Comparison of Streamline Reservoir Simulation of Brine Flow, Mixing and Barium Sulphate Induced Formation Damage with Observed Produced Water Chemical Data to Aid Scale Management

In waterflooded reservoirs under active scale management produced water samples are routinely collected and analysed, yielding information on the evolving variations in chemical composition. These produced water chemical compositional data contain clues as to the fluid/fluid and fluid/rock interactions occurring in the subsurface, and are used to inform scale management programmes designed to minimise damage and enable improved recovery. In this interdisciplinary paper, the analyses of produced water compositional data from the Miller Field are presented and a 1D reactive transport model is developed to study possible geochemical reactions taking place within the reservoir through matching model results with observed produced water data. However, in the 1D reactive transport model, only one flow path was simulated; this does not fully represent the fluid flow and mixing behaviour in the reservoir. Therefore, this paper also presents a fully 3D reservoir simulation study for the Miller Field to evaluate brine flow and mixing processes occurring in the reservoir, using an available history matched streamline reservoir simulation model integrated with produced water chemical data. Conservative natural tracers were added into the modelled injection water, and then the displacement of injection water and the behaviours of the produced water in two given production wells were further studied. In addition, the connectivity between producers and injectors was investigated based on the comparison of production behaviour calculated by the reservoir model with produced water chemical data, and an assessment of the properties of the intervening faults was also performed. Finally, a model of BaSO₄ scale precipitation was included in the model, and the simulation results with and without barite precipitation were compared with produced water chemical data (observed barium and sulphate concentrations in the produced brine). In general, the modelled and observed data were found to be in good agreement, but any discrepancies were in fact found to be very informative also. The model assumes scale deposition is possible everywhere in the formation, whereas in reality the near production well zones were generally protected by scale inhibitor squeeze treatments, and thus the discrepancies between modelled and observed data could be used to diagnose the effectiveness of the chemical treatments to prevent formation damage around the production wells.