Waterflooding: Review of West Texas experience

A tremendous effort has been made by the oil industry and others over the past seventy years to develop an understanding of multiphase fluid flow through porous media. A vast literature of concepts, field and laboratory data, experimental techniques and mathematical expressions has been developed. Many parameters believed to be pertinent have been investigated, such as connate water saturation, relative permeability saturation relations, sample wettability, and waterflood scaling (including the effect of such variables as pore size, flow rate, viscosities and interfacial tension of the fluids, sample size, and the effect of a third phase such as free gas). Other works investigated are the development of the Buckley-Leverett concept of fluid displacement, the laboratory determination of relative permeability, and the development of waterflood scaling theory aimed directly toward calculating reservoir performance from laboratory data. This paper reviews waterflood management practices in West Texas and provides ways of implementing successful waterflood project.