Analytical Tool Diagnosing Water Sources in Oil Wells
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current methods for diagnosing the source of water production issues in oil and gas wells are unreliable, often leading to incorrect diagnostic approaches, inappropriate chemical solutions, and incorrect placement of treatment fluids, resulting in low success rates for water control strategies.
Innovation Solution
A system comprising a flow meter for measuring fluid mixture flow and water/oil ratio, an analytical tool that calculates derivatives and compares data to historical case histories, and incorporates additional well information to diagnose likely water sources, suggesting targeted treatment solutions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If traditional diagnostic methods are used to identify water sources, then the process is simple, but the reliability and accuracy of diagnosis is poor
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines multiple diagnostic approaches into a single integrated system. It merges flow meter measurements, water/oil ratio analysis, derivative calculations, and comparison with historical case histories into one cohesive diagnostic platform. This integration allows the system to overcome the limitations of individual methods while maintaining comprehensive diagnostic capability.
Solution Approach 2:
The diagnostic system is designed to handle multiple water source identification scenarios through a universal analytical tool. The system can analyze various water production patterns, compare them against a library of case histories, and provide diagnoses for different well configurations, making it applicable to diverse diagnostic challenges without requiring separate specialized tools.
2Measurement precision
If more comprehensive data collection and analysis methods are implemented, then the accuracy of water source identification improves, but the time required for diagnosis increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by pre-calculating derivatives of water/oil ratio data and pre-preparing a library of historical case histories with their characteristic patterns. This preparation allows the analytical tool to quickly compare current well data against established patterns without requiring time-consuming real-time analysis, thereby reducing overall diagnosis time while maintaining high accuracy.
Solution Approach 2:
The diagnostic system incorporates feedback mechanisms by continuously comparing measured flow and water/oil ratio data against historical case histories and adjusting the diagnosis based on the results. This iterative feedback process allows the system to refine its analysis and reach accurate conclusions more efficiently, reducing the time required for comprehensive diagnostic evaluation.
Data Source
AI summary
Systems and methods for diagnosis of a water source of a water production problem in a well include: measuring flow and water/oil ratio (WOR) of a fluid mixture produced from a well; accepting the measured flow and the WOR over a period of time; calculating the derivative in time of WOR (WOR′) over the period of time; accepting a selection of or making a comparison of the WOR or WOR′ over time to a particular WOR or WOR′ case history from a library of WOR and WOR′ case histories that correlate with various types of water sources in a library of potential water sources; accepting an additional type of information about the well selected from the group consisting of reservoir properties, completion history, production history, injection history, and interventions history; and weighting and scoring to suggest a diagnosis of a likely water source from the library of potential water sources.