SCHULICH OF ENGINEERING

FINAL EXAMINATION
ENPE 525
April 26, 2017 Time Allowed: 120 minutes.

1. Attempt all questions. Weighting as shown in the questions.

2. The exam is closed-book, closed-notes, but you are allowed to bring one formula sheet that cannot be larger than
the legal size paper printed on both sides.
3. Programmable calculators that are incapable of communicating with other devices are allowed.
4. All other electronic devices, including cell phones & “smart watches,” must be turned off and put away during the
examination.
5. In calculation questions, clearly explain your logic and write the equations being used before plugging in the
numbers into the equations. Otherwise you will lose marks even when you’re your final answer is correct.
6. Show all steps used in arriving at the numerical answer and maintain an accuracy of at least three digits, where
possible.

Last Name First Name ID:

Question No. 1 2 3 4 Total

Maximum Marks 35 10 15 10 70

Marks Obtained

Question 1 (35 Marks)

This is a 35-part multiple-choice question. For each part, there is only one correct answer. Indicate the answer that you select
by marking the appropriate bullet.

(1) Which of the following statements concerning condensing gas drive process for developing multiple contact miscibility is not
true?
In condensing drive process, the injected gas is rich in intermediate components but the oil is not rich in such
components.
In condensing drive process, the miscibility develops by oil absorbing intermediate components from the injected gas.
In condensing drive process, the miscibility develops in immediate vicinity of the injection well.
The gas that comes out of the production end first would be expected to have much lower amount of intermediate
components than the injected gas
 None of the above

(2) Which of the following statements about condensing gas drive and ternary phase diagrams is true?
Both oil and gas compositions must be on the right hand side of the limiting tie line for the condensing gas drive process to
work.
 The minimum miscibility pressure for condensing gas drive process is the pressure at which phase envelop shrinks just
enough to put the gas composition on the limiting tie line.
In condensing gas drive process, the miscibility cannot be achieved at a lower pressure by making the gas richer in
intermediate components
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At a given pressure, the minimum enrichment of the gas phase that moves the gas composition to the left of the limiting tie
line is called minimum miscibility enrichment (MME).
None of the above.

(3) Concerning vaporizing gas drive, which of the following statements is true?
In vaporizing gas drive, the injected gas is rich in intermediate components.
The oil composition must be on the left side of the limiting tie line for this process to succeed in developing miscibility.
 In vaporizing gas drive, the miscibility develops some distance away from the injection well.
If the vaporizing gas drive fails to develop miscibility, increasing the pressure is not likely to change the situation.
None of the above.

(4) Concerning CO2 miscible displacement process, which of the following is not true?
CO2 miscible displacement process is essentially a vaporizing-gas drive.
2-Phase envelope is generally smaller for CO2 than for methane.
 Methane can develop miscibility with a wider range of oil compositions than CO2.
Below its critical temperature, CO2 can form two liquid phases with some oils.
None of the above.

(5) Concerning first contact miscible process design, which of the following statements is not true?
The primary slug must be fist contact miscible with both the oil and the drive gas.
When the reservoir temperature is above the critical temperature of the slug, estimating miscibility condition requires
experimental information.
 To ensure miscibility between the slug and the drive gas, it is necessary to operate at a pressure that is lower than the
cricondenbar pressure for the binary system formed by the slug and the drive gas.
The size of slug is designed to prevent mixing of all three fluids by dispersion.
None of the above.

(6) Concerning the triangular ternary-phase-diagrams, which of the following statements is not true?
Each point within the triangle represents a composition of the mixture of components.
Ternary diagrams represent phase behavior at fixed temperature and pressure.
If the overall composition is outside the two phase envelop, the mixture is a single phase fluid.
If the composition is inside the two-phase envelop, the phase compositions are given by ends of the tie line passing through
the composition point.
 None of the above.

(7) Concerning rheology of polymer solutions in water, which of the following statements is not true?
Polymer solutions exhibit non-Newtonian behavior.
Polymer solutions display Newtonian behavior at very low shear rates as well as at very high shear rates.
 At intermediate shear rates, polymer solutions are shear-thickening fluids.
The apparent viscosity of solutions of partially hydrolyzed polyacrylamide decreases rapidly with increasing salinity.
Solutions of Xanthan gums are less sensitive to changes in salinity.

(8) Concerning polymer flooding, which of the following statements is not true?
Polymer flooding is essentially viscous water flooding, i.e. injection of water that has much higher viscosity than ordinary
water.
Water soluble polymers can increase the viscosity of water by more than an order of magnitude even when added in small
concentrations of few hundred ppm.
 Polyacrylamides are manufactured by a fermentation process.
Molecular weight of EOR polymers can be several million Daltons.
In partially hydrolyzed polyacrylamides, some of the NH2 groups are replaced with OH.

(9) Which of the following statements concerning polymers degradation is not true?
EOR polymer molecules can degrade when the solution is subjected to high shear.
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EOR polymer molecules can also degrade via oxidative attack by dissolved oxygen.
At reservoir conditions, polymer solutions can degrade by microbial attack during their propagation from the injection well
to the production well.
 EOR polymers are more stable at higher reservoir temperatures.
None of the above.

(10) Concerning polymer retention in reservoir rocks, which of the following statements is not true?
The principal retention mechanism is adsorption on pore walls.
Retention can be estimated only by laboratory measurements using core samples and the polymer solution to be used in the
field.
Other factors being the same, retention would be higher for higher molecular weight polymers.
Presence of clays increases polymer retention.
 Polymer retention is not affected by rock permeability.

(11) Which of the following statements concerning polymer flooding is not true?
Some of the pores in reservoir rock can be too small for polymer molecules to flow through, making a part of the pore
volume inaccessible to the injected polymer.
 The presence of inaccessible pore volume decreases the propagation speed to injected polymer solution.
Adsorption of polymer molecules on the pore surfaces can reduce the permeability of reservoir rock.
The field experience with polymer flooding shows that it is a commercially viable technology.
None of the above.

(12) Which of the following statements concerning the forces acting on fluid elements in displacement processes is not true?
Viscous force refers to the pressure gradient generated by the flow through a porous medium.
The viscous force increases with the viscosity of the displacing fluid and decreases with increasing rock permeability.
 The capillary force is expected to be higher in high permeability rocks.
In waterflooding, capillary force is much stronger than the viscous force.
Capillary force can be reduced by reducing the interfacial tension between displacing and displaced fluids.

(13) Which of the following statements concerning phase trapping is incorrect?

During displacement of oil by water, a part of the oil becomes trapped in the rock.
Trapping of immiscible displaced fluid can occur even in a straight capillary tube.
 In a pore doublet, the oil is likely to become trapped in the smaller pore.
Snap-off is an important trapping mechanism in water-wet rocks.
Pushing a trapped oil droplet through a pore throat requires very high pressure gradient.

(14) Which of the following statements about trapping and mobilization of oil in porous rocks is incorrect?
The fraction of oil that becomes trapped can be related to the value of capillary number in the displacement system.
 The capillary number represents the ratio of capillary forces and gravitational forces present in the system.
The fraction of oil that becomes trapped decreases with increasing capillary number.
To mobilize a large fraction of the residual oil that became trapped in waterflooding would require increasing the
capillary number by several orders of magnitude.
None of the above.

(15) Which one of the following statements concerning mobilization of residual oil is incorrect?
It is generally impractical to mobilize the residual oil saturation by increasing the pressure gradient.
Mobilizing residual oil requires increasing the capillary number by several orders of magnitude.
Residual oil can be more difficult to recover from oil-wet rocks.
Reducing the interfacial tension be several orders of magnitude is an effective way of mobilizing the residual oil.
 None of the above.

(16) Which of the following statements concerning EOR processes is not true?
The target for EOR processes is the residual oil left in the reservoir after secondary recovery.
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In North America, the target for EOR is bigger than sum of past production and the remaining non-EOR reserves.
Miscible flooding can theoretically recover all of the residual oil from contacted portions of the reservoir.
 Known EOR techniques can economically recover more than half of the residual oil left after secondary recovery in a
typical light oil reservoir.
None of the above.

(17) Which of the following statements concerning mobility control processes is not true?
Mobility control processes work by altering the mobility ratio between displacing and displaced fluids.
 Polymer flooding improves the displacement by making the displacing water more mobile.
Injection of polymer solution instead of water improves sweep efficiency.
Because of the cost of polymer, it is generally not economical to inject several pore volumes of polymer solution.
None of the above.

(18) Which of the following statements concerning EOR techniques is not true?
EOR techniques focus on mobilizing the residual oil and/or improving the sweep efficiency.
Surfactant flooding processes mobilize the residual oil by reducing the interfacial tension.
Miscible flooding processes effectively reduce the interfacial tension between displaced and displacing fluid to zero.
Thermal recovery processes involve improving the mobility ratio by making the oil more mobile.
 None of the above

(19) Which of the following statements concerning water injection projects is not true?
Water injection through the well casing is not allowed in many jurisdictions.
Acid gas cannot be easily removed from injection water by chemical means.
 Alluvial water is generally free of bacteria and is considered ideal water for waterflood applications.
Vacuum deaeration can remove most of the dissolved oxygen from injection water.
None of the above.

(20) Which of the following statements concerning injection water treatment is incorrect?
The best water for waterflooding is the least expensive water that will not damage the well or the reservoir.
 Eliminating the bacteria from injection water is required primarily due to health and safety concerns.
Sequestering agents reduce deposition of scale forming chemicals on injection line surfaces.
The presence of oil coating on suspended solids improves removal of suspended solids by sedimentation.
None of the above.

(21) Which one of the following statements concerning monitoring and analysis of water flooding projects is incorrect?
The Hall plot can reveal if a positive or negative skin is developing near an injection well.
The ABC (after & before comparison) plot can reveal what is happening around individual wells.
The presence of a small gas cap does not rule out applicability of waterflooding.
 Waterflood decline curves use plots of oil production rate versus the cumulative oil production.
None of the above.

(22) Which of the following statements concerning use of tracers in injection water is not true?
Tracer chemicals must be non-native to the reservoir.
Tracer chemicals must not adsorb on or react with the reservoir rock.
The speed of tracer propagation from injector to the producer provides a measure of volumetric sweep.
In a five spot pattern flood, if most of the tracer injected in a well is recovered from one of the surrounding production
well, it indicates poor sweep performance.
 None of the above.

(23) Which of the following statements concerning injection and production well operations is not true?
In waterflooding, production wells are usually operated at “near atmospheric” bottom-hole pressures.
Profile modification by plugging off watered out layers is successful only when such layers are isolated from other
layers.
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The bottom-hole pressure in injection wells must be kept below a threshold value that depends largely on the depth of the
formation.
 Pressure fall-off tests are used to determine whether or not a skin is developing around a production well.
None of the above.

(24) Which of the following statements concerning economic analysis of waterflooding projects is not true?
Cash flow for a given time period represents the difference between revenues received and cash dispersed during that
period.
Present worth of a project represents the value of all cash flow generated over the project life in current dollars.
 The present-worth value of future cash flows increases with increasing interest rate.
The investor’s rate of return is the discount rate at which the sum of the discounted cash flows (including investments)
equals zero.
None of the above

(25) Which of the following statements concerning economic evaluation of water injection projects is not true?
Payout period is the length of time required for the income from the project (discounted cash flow excluding investment) to
recover the investment.
 The payout period is very good indicator of the overall economic performance of a waterflooding project.
In economic evaluation of waterflooding projects, the capital costs and operating expenses are treated differently.
Almost all project expenses incurred before the water injection actually starts can be considered capital expenses.
None of the above.

(26) Which of the following statements concerning black oil reservoir simulation models is not true?
In black oil simulation models the hydrocarbon system contains only two components.
Black oil models assume that there are at most three distinct fluid phases: oil, water and gas.
Water and oil are assumed to be insoluble in each other in all black oil models.
 Gas is assumed to be insoluble in water in all black oil models.
Black oil models assume the temperature to remain constant.

(27) Which of the following statements concerning stream tube models is not true?
Stream tube models treat the reservoir area as an assemblage of stream tubes.
The boundaries of stream tubes are streamlines in single-phase flow.
The stream tube model applies the Buckley-Leverett linear displacement model for displacement in each tube.
 The proportion of total flow going to each steam-tube remains constant during the flood.
The overall performance is obtained by adding up the performance of all stream-tubes.

(28) Which of the following statements concerning CGM model is not true?
CGM model combines the concepts of areal sweep development with Buckley Leverett model of linear displacement.
It uses the Buckley leveret model by defining equivalent pore volumes injected in the swept zone.
 CGM model does not account for the change of injectivity during the flood.
Empirical correlations are used to estimate the areal sweep at breakthrough.
The areal sweep after breakthrough is calculated from areal sweep at breakthrough and the ratio of volume of water injected
currently to volume of water injected up to breakthrough.

(29) Which of the following statements concerning Dykstra-Parsons model is not true?
Dykstra-Parsons model uses piston-like displacement in each layer.
It accounts for the change in frontal velocity with progress of the flood when mobility ratio is not equal to 1.
 Layers need not be arranged in the order of decreasing permeability in this model.
When mobility ratio is equal to 1, Dykstra-Parsons model becomes equivalent to Stiles model.
None of the above.

(30) Which of the following statements concerning simplified methods of using Dykstra-Parsons model is not true?
Johnson’s charts allow estimation of the fraction of original-oil-in-place recovered at four different values of water-oil-ratio
 Page 6 of 12

from known values of connate water saturation, mobility ratio and the coefficient of permeability variation.
These charts do not account for variations in the residual oil saturation and are truly applicable only to California sand-
stone formations.
The de Souza and Brigham correlation is based on calculations done with the analytical version of Dykstra-Parsons model
using a large number of layers.
 The de Souza and Brigham correlation is also based on waterflood performance in California sandstone reservoirs and
would not work well when the reservoir characteristics are significantly different from those of the California formations.
None of the above.

(31) Which of the following statements concerning Stiles model is not true in each layer?
Stiles method assumes piston-like displacement of oil by water.
In Stiles method, oil properties are used to calculate the velocity in each layer up to water breakthrough in that layer.
The flood front velocity in each layer is assumed to be proportional to the absolute permeability of that layer and stays
constant until breakthrough.
 The Stiles method ignores the effect of mobility ratio in calculating the water/oil ratio (WOR).
None of the above.

(32) Which of the following statements concerning volumetric sweep is not true?
Volumetric sweep in waterflooding represents the fraction of reservoir volume actually swept by water.
Volumetric sweep can be considered the product of areal sweep and vertical sweep.
Reservoir heterogeneity and mobility ratio strongly affect volumetric sweep.
In single layer systems, volumetric sweep is function of mobility ratio and the ratio of viscous forces to gravitational forces.
 Volumetric sweep in a single layer system increases when the viscous to gravity force ratio becomes smaller.

(33) Which of the following statements concerning reservoir heterogeneity is not true?
Vertical variations in permeability are generally more pronounced than areal variations.
 Permeability distribution in most reservoirs follows normal bell-shaped distribution.
The Dykstra-Parson’s coefficient is a good measure of how much the permeability varies in the reservoir.
When the value of Dykstra-Parsons coefficient is 0, the reservoir is totally homogeneous in permeability.
None of the above.

(34) Which of the following statements concerning Lorenz Coefficient is not true?
Lorenz coefficient is a measure of permeability and porosity variations in the formation.
It is calculated by plotting the cumulative fraction of flow capacity against the cumulative fraction of storage capacity.
Flow capacity of an individual layer is the product of layer thickness and layer permeability.
The storage capacity of an individual layer is the product of layer thickness and layer porosity.
 None of the above.

(35) Which of the following statements concerning injectivity is not true?

Well injectivity in waterflooding is constrained by the requirement that the injection pressure should not exceed the fracture
pressure of formation.
Initial water injectivity does not depend on water mobility in the formation.
When mobility ratio is higher than one, injectivity increases with progress of the flood.
At the end of waterflood, the injectivity becomes independent of oil characteristics.
 None of the above.
 Page 7 of 12

Question 2: (10 Marks)

Consider the streamtube shown below, which is a part of an irregular pattern. The reservoir is 20 m thick and porosity is 15%.
The fractional flow curve is given below and the connate water saturation is 25%. Water is being injected from the left side
corner to displace the oil toward the right hand side. The dimensions of the streamtube are as shown.

(a) What would be the reservoir condition volume of oil displaced from the stream tube when the flood front has travelled 800
m from the inlet end?
(b) At some point during the flood, the water saturation at the mid-point of the streamtube is 60%. Calculate the volume of
water injected into the streamtube to reach this saturation at the mid-point.
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Solution:

(a) Area of the streamtube = 800 x 200 + 600 x 200 = 280,000 m2

Pore volume = 280,000 x 20 x 0.15 = 840,000 m3

From Welge tangent on the fractional flow curve, average saturation behind the front = 0.64

Area left of the 800 m distance from the inlet = 600 x 200 x 0.5 + 200 x 200 = 100,000 m2

Pore volume in this portion = 100,000 x 20 x 0.15 = 300,000 m3

Volume of oil displaced = PV x (Sw, avg – Swi) = 300,000 x (0.64 – 0.25) = 117,000 m3

(b) Calculate the pore volumes injected in the upstream portion of midpoint (where the water saturation is 60%), draw a
tangent on the fractional flow curve at Sw = 0.6. The slope of this tangent is

(1) / (0.645-0.25) = 2.53

Pore volumes injected in this half of the streamtube = 1/2.53 = 0.395

Pore volumes injected in the whole tube = 0.395/2 =0.198

Volume of water injected = 840,000 x 0.198 = 166,000 m3

 Page 9 of 12

Question 3: (15 Marks)

A 5-spot waterflood is proposed for a reservoir that has Dykstra-Parsons coefficient of permeability variation of 0.50 and the
following other known characteristics.
pay thickness = 30 ft μw = 1.0 cp
porosity = 0.20 k*ro = 1.0
Log mean permeability = 600 md k*rw = 0.50
Soi = 0.75 Bo = 1.25 bbl/STB
Sor = 0.30 Bw = 1.05
μo = 2.0 cp

The 5-spot pattern area will be 40 Acres. From this information calculate the following.

a. Develop a five layered permeability model using the log mean permeability and the Dykstra-Parsons coefficient. Use the
log probability paper provided below).
b. Using Stiles model, calculate the surface volume of oil that will be recovered when water breakthrough occurs in the
third layer. Assume EA = 0.85 in this calculation.
c. Calculate the water oil ratio (at surface conditions) immediately after breakthrough occurs in the third layer).
 Page 10 of 12

k50 − k84.1
(a) The Dykstra-Parsons coefficient is define as: V =
k50
600 − k84.1
0.5 = ,
600
Therefore, k84.1 = 300. Plot these two points on the graph to determine the cumulative distribution. Read the layer
permeabilities at 10%, 30%, 50%, 70% and 90%. The layered model becomes:

Layer # 1 2 2 2 2
Layer Thickness, ft 6 6 6 6 6
Layer Permeability, md 1470 860 600 420 250

(b) Pore volume in the pattern = 40 x 30 x 0.2 = 240 acre.ft = 1,862,000 bbl

Recoverable oil volume, accounting for the areal sweep of 85% is given by:

ROV = PV x (Soi – Sor) x EA/Bo = 1,862,000 x (0.75 – 0.3)x 0.85/1.25 = 570,000 STB

( k *rw / µ w ) B o 0.5 × 2 × 1.25

A= * = = 1.19
( k ro / µ o ) B w 1× 1× 1.05

After breakthrough in the third layer, recovery can be calculated by considering the partial sweep in the remaining layers,

420 250
3+ +
R= 600 600 = 0.823
5

Alternatively, it can be calculated by using the formal Stiles table method.

hj, ft kj, md kj.∆hj, md.ft Cj kj.hj, md.ft R fw Np, STB

6.00 1470 8820 8,820 8,820 0.49
12.00 860 5160 13,980 10,320 0.70
18.00 600 3600 17,580 10,800 0.823 0.839 469,000
24.00 420 2520 20,100 10,080
30.00 250 1500 21,600 7,500

Volume of oil Recovered after breakthrough in the third layer = 469,000 STB

fw 0.839
(c) WOR = = = 5.2
1 − f w 1 − 0.839
Alternatively it can be calculated by considering the flow in layers producing water divided by flow in layers producing oil.

A × Sum of permeability of layers producing water

WOR =
Sum of permeability of layers producing oil
1.19 × (1470 + 860 + 600)
=
420 + 250
= 5.20
Water oil ratio after breakthrough in the third layer = 5.2
 Page 11 of 12

Question 4: (10 Marks)

Waterflood has been in operation for several years and is near the floodout conditions. For evaluation of a tertiary recovery
technique, the operator would like to determine the injectivity of a typical well. The following information is given on the reservoir
characteristics. Determine the well injectivity for a 7-spot injection well, assuming that all surrounding production wells are
producing 100 % water.

Distance between wells, d = 500 ft

Reservoir height, h = 18 ft
Average permeability, k = 300 md
Oil relative permeability, kro = 0.85
Water relative permeability, krw = 0.45
Well radius rw = 0.375 ft
Oil viscosity, μ o = 6.6 cp
Water viscosity, μ w = 0.88 cp
Maximum allowed injection pressure, Δ P = 750 psi

a. Calculated the expected well injectivity for a 7-spot injection well, assuming that all surrounding production wells are producing
100 % water.
b. If the current injectivity is 900 bbl/d, calculate the skin factor for the injection well, assuming that the surrounding production
wells are skin free.

SOLUTION:

(a) Near the floodout conditions, only water is flowing in the pattern. Therefore, water flow properties are used in estimating the
well injectivity.

0.002051k k rw h ∆ p
qi =
 d 
µ w log - 0.2472
 rw 

0.002051 x 300 x 0.45 x 18 x 750

qi =
 500 
0.88log - 0.2472
 0 .375 
= 1475 bbl / d
Expected Injectivity = 1475 bbl/d

0.002051k k ro h ∆ p
(b) In the presence of skin, q i =
 d S + Sp 
µ o log + i - 0.2472 
 rw 2 

0.002051 x 300 x 0.45 x 18 x 750 3738 4248

900 = = =
 500 S i  0.88[2.878 + 0.5S i ] 2.878 + 0.5S i
0.88log + - 0.2472
 0.375 2 
4248
2.878 + 0.5Si = = 4.72
900
Si = 3.68, the well has a positive skin factor of 3.68.
 Page 12 of 12

Useful Equations
Surface volume of oil recovered in Buckley Leverette model: PV × ( S w − S wi )
NP =
Bo
*
k rw µ
End-point mobility ratio, M= * o
k ro µ w
0.002051k k ro h ∆ p
Initial injectivity of a 7-spot well in field units: q i = or
 d 
µ o log - 0.2472
 rw 
0.002051k k ro h ∆ p
qi = , when skin factors are involved.
 d Si + S p 
µ o log + - 0.2472 
 rw 2 

k50 − k84.1
Dykstra-Parsons Coefficient of Permeability Variation: V =
k50
Factional recovery (Fraction of movable oil recovered) at time of breakthrough in the jth later according to Stiles model:
h j k j + (C t − C j )
R=
htk j
j j n n
C j = ∑ ∆hi ki h j = ∑ ∆hi ht = ∑ ∆h j Ct = ∑ ∆h j k j
i =1 i =1 j =1 j =1
Fractional flow of water coming out of production wells in Stiles Model:
AC j ( k*rw / µ w ) Bo
f w, surface = , where A =
A C j +( Ct - C j ) ( k*ro / µ o ) B w

Useful Conversion Factors:

1 bbl = 5.615 ft3 1 hectare = 10,000 m2
1 Acre = 43560 ft2 1 meter = 3.281 ft
1 acre-ft = 7758 bbl 1 m3 = 6.29 bbl