Principles of Oilfield Water Injection For Chemists

Water flooding is commonly performed in oil wells for pressure support and increased oil production. Different sources of injection water can be used for water flooding, such as aquifer water, seawater or produced water. Each of these water sources contain particulates in them that deposit at the injection point forming both an external filter cake on the reservoir face and an internal cake inside the rock surface. The properties of the external and internal filter cake negatively affect injectivity. In order to identify the optimum water filtration specs prior to injection, the contribution of different solid particle types present in the injected water on filter cake properties and injectivity need to be understood.