Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 120 (2014) 130140

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/petrol

A method for evaluation of water ooding performance in

fractured reservoirs
Shaohua Gu a,b,n,1, Yuetian Liu a, Zhangxin Chen b, Cuiyu Ma a
a
b

MOE Key Laboratory of Petroleum Engineering, China University of Petroleum, Beijing 102249, China
Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada T2N 1N4

art ic l e i nf o

a b s t r a c t

Article history:
Received 19 December 2013
Accepted 3 June 2014
Available online 17 June 2014

A mathematical model is developed for evaluation of water ooding performance in a highly fractured
reservoir. The model transforms a dual-porosity medium into an equivalent single porosity medium by
using a pseudo relative permeability method to normalize the relative permeability. This approach
allows both fractures and matrix to have permeability, porosity, endpoint saturation, and endpoint
relative permeability by themselves. Imbibition is also taken into account by modifying Chen's equation.
Some effects, including imbibition and recovery rates are investigated. The investigation shows that
imbibition can determine the potential of a fractured reservoir and a low recovery rate can improve the
water ooding situation in terms of retarding water breakthrough and controlling the rise of water cut.
A new chart composed by water cut vs. recovery curves is protracted to estimate the ultimate waterooding recovery rate. The water ooding performance of two reservoirs is evaluated. Compared with
numerical simulation method, the error of these two cases are not more than 2%, which proved that this
method is reliable. Both lab test data and eld data are applied to a further discussion of the
characteristics of water ooding performance in fractured reservoirs. On comparison with the classical
method, such as Tong's method and the X-plot method, the reason why the new method is more suitable
to fractured reservoirs is addressed by a theoretical analysis. An appropriate application of this method
can help the reservoir engineer to optimize the reservoir management with low costs and high
efciency.
& 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords:
Water ooding
Fractured reservoir
Dual-porosity
Imbibition
Relative permeability

1. Introduction
Experiences from oil recovery around the globe have shown
distinct water ooding performance in fractured reservoirs than in
conventional reservoirs. In most cases, the recovery usually begins
with a high production rate in an early stage and then declines
dramatically once water breaks through due to a rapid rise in
water cut, especially in some high yield wells. Moreover, the
geological complexity is also a barrier for accurate estimation of
the water ooding performance and the potential of a fractured
reservoir. Furthermore, as everyone knows, it is signicant to
perform reservoir management and investment decision.
For interpretation of water ooding performance in fractured
reservoirs, many research papers have been published. Currently
used methods can be classied as two categories: reservoir
simulation and a reservoir performance analysis. The reservoir
simulation methods consist of numerical simulation and physical

Corresponding author. Tel.: 86 10 89732260.

E-mail address: cc0012@126.com (S. Gu).
1
Visiting scholar of University of Calgary.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.petrol.2014.06.002
0920-4105/& 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

simulation. Models of dual-porosity (Barenblatt et al., 1960) and

shape factors (Warren and Root, 1963; Kazemi et al., 1976) are
widely used in numerical simulation of the fractured reservoirs.
But one of the main problems is that these models are oversimplied to meet the demand of computing. Another problem is
that history matching is a subjective process. That is, various
results may be obtained on the basis of the same data. Because of
more tunable parameters in a dual-porosity model, more probable
choices may be made by reservoir engineers. Some new technologies, such as a discrete fracture network (DFN) model and
unstructured grids (Hoteit and Firoozabadi, 2008a, 2008b; Huang
et al., 2011), can characterize a fracture network more accurately.
However, technical limitation on information collection of in-situ
fractures and enormous amount of computing are impediments to
their application. Actually, the physical simulation (Yuetian et al.,
2013) provides an objective way to present the water ooding
performance in fractured reservoirs, but high costs and low
efciency are bottleneck problems.
Compared with the reservoir simulation methods, the reservoir
performance analysis methods are easy, fast and cheap tools, which
are composed of analytical models, empirical models and semiempirical models. But these types of methods need more eld data

S. Gu et al. / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 120 (2014) 130140

Nomenclature
A
coefcient, dimensionless
B
coefcient, dimensionless
b
fracture aperture [L], m
fw
water cut, dimensionless
f/ wf
the derivative of water cut of fracture, dimensionless
h
formation thickness [L], m
kf, kff
conventional/intrinsic fracture permeability [L]2, m
km
matrix permeability [L]2, m
kT
total permeability [L]2, m
krof, krom, kroT oil relative permeability in fracture/matrix/total,
dimensionless
krwf, krwm, krwT water relative permeability in fracture/matrix/
total, dimensionless
L
length [L], m
P1P27 coefcient, dimensionless
Qo
cumulative oil, dimensionless
qimb
imbibition rate, dimensionless
qwf, qwm, qwT fracture/matrix/total ow rate [L]2[T]  1, m2/s
R
recovery factor of OOIP, dimensionless
R0
ultimate recovery factor, dimensionless
Rn
recovery in normalized range, dimensionless
Rf, Rm, RT fracture/matrix/total recovery factor of OOIP,
dimensionless
Rf', Rm
' , RT' fracture/matrix/total ultimate recovery factor,
dimensionless

and recovery experience to develop, and the predicting results also

need more checks with eld production. The theory of Buckley and
Leverett (1942) and the Welge (1952) equation were rst proposed
to explain the phenomena of two-phase ow in reservoirs. According to experiments of Efros (1958), a relationship between oil cut,
oil viscosity and outow end water saturation in a process of water
oil displacement was obtained. Timmerman (1971) found a relationship between cumulative oil production and an oilwater ratio
(i.e., (1fw)/fw) by eld data, which was from a water ooding
reservoir in Illinois. Tong (1978, 1988) studied statistical data from
more than 20 water ooding reservoirs around the globe and drew
a chart for engineers to evaluate the water ooding performance.
Chen (1985) deduced some water displacement curve(WDC) methods by using the theory of BuckleyLeverett, the Welge equation
and the relation found by Efros, and the results were consistent
with Tong's survey. As more advances in the technology of reservoir
water ooding evaluation are made, more types of reservoirs have
been put into consideration by researchers. El-khatib (2001, 2012)
applied the BuckleyLeverett displacement theory to study water
ooding in non-communicating stratied reservoirs and in inclined
communicating stratied reservoirs. Yang (2009) proposed a new
diagnostic analysis method for water ooding performance in
conventional reservoirs.
In fact, many lessons and much experience have already been
learned from hundreds of fractured reservoirs (Allan and Sun,
2003; Sun and Sloan, 2003) during past many years (Dang et al.,
2011). Many researchers have published many mathematical
models to interpret multi-phase ow in fractured medium, such
as the De Swaan (1978) model, the Kazemi analytical model (1992)
and the Civan (1998) model. However, the existing problems of
evaluating water ooding performance in fractured reservoirs
have not been gured out properly. One of the critical problems
is how to deal with oilwater ow in a dual-porosity medium.
Another issue is how to detect the inuence of imbibition on the
in-situ ow and the performance of oil wells. This paper aims to
solve the above mentioned problems. First, a model is proposed

131

Swf, Swm, SwT water saturation of fracture/matrix/total, dimensionless

Sof, Som, SoT oil saturation in fracture/matrix/total, dimensionless
Sorf, Sorm, SorT residual oil saturation in fracture/matrix/total,
dimensionless
Swif, Swim, SwiT initial water saturation in fracture/matrix/total,
dimensionless
Snwef , Snwem , SnweT fracture/matrix/total water saturation at outow end in normalized range, dimensionless
SAwf , SAwm , SAwT average water saturation in fracture/matrix/total,
dimensionless
nA
SwT
fracture average water saturation in normalized range,
dimensionless
nA
SwBT
water saturation at breakthrough time in normalized
range, dimensionless
t
time [T], s
tB
water breakthrough time [T], s
Vwf, Vwm, VwT fracture/matrix/total water volume [L]3, m3
W
recovery rate [L] [T]  1, m/s
X
length [L], m
o, w oil viscosity [M][L]  1[T], Pa s
f, m fracture/matrix porosity, dimensionless

imbibition index, dimensionless

for wateroil ow in a matrix-fracture medium by using the

method of pseudo relative permeability curves. Then Chen's model
(1982) is modied for calculation of the water breakthrough time
and water saturation at the breakthrough time. A chart is composed for water-ooding evaluation by estimation of the ultimate
recovery factor. Then the water ooding performance in two
fractured reservoirs is evaluated. Compared with the classical
method, such as Tong's chart and X-plot method (1978), some
analyses are conducted and inuential factors are discussed.

2. Mathematical model
2.1. Assumptions and denitions
A well group consists of one injector and one producer in a
highly fractured reservoir, and the Kazemi modeling concept
(1976) is used, as shown in Fig. 1. The additional assumptions
are given as follows: the ow is linear, isothermal, and incompressible, and it obeys Darcy's law; in a dual-porosity model,
fracture and matrix have its own irreducible water saturation,
permeability, porosity and relativity permeability; the wateroil
displacement in this case is non-piston-like; nally, the reservoir is
water-wet and the imbibition effect is taken into account.
2.2. Pseudo relative permeability
Hearn (1971) used the pseudo relative permeability method to
simulate a stratied reservoir by water ooding, which means that
the reservoir is divided into many layers. Babadagli and Ershaghi
(1993) introduced this method into the dual porosity concept and
proposed the effective fracture relative permeability (EFRP)
method to reduce the model to a single porosity fracture network
model. In the stratied reservoir, each layer has its own thickness,
porosity, initial water saturation, and residual oil saturation.
Similarly, in a fractured reservoir, either fractures or matrix has

132

S. Gu et al. / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 120 (2014) 130140

its own properties, so they can be regarded as two different

layers. The pseudo relative permeability method is introduced
to transform a dual-porosity medium into an equivalent single
porosity medium, as displayed in Fig. 2. This process can simplify
the calculation by reducing the number of equations and parameters. Actually, the end points of saturations of both matrix and
fractures are not the same value. Therefore, the movable saturation ranges (from Sor to 1  Swi) of the two media, are totally

different from each other. In the process of calculation of pseudo

relative permeability, normalization is a necessary procedure for
eliminating the effect of the end points. The normalization process
aims to transform various original saturation ranges to the normalized range from zero to one, which enables the end points of
matrix and fractures to be the same value, as demonstrated in
Fig. 2(a) and (b). The equation is given as follows:
Snw

Sw  Swi
1  Swi  Sor

By the normalization process, all saturations are transformed to

the normalized range, and then the process for pseudo relative
permeability begins. The relative permeability can be tested and
calculated by the WelgeJBN method (Johnson et al., 1959) and the
saturation used in calculation is the water saturation at the
outow end Swe; therefore, the water relative permeability can
be written as krw(Swe). The pseudo relative permeability of water in
the normalized range is (see derivation in Appendix A)
krwT SnweT

kf f =km U f =m U krwf Snwef krwm Snwem

kf f =km U f =m 1

Similarly, the pseudo relative permeability of oil in the normalized range is

kroT SnweT

kf f =km Uf =m Ukrof Snwef krom Snwem

kf f =km U f =m 1

The fracture relative permeability curves seem X-shaped, as

displayed in Fig. 2(c). They can be written as follows:

Fig. 1. Model of water ooding in water-wet fractured media and imbibition process.

krwf Snwef Snwef

krof Snwef 1  Snwef

Fig. 2. Model of water ooding in water-wet fractured medium: (a) matrix relative permeability curves in original range; (b) matrix relative permeability curves in
normalized range; (c) fracture relative permeability curves in normalized range and (d) total relative permeability curve in normalized range.

S. Gu et al. / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 120 (2014) 130140

The matrix relative permeability curves in the normalized

range (Fig. 2(b)) are transformed from relative permeability curve
in the original range (Fig. 2(a)). Here the oil/water relative
permeability ratio can be presented in a polynomial tting form,
and why the polynomial form becomes the choice will be
explained in Section 4
2
n3
n4
krom Snwem p1 p2 U Snwem p3 USnwem
p4 USwem
p5 USwem
n5
n6
7
8
p6 U Swem
p7 U Swem
p8 U Snwem
p9 U Snwem

2
n3
n4
krwm Snwem p10 p11 U Snwem p12 U Snwem
p13 USwem
p14 U Swem
n5
n6
7
n8
p15 U Swem
p16 U Swem
p17 USnwem
p18 U Swem

According to Eqs. (6) and (7), the total relative permeability can
be written as
n

krwT SweT
1

n2
n3
n4
kroT SnweT
p22 U SweT
p23 USweT
p19 p20 U SnweT p21 U SweT
n5
n6
n7
n8
p24 U SweT
p25 U SweT
p26 U SweT
p27 USweT

8
where the coefcients P19P27 can be determined by tting. The
total relative permeability can be referred to as Fig. 2(d). The total
water saturation is(see derivation in Appendix A)
f =m U Swf Swm

SwT

f =m 1

Similarly, the total oil saturation SoT, the total residual oil
saturation SorT and the total initial water SwiT saturation are as
follows, respectively:

133

2.3. Flow in fracture medium with imbibition

Another key problem in this case is how to detect the effect of
exchange between fracture and matrix. Production from the
matrix blocks can be associated with various physical mechanisms
including oil expansion, capillary imbibition, gravity imbibition,
diffusion and viscous displacement. In water ooding reservoir, oil
expansion is not signicant role. Diffusion is not an obvious
phenomenon. When fracture permeability is far higher than
matrix permeability, viscous displacement is negligible as well.
And the main mechanism in production from matrix to fracture is
imbibition. Aronofsky et al. (1958) proposed an empirical model of
imbibition correlated with the oil recovery factor and ultimate
recovery factor, which is
Rm R0m 1 e  t

13

where is an imbibition index, which determines of the convergence rate to the ultimate recovery factor. In fact, it illustrates the
magnitude of imbibition, and the unit is [1/s]. Although is an
empirical parameter, it includes physical meaning. Kazemi et al.
(1992) use an equation to characterize this parameter. And
can also be obtained by spontaneous imbibition test or history
matching. By using the Duhamel principle, Chen and Liu (1982)
deduced a new dynamic imbibition model by using the Aronofsky
model with respect to dynamic water saturation in the fracture
system. Terez and Firoozabadi (1999) used the same model in their
research to interpret the experimental result. However, Chen's
equation has an error leading to an obvious calculation mistake,
which will be discussed in Section 4. Thus the model needs
correction, and Chen's model can be modied as (see derivation
in Appendix B)

Z
qimb x; y; z; t B 1  Swim m R0m Swf x; y; z; t B 

tB

SoT

f =m U Sof Som

SorT

SwiT

10

f =m 1

f =m U Sorf Sorm

11

f =m 1

f =m U Swif Swim
f =m 1

12

Swf x; y; z; e  t B  d

14
Suppose that there is a horizontal, linear, water-wet, naturally
fractured oil-bearing formation of length L, as Fig. 3. The initial
water saturation distributions of the matrix and fracture are Swm(x,
0) Swim and Swf(x, 0) 0, respectively. Water has been injected
into the inlet end (x 0) since t 0. The dimensionless parameters
are introduced, such as x x=L,t t, Wt Wt=l and
qimb qimb =. The equations of dimensionless ow in the fractured
porous medium can be written as follows:
8
h
i
Rt
S
S
0
>
>
Wtf wf Swf twf f twf 1 Swim m R0m Swf  0 Swf x; e  t  d 0
>
<
Swf x; 0 Swif x
>
>
>
: Swf 0; t 1
8
>
m dSdtwm qimb 0
>
>
<
hR
i
t
qimb 1  Swim m R0m 0 Swf x; e  t  d Swf
>
>
>
: S x; 0 S x
wm

wim

15
where the derivative of water cut
0

f wf Swf

Fig. 3. Imbibition process during water ooding.

o =w

o =w  1Swf 12

0
f wf Swf

can be written as
16

A program is crafted to solve the two-phase ow equation for

numerical analysis. The data applied in numerical calculation can
be referred in Table 1. Some dynamic parameters can be determined through this computing, including the fracture water
saturation Swf and the matrix water saturation Swm at different
times, as shown in Figs. 4 and 5.
According to the computing results, the average water saturation in fractures SAwf , the average water saturation in matrix SAwm ,
the water saturation at the outow end of fractures Swef, and the

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S. Gu et al. / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 120 (2014) 130140

Table 1
Parameters of dimensionless model and corresponding
values.
Parameter, label

Value

Ultimate recovery factor, R0

Matrix porosity, m
Fracture porosity, f
Initial fracture water saturation, Swif
Initial matrix water saturation, Swim
Oilwater viscosity ratio, o/w
Flow rate, W(t)

0.1
0.15
0.01
0
0.2
10
1

Fig. 4. Water saturation in fractures at different time. The dash line is Chen's (1982)
calculation, and the solid line is our calculation result.

water saturation at the outow end of matrix Swem can be

obtained. Here the average means that the values of saturation
distributed in the range of dimensionless length from 0 to 1 are
averaged. Once the above parameters are determined, the average
total water saturation in the normalized range can be obtained
according to Eqs. (1) and (9)(12), which is
nA
SwT

Fig. 5. Water saturation in matrix at different time: (a) the solid line is our
calculation result and (b) the dash line is Chen's (1982) calculation result.

f =m U SAwf SAwm =f =m 1  SwiT

SAwT  SwiT

1  SwiT  SorT
1  SwiT  SorT
17

Similarly, the total water saturation at the outow end in the

normalized range SnweT is
SnweT

f =m USwef Swem =f =m 1  SwiT

1  SwiT  SorT

18

A
Then the curve of SnweT vs. SnwT
is plotted in Fig. 6. Fig. 6 shows
that SnweT is zero before water breaks through, and the total water
saturation at water breakthrough time in the normalized range is
SnwBT , as displayed in Fig. 6. Since the water breaks through, SnweT
nA
and SwT
have a linear relationship. Compared with the calculation
data, the Welge equation data shows a non-linear relationship
since water breaks through. According to the calculation result of
nA
the SnweT vs. SwT
curve shown in Fig. 6, an approximate equation
can be established as follows:

8 n
< SweT 0;
n

: SweT

nA

SwT r SwBT

nA
SwT
 SnwBT
;
1  SnwBT

nA
SnwBT r SwT
r1

19

Fig. 6. Water saturation at out ow end in normalized range vs. average water
saturation in total by numerical calculation and Welge equation.

2.4. Fractional oil recovery and water cut

The total recovery factor in the matrix-fracture system is
RT

f 1  Swif Rf m 1 Swim Rm
f 1  Swif m 1  Swim

20

From Fig. 4, we can clearly see that the recovery factor in

fractures Rf rises to 1 when at time t 0.05. It means that Rf rises to

S. Gu et al. / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 120 (2014) 130140

still be used to generate the water ooding characteristic curve

by regression. Another feasible method is to select one classic
water ooding characteristic curve which can represent the
water ooding performance in such type of reservoirs. Once
the water ooding characteristic curve is conrmed, Eq. (22)
can be used for tting to determine the coefcients P19P27.
(2) By substituting different R0 values into Eq. (21), we have the
corresponding Rm
' values. Then substituting the corresponding
Rm
' value into Eq. (15), the corresponding value SnwBT can be
obtained.
(3) Substituting the parameters P19P27, R0 and the corresponding
value SnwBT into Eq. (26), a series of curves of fw vs. RT with R0
can be obtained, and the evaluation chart is plotted in Fig. 9.

1 in a short time. In this case, it can be seen as Rf 1. Therefore the

total ultimate recovery factor is
R0T

f 1  Swif m 1  Swim R0m

f 1  Swif m 1  Swim

21

According to the BuckleyLeverett theory and Eqs. (11) and

(12), the water cut is
f w SnweT

135

1
1 o =w U krw SnweT =kro SnweT
1

n2
n3
n4
p22U SweT
p23 U SweT
1 o =w U 1=p19 p20 U SnweT p21 U SweT
n5
n6
n7
n8
p24 U SweT
p25 U SweT
p26 U SweT
p27 U SweT

22
Then, applying the numerical solution to Eqs. (15) and (16), a
curve of fw vs. SnweT can be obtained. Here the curve can be named
the water ooding characteristic curve, since this curve can
characterize the water ooding performance of a reservoir. From
nA
Eq. (19), the relationship of SnweT vs. SwT
is known, and then the
nA
relationship of fw vs. SwT can also be obtained. However, we need
to investigate the relationship of fw vs. RT. The value of oil recovery
factor RT in total can be acquired by the following equation:
RT

SAwT  SwiT
1  SwiT

3.2. The application of eld case evaluation

There are two fractured basement reservoirs in an early stage of
water-ooding, shen625 and Biantai, located in Damintun Basin,
northeastern China. Three other mature water ood reservoirs of
the same type are nearby, named Jingbei, Jinganbu and Dongshengbu, as shown in Fig. 7, and the properties of these reservoirs
are as Table 2. Qitai (2000) summarized four frequently-used
water ooding characteristic curves, including the Sazpnov curve,
Cipachev curve, Maksimov curve and Nazalov curve, as demonstrated in Fig. 8. The data of the three mature waterood
reservoirs can be plotted in the same Figure. From the Fig. 8, we
observe that the Maksimov curve is the most approaching curve to
the curves of eld data. So it can be selected as the representative
curve of this type of reservoirs. Then the parameters can be
determined by using Eq. (22) for tting, which are as follows:
P11 3.702939, P12  20.2722, P13 39.83089, P14  20.7128, P15
 29.1592, P16 24.3778, P17 34.81122, P18 49.2859, P19
16.70984.

23

In addition, the ultimate recovery factor in total is

R0T

1  SwiT  SorT
1  SwiT

24

According to Eqs. (17), (23) and (24), we can know that

RT
SAwT  SwiT
nA
SwT
0
RT 1  SwiT  SorT

25

On the basis of Eqs. (19), (22) and (25), the equation of fw vs. RT
can be established
8R
T
r SnwBT ; f w RT 0
>
>
R0T
>
>
>
n
RT
>
>
>
> SwBT r R0T r1; f w RT 1 wo U 
<
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
:

p19 p20 U

p24 U

RT =R0T  SnwBT
n

1  SwBT

RT =R0T  SnwBT
1  SnwBT

5

p21 U

p25 U

1
1

RT =R0T  SnwBT
n

1  SwBT

RT =R0T  SnwBT
1  SnwBT

Finally, according to Eq. (26), the relationship between fw and

RT with different RT' is obtained.

6

2

p22 U

p26 U

RT =R0T  SnwBT
1  SnwBT

RT =R0T  SnwBT
1  SnwBT

7

p23 U

p27 U



RT =R0T  SnwBT 4
1  SnwBT


RT =R0T  SnwBT

26

8 

1  SnwBT

In the second step, different values of the ultimate recovery

factor RT are selected for calculation, which are 0.05, 0.1, 0.15, 0.2,

3. Computational procedure and application

3.1. Evaluation chart plotting process
The computational process has three steps
(1) The determination of a water ooding characteristic curve is
necessary. Here we provide a series of methods. The rst one is
to normalize the existing relative permeability curves of a core
sample, and then the parameters P19P27 can be determined
by tting. However, this method needs sufcient data.
Research shows that the number of relative permeability
curves should be more than twenty, which will be addressed
in Section 4. Otherwise, the result by insufcient data may not
be reliable. If the relative permeability curves are decient, the
production data from other reservoirs of the same type can

Fig. 7. The location of the ve fractured reservoirs in Damintun Basin, northeastern China.

136

S. Gu et al. / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 120 (2014) 130140

Fig. 10. Water saturation at breakthrough time with different recovery rates.

totally different, because reservoir simulation is a labor-intensive

and time-consuming work.
Fig. 8. The water ooding characteristic curves and eld data.

4. Discussions
4.1. Imbibition model

Fig. 9. Evaluation of two fractured reservoirs by our chart: (a) the solid curve is
eld data and (b) the dash curve is numerical simulation result.

According to Eq. (14) and Fig. 9, it can be known that the

recovery rate of a matrix-fracture reservoir depends on the
ultimate recovery factor of matrix. That is, the higher the matrix
recovery factor is, the stronger the imbibition is, and the more
slowly the water cut rises. In Chen's calculation, the parameter Rm
'
(ultimate recovery factor of matrix) is set to 0.1, but the variation
range of water saturation in matrix is from Swm 0.2 to Swm 0.88
at different time, as shown in Fig. 5(b). As a result, the ultimate
recovery factor of matrix Rm
' can reach 0.85, far beyond the
precondition Rm
' 0.1, which means that model is not selfconsistent. It can be seen that Chen and Liu (1982) miscalculated
the imbibition rate, which leads to over-ow of oil from matrix
and the numerical results mismatch the pre-condition. However,
our computing result presents that the variation range of water
saturation in matrix is from 0.2 to 0.28, so Rm
' cannot exceed
0.1. Hence a correct calculation of the imbibition rate is very
signicant.
4.2. Effect of injection rate and fracture distribution

0.25, 0.3, 0.35, 0.4, 0.45 and 0.5. The range ability of recovery rate
W(t) of the three reservoirs is from 0.018 PV/year to 0.022 PV/year,
where the average value 0.02 PV/year is selected. Then the
corresponding value SnwBT of the different ultimate recovery factor
can be determined. After the third step, the evaluation chart can
be obtained in Fig. 9.
The Shen625 oil reservoir is in a middle stage of recovery, but
its water cut rises dramatically in recent time, and the fw vs. R
curve approaches the R0 0.2 curve. It indicates that elddevelopment strategies need to be changed badly. Some measurements, including water-shutoff, reducing the choke size, new
perforation, and even adjustment in well pattern, need to be taken
for water-cut control. Otherwise, if the current eld-development
strategies are not changed, the ultimate recovery factor will
merely be around 20%, which is not a desired result. The situation
of the Biantai oil reservoir is similar to the case of Shen625, which
can achieve the ultimate recovery factor around 23%, as demonstrated in Fig. 9. As a contrast, we also use Petrel and Eclipse for
reservoir geomodelling and simulation; the dash lines in Fig. 9 are
the numerical predicting outcomes: 19.7% for shen625, 23.12% for
Biantai. The outcomes of numerical simulation do not appear
much different from those of our method. However, the cost is

From the result of calculation using different recovery rates, it

can be found from Fig. 10 that the curves of different injection
rates show obvious distinction in total water saturation at breakthrough time in the normalized range SnwBT , as Fig. 10 shows.
For an analysis of the post water breakthrough stage, the
relative permeability curves of two fractured core samples with
the same properties but different fracture distribution are tested,
as Fig. 11 shows. Then the fw vs. Sw plot are calculated by the
relative permeability curve on the basis of Eq. (22), as displayed in
Fig. 12. Sample (a) has joint fractures which connect the two ends
of core samples, while sample (b) has two disconnected fractures.
In the test, the differential pressure between the inow end and
the outow end is 0.1 MPa. Because of the different permeability
by fracture connectivity, the ow rates of two samples are
different. The ow rate of sample (a) is 0.04 PV/min, and that of
sample (b) is 0.13 PV/min.
From Fig. 12, the water cut of sample (b) rises dramatically at
rst and then the curve approaches the Sazpnov curve, while the
fw vs. Sw curve approaches the Maksimov curve and those of the
other three fractured reservoirs located in Damintun Basin, as
Fig. 8 shows. From the above observation, we draw the conclusion

S. Gu et al. / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 120 (2014) 130140

137

Fig. 11. Image and properties of core samples.

Fig. 13. Comparison of evaluation method: (a) the solid line is our chart (b) and the
dash line is Tong's chart.
Fig. 12. The water ooding characteristic curves, eld data and lab test data.

that the higher the recovery rate is, the faster the water cut rise
since water break through. To check this conclusion, eld data
from another three fractured reservoirs are plotted, which are
Renqiu reservoir (Qitai, 2000), Yanling reservoir and Casablanca
reservoir(Allan and Sun, 2003; Sun and Sloan, 2003), respectively.
The annual oil recovery rate of Yanling is 8% per year, that of
Renqiu is 1.6%, and that of Casablanca is 1.2%. As shown in Fig. 12,
the trend of eld data also proves the conclusion.
From the above analysis, it can be known that the fracture
distribution plays a signicant role in water performance as well.
However, the fracture distribution is uncertain everywhere. Then
we calculate the average curve calculated by 20 relative permeability curves of the three mature waterood reservoirs. As Fig. 12

shows, the average curve is close to the Maksimov curve, which

can represent the type of the reservoirs. That is why we recommend the number of relative permeability curves should be
more than twenty, because only one or two sample cores cannot
represent the features of the whole reservoir, such as the different
presentations of sample (a) and sample (b) in the relative
permeability test.

4.3. Comparison with Tong's method

Most of the classical methods, such as Tong's method (1988),
are based on the BuckleyLeverett theory, together with the
assumption of single porosity and no capillary pressure. The

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S. Gu et al. / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 120 (2014) 130140

Table 2
The main properties of the ve fractured reservoirs in Damintun Basin
Reservoir

Lithology

OOIP
(  109 kg)

Average permeability
(10  3 m)

Reservoir medium
depth (m)

Past producing
time (yr)

Producing oil
in total (  109 kg)

Dongshegnbu
Jinganbu
Jingbei
Shen625
Biantai

Metamorphic
Sandstone & Metamorphic
Carbonate
Sandstone & Metamorphic
Sandstone & Metamorphic

15.1
10.5
32.9
13.5
18.1

98.7
68.5
162
36.3
99.8

2840
2903
2725
3430
1975

24
12
23
7
11

3.9
1.3
7.1
1.4
1.89

It is also the main assumption that the plot of log (krw/kro) vs. Sw
is a straight line, as shown in Fig. 14. The real data of log (krw/kro)
vs. Sw n of matrix and fractures both have a straight line section.
Actually the log (krw/kro) vs. Sw lines of matrix and fractures in a
semi-log plot are not straight once water saturation in the
normalized range is close to 0, which are corresponding to the
early stage. That is why this method cannot work until the water
cut reaches 50%. Compared with the matrix, the real data of log
(krw/kro) vs. Sw n of the fractures has a shorter straight line. If the
straight line assumption is used to predict the ultimate recovery
factor of the fractures, the deviation of the fracture curve (krwf/krof)
is larger, as marked in Fig. 14. That is, the more the fractures are in
the reservoir, the shorter the straight line is for the curve of log
(krw/kro) vs. Sw n of the total matrix-fracture system. It illustrates
that the methods on the basis of the assumption of Eq. (28) are no
longer suitable to a highly fractured reservoir, due to the mismatch
of real data by the exponential form. Because of good tting, the
polynomial form becomes the choice, as Fig. 14 shows.
Fig. 14. Krof/Krom vs. Snw curve of matrix and fracture and their tting model.

5. Conclusions
empirical formula of Tong's method is as follows:
fw
7:5  R  R0 1:69
lg
1f w

27

Our method is based on a dual-porosity model and takes the

imbibition into consideration. The effect of imbibition is mainly
reected in the following aspects: in most matrix-fracture reservoirs without an aquifer, connate water in fractures cannot be a
continuous phase. If water can be a continuous phase, water ows
more easily so the capillary pressure can suck the water into
matrix until no free owing water is left in the fractures. Therefore, when reservoir recovery begins, oil in the fracture medium is
produced rst, and water cut is zero during that time. Tong's
chart (Fig. 13) shows that the connate water is an important factor
to the ultimately recovery rate. From his plot of statistics from 24
single porosity reservoirs, the initial water cut of these reservoirs
is symptomatic of connate water saturation. The higher the initial
water cut is, the higher the connate water saturation is. In
addition, the higher initial water cut also leads to a lower recovery
rate. So it is an apparent distinction of water performance between
matrix-fracture reservoirs and single porosity reservoirs. It is
also the reason why Tong's method is not suitable for water-wet
fractured reservoirs.

4.4. Comparison with X-plot approach

Ershaghi and Omorigie (1978) and Ershaghi and Abdassah
(1984) developed the X-plot waterood-analysis method on the
basis of a semi-log linear relative permeability ratio for intermediate saturation values
krw Swe
Ae  BSwe
kro Swe

28

(1) To develop the new method for evaluation of the water ooding
performance in fractured reservoirs, some unique features of
water-wet matrix-fracture reservoirs must be taken into consideration, such as the imbibition process and dual-porosity.
These features will lead to an obvious distinction in the fractured
reservoir water ooding performance. In addition, the recovery
rate also has some effects on water ooding performance.
(2) To study a matrix-fracture reservoir, a dual-porosity model is a
common method. But numerous operations and parameters
make the model hard to be used in simulation directly. The
pseudo relative permeability and saturation average can be a
solution to this problem.
(3) In application of the modied imbibition model, the imbibition ow rate can be related to the ultimate recovery factor. It
provides a way to evaluate water ooding performance and
estimate the potential of a reservoir by using the ultimate
recovery factor. A different ultimate recovery factor yields a
different water cut curve in a matrix-fracture reservoir. Thus
the data of water cut with the recovery rate can be used for
judging how much the ultimate recovery factor can nally be.
(4) From the comparison with numerical simulation, our method
is a faster and easier tool which can provide reliable results.
Compared with the classical methods, such as Tong's method
and the X-plot method, our method takes more unique
features of water-wet fractured reservoirs. So it is more
suitable to the fractured reservoirs.

Acknowledgments
The authors are grateful for nancial support from National Science and Technology Major Project (Grant No. 2011ZX05009-004-001)

S. Gu et al. / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 120 (2014) 130140

of China, The National Natural Science Foundation (Grant No.

51374222) of China and China Scholarship Council.

Appendix A. Pseudo relative permeability and normalized

saturation
In the dual porosity model (as Fig. 1), the total permeability kT
is (Van Golf-Racht, 1982)
b
kT kf km kf f km kf f f km
h

A:1

where the total means the saturation in the whole porous medium
system including both matrix and fractures. The water ow rate in
total is
 
kT UkrwT SnweT Uh dP
A:2
qwT 
dx
w U L
The water ow rate in the fracture system is
 
 
kf Ukrwf Snwef U h dP
kf f Ukrwf Snwef Ub dP
qwf 

dx
dx
w UL
w U L
The water ow rate in the matrix system is
 
km Ukrwm Snwem U h  b dP
qwm 
dx
w UL

qimb t 1 1  Swim m R0m Swf t o e  t 1  to

qimb t 2 1  Swim m R0m Swf t o e  t 2  to

1  Swim m R0m Swf t 1  Swf t o e  t 2  t1

kf f =km Uf =m 1

qimb t B 1  Swim m R0m Swf t o e  t B  to

1  Swim m R0m Swf t 2  Swf t 1 e  tB  t 2
:::
1  Swim m R0m Swf t n  1  Swf t n  2 e  t B  tn  1

A:4

A:6

Because of the incompressibility assumption, the volume conservation equation is

V wT V wf V wm

B:5

Then the water injection continues until the water breaks

through, and the time at water breakthrough is tB. We assume
that the time from 0 to tB is divided into n sections. The ow rate
at the water breakthrough time tB is

B:6

Eq. (B.6) can also be written as follows:

qimb t B
1  Swim m R0m

A:5

kf f =km Uf =m Ukrwf Snwef krwm Snwem

B:4

After a period of time t, the newly injected water touches cell

A. Meanwhile, the water that contacted cell A now ows to the
fracture area near beside cell B. Cell B obeys the same rule as cell A,
but water becomes less and less because some water has been
imbibed into cell A. Hence the imbibition ow rate in the fractures
at time t2 is

A:3

Thus, the pseudo relative permeability of water in the normalized range is

krwT SnweT

contacts it. Hence the imbibition ow rate in fractures at time t1 is

1  Swim m R0m Swf t 1  Swf t o e  t B  t1

According to the mass balance, we have the total water ow

rate
qwT qwf qwm

139

)


d
Swf t i  e  tB  t
t i Swf t n  1 e  tB  tn  1
dt
i0
t t i t i
n2

B:7
where t0 0, ti ti 1  ti, and 0 r r1. If n-1, ti-0 and ti is
replaced by the characteristic time , then our modication model
is
qimb x; y; z; t B


Z
1  Swim m R0m Swf x; y; z; t B 

tB
0

Swf x; y; z; e  tB  d

B:8

A:7

Then it can be expanded as follows:

V T U m f USwT V T U f U Swf V T U m U Swm

A:8

Thus the total water saturation is obtained

SwT

f =m U Swf Swm
f =m 1

Supplementary data associated with this article can be found in

the online version at http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.petrol.2014.06.002.
A:9
References

Appendix B. Imbibition ow model

We have Aronofsky's model
Rm R0m 1  e  t

B:1

According to Eq. (B.1), the dimensionless cumulative oil production at time t is

Q o t 1  Swim m R0m 1  e  t

B:2

With respect to the effect of variation of saturation in fractures,

the imbibition rate is
qimb t

dQ o t
1 Swim m R0m e  t
dt

Appendix C. Supplementary information

B:3

where the matrix blocks can be divided into many cells, such as
cell A and cell B, as displayed in Fig. 3.
Once the injected water enters into the fracture-matrix medium, the imbibition process begins. During the water ooding
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