater than the vertical hydrostatic pressure drop. For example, when the gap in the shale or tar mat was 1000 ft (305 m) long, then a horizontal pressure drop of 0.375 psi (2.6 kPa, as the total pressure drop across the 10,000 ft, 3050 m reservoir was 3.75 psi [26 kPa]) occurs in the gap in the direction of aquifer flow. As the shale in our model was only 1 ft thick, then the vertical hydrostatic pressure drop over that thickness caused by water was 0.42 psi (2.9 kPa). No water flowed through the gap into the aquifer in the simulation. In contrast, when the gap was increased to 2000 ft (610 m), the horizontal pressure drop across the gap was then 0.75 psi (5.2 kPa), and water was seen to flow through the gap to form an OWC above the shale on the upstream side of the model, and oil moved down through the gap on the downstream side (Figure 12). The model took more than 150 k.y. to reach steady state in this case compared with a time of 60 k.y. when the gap was 6000 ft (1800 m) long.

Figure 11. The effect of the position of a single horizontal barrier to flow, with a small gap, on contact tilt and observed pressureversus-depth data at steady state when the barrier is located at different depths in the reservoir. The gap allows the pressures in the oil leg to stabilize so the oil pressure is the same in both wells at a given depth. A horizontal pressure gradient occurs in the water because of the hydrodynamic aquifer. The effect of the horizontal barrier is to alter the tilt of the oil-water contact (OWC). It prevents or reduces a tilt forming when the barrier is in the aquifer. Muggeridge and Mahmode 331

Figure 12. The effect of a horizontal barrier at the initial oil-water contact (OWC) on final contact tilt when it has a 2000-ft gap in the middle and the pressure versus depth that would be observed at steady state in two wells on either side of the gap. No observable contact tilt occurs above the barrier on the side upstream of the gap, but a noticeable tilt occurs on the downstream side below the barrier. The pressure-versus-depth plots show a significant pressure gradient in the water as a result of the hydrodynamic flux.

DISCUSSION These results suggest that great care has to be taken when interpreting pressure-versus-depth data to identify the cause of different OWCs between wells. In a homogeneous reservoir in which it is likely that the aquifer has been flowing for more

than 1 million yr, then it should be possible to reconcile the pressure drop observed between wells in the aquifer with the reservoir properties and dimensions and the observed tilt in the OWC using Hubberts equation (equation 4), provided that the wells have the same pressure at a given depth in the oil leg (Figure 6). If, however, the wells have

Figure 13. The effect of a reduction in reservoir quality on the oil-water contact (OWC) tilt. The aquifer is flowing from left to right, and the reservoir has 100 md permeability on the left, changing abruptly to 10 md permeability on the right. The tilt of the contact is much less on the left than on the right, as would be expected from Hubberts (1953) expression (equation 4); however, this change in tilt would not be seen in pressure-versus-depth plots. 332 Hydrodynamic Aquifer or Reservoir Compartmentalization?

Figure 14. Time taken to reach steady state for the ranges of properties examined in each of the heterogeneous models. The time taken to reach steady state in the homogeneous base case model is shown for comparison. Heterogeneity tends to increase the time taken, except in the cases of (1) a water-wet fault with a threshold capillary pressure (Pc) greater than the pressure drop seen in the aquifer and (2) when a horizontal barrier (shale or tar mat) is located at the oil-water contact.

a different pressure in the oil at a given depth, then either a barrier to oil flow is present (e.g., a fault that acts as a barrier to oil flow, Figure 10) or the aquifer has only started flowing relatively recently in the time since the reservoir filled. In this case, equation 5 could be used to estimate the time needed to reach steady state, assuming that the reservoir was homogeneous. If this time is relatively short (perhaps <100 k.y.) compared with the time since the reservoir filled or the aquifer started flowing, then it is likely that a barrier to flow is present. If the time is long (perhaps the reservoir is large, for example; see Figure 8), then it is entirely possible that good communication within the reservoir exists and it has not yet reached steady state. Further studies should be undertaken to confirm this. A more difficult situation arises when a horizontal pressure gradient is seen between wells in the aquifer but no such gradient is seen in the oil. In the case of a very low transmissibility fault (such as in Figure 9), then application of Darcy's law

(equation 1) using the permeability inferred from well logs or cores will predict an unrealistically high interstitial velocity in the aquifer. Of course, the high pressure gradient may be caused by degradation of reservoir quality in the aquifer, but it may also be an indication of a fault between the wells. Comparison of data between additional wells (e.g., adding wells 1 and 4 to the data from wells 2 and 3 in Figure 9) may provide further evidence of a fault. In Figure 10, there would have been an equally large pressure gradient in the water between wells 1 and 2 as between wells 2 and 3, if the aquifer permeability was much less than that in the reservoir. In the case of a horizontal permeability barrier (as shown in Figure 11), it may also be difficult to reconcile the pressure-versus-depth data showing good communication between wells with logs showing the existence of a barrier to vertical flow that can be correlated between wells. Even a small gap in the shale or tar mat may allow pressure to be equalized vertically but the shale or tar mat may still significantly impede vertical flow on reservoir time scales. Changes in reservoir quality in association with a tilted OWC are perhaps the most difficult to interpret. As mentioned previously, even a change of a factor of 10 in reservoir permeability may significantly alter the tilt of the OWC in that region. Extrapolating the contact seen in Figure 13 results in an underestimation of oil in place; however, if the lower permeability region was upstream of the higher permeability region, then oil initially in place would be overestimated. Adding further data from other wells may improve understanding; alternatively, Monte Carlo simulation using different realizations of reservoir permeability in association with aquifer flux would enable better management of reservoir uncertainty.

CONCLUSIONS This study has investigated the interaction between a hydrodynamic aquifer and the observed OWC for homogeneous, heterogeneous, and compartmentalized model reservoirs using analytic methods and numerical simulation. An analytic expression, originally derived by Gardner et al. (1962) and
Muggeridge and Mahmode 333

used by England et al. (1995) to predict gravitational overturning, can also be used to estimate the time taken for a steady state OWC to be established once the aquifer starts flowing. Comparison with results from simulations have shown that this can be used in combination with the expression derived by Hubbert (1953) for the final steady state inclination of the OWC to clarify whether a reservoir contains barriers or baffles to flow or may simply have not yet reached equilibrium. Simulation studies using simple models of typical baffles and barriers to flow have demonstrated the complexity of the interactions between a hydrodynamic aquifer and those features. In particular, analysis of pressure-versus-depth plots should be carefully integrated with data from logs and other sources to reduce uncertainty in the reservoir description. Use of pressure-versus-depth plots in isolation may suggest that the reservoir is compartmentalized when in fact it is still relaxing back to its steady state or alternatively that good communication exists between wells when this is only the case on geologic time scales. On reservoir production time scales, communication may be severely impaired. Combining this analysis with Hubberts equation for the steady state tilt and equation 5 for estimating the time scale for steady state to be established may help identify when further data acquisition or more detailed modeling studies are required. As a rule of thumb, it would appear that most good-quality reservoirs with hydrodynamic aquifers will reach steady state within approximately 100 k.y. This article has only considered oil-water reservoirs, but many of the arguments and analyses can also be used in gas-water reservoirs with the proviso that gas is considerably more compressible than oil and water. As a result, the analysis of time scales to reach equilibrium may not be applicable when significant pressure drops occur so that compressibility becomes important.

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