Chapter Outline
▪ Introduction
▪ Reservoir drive mechanisms
▪ General MBE for oil reservoirs
▪ MBE applications in history matching
▪ MBE applications in production prediction of oil reservoirs
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Introduction
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Reservoir Drive Mechanisms
Solution Gas Drive
Gas Cap Drive
Water Drive
Gravity drainage drive
Combination drive
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Reservoir Energy Sources
Liberation, expansion of solution gas
Influx of aquifer water
Expansion of reservoir rock
Expansion of original reservoir fluids
– Free gas
– Connate water
– Oil
Gravitational forces
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Solution-Gas Drive in Oil Reservoirs
Oil
producing
wells
Oil
A. Original Condition
Oil
producing
wells
B. 50% Depleted
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Solution-Gas Drive in Oil Reservoirs
Formation of a Secondary Gas Cap
Wellbore
Secondary
gas cap
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Gas-Cap Drive in Oil Reservoirs
Oil producing well
Oil Oil
zone Gas cap zone
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Water Drive in Oil Reservoirs
Edgewater Drive
Oil producing well
Oil Zone
Water Water
Cross Section
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Water Drive in Oil Reservoirs
Bottomwater Drive
Oil producing well
Oil Zone
Water
Cross Section
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Gravity Drainage Drive in Oil Reservoirs
Gas
Gas
Oil
Gas
Oil Point C
Point B
Oil
Point A
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Combination Drive in Oil Reservoirs
Gas cap
Oil zone
Water
Cross Section
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Pressure and Gas/Oil Ratio Trends
100
80 Water drive
60
Reservoir pressure,
Percent of original
40
Gas-cap drive
20
0
Solution
-gas drive
0 20 40 60 80 100
Cumulative oil produced, percent of original oil in place
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Quiz
How can we identify different reservoir drive mechanisms?
Rank in descending order typical reservoir drive mechanisms in
terms of efficiency
How does knowledge about reservoir drive mechanisms help us
in designing an oil field development plan?
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Material Balance Equation (MBE)
An Overview of MBE
Generalized Material Balance Equation
MBE for Typical Oil Reservoirs
Applications of MBE
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Quiz for MBE
Why do it?
Basic Principles
Data available for performing material balance
Derivation of the material balance equation
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An Overview of MBE
First developed by Schilthuis in 1936, MBE is considered to be
a tool for:
predicting future reservoir performance
adjusting OOIP/OGIP with historical production data
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Fundamentals of MBE
MBE is derived using the following assumptions:
Reservoir
Volume of Pore
Bulk Constant
Rock Matrix Volume
Volume
The pore volume is fully occuppied by existing fluid components (oil, gas, water)
The reservoir is homogenuous and isotropic (zero-dimensional)
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General MBE (GMBE)
GMBE is an MBE that can be applied to all reservoir
types;
MBE for a particular type of reservoir can be derived
from the GMBE by removing nonexistent terms.
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Tank Model
INITIAL GAS-CAP GAS
CURRENT GAS-CAP GAS
RELEASED GAS
INJECTED GAS
INITIAL OIL
REMAINING OIL
INJECTED WATER
NET WATER INFLUX
EXPANDING CONATE
CONATE WATER WATER
ROCK (MATRIX) EXPANDING ROCK MATRIX
Initial Condition Current Condition
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Assumptions in MBE
Pressure
– The MB equation is the tank model. Pressure is constant throughout the
reservoir at any time. An average pressure has to be selected to represent
fluid properties.
Temperature
– Changes in a reservoir take place at a constant temperature, or
isothermal.
Production rate
– Time has no part in MBE.
Representative PVT data
– PVT measurements should be made or calculated to reflect behavior in
the reservoir
Good production data essential
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Basic Principles MB for Oil Reservoirs
Expanding
Bubble Gas Cap
point
Liquid shrinking
Undersaturated due to liberation
oil of dissolved gas
p1 > p2 > p3 > p4
Initial gas cap Expanded gas cap
Oil Expanded of oil +
dissolved gas
+
dissolved
Reduction in PV due to
gas increased grain packing
and connate water
expansion
Pinitial > P
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Derivation of GMBE
Volume of Volume of
Initial Gas Cap Volume of Remaining Free Gas
Injected Gas
Volume of
Initial Oil Volume of Remaining Oil
Volume of Volume of Volume of
Volume of
Conate Water Expanding Injected
Water Influx
Conate Water Water
Volume of
Rock Matrix Volume of Expanding Rock Matrix
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Alternative method for deriving MBE
Withdrawal = Expansion of oil+originally
(rb) dissolved gas (B) (rb)
Gas cap A
+ Expansion of gas-cap gas (A)(rb) Oil +
C B
+ Reduction in PV due to dissolved
gas
expansion of connate water
and tighter grain packing (C)(rb) Pinitial > P
NOTE that the volume balance is written in terms of fluid at
reservoir conditions or as underground withdrawal and fluid
expansion.
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The General Material Balance Equation
Symbols Terms Symbols Terms
∆𝑝 Change in reservoir pressure, psi 𝐵 Oil formation volume factor, bbl/STB
𝑁 Initial (original) oil-in-place, STB 𝐵 Initial gas formation volume factor, bbl/scf
𝐺 Initial gas-cap gas, scf 𝐵 Gas formation volume factor, bbl/scf
𝑁 Cumulative oil produced, STB 𝑊 Cumulative water injected, STB
𝐺 Cumulative gas produced, scf 𝐺 Cumulative gas injected, scf
𝑊 Cumulative water produced, bbl 𝑊 Cumulative water influx, bbl
𝑅 Cumulative gas-oil ratio, scf/STB 𝑐 Water compressibility, psi-1
𝑅 Initial gas solubility, scf/STB 𝑐 Formation (rock) compressibility, psi-1
Ratio of initial gas-cap gas reservoir to initial
𝑅 Gas solubility, scf/STB 𝑚
reservoir oil volume, bbl/bbl
Initial oil formation volume factor,
𝐵
bbl/STB
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Quiz
Derive the equation for the pore volume of the reservoir
Derive the equations for water and rock matrix
expansions
Derive the equation for the initial gas in the reservoir
Derive the equation for the remaining free gas in the
reservoir
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Quiz
Derive the MB equations by filling in the blanks:
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Quiz
Expansion of the oil + liberated gas
Two components:
1. Expansion of oil:
Initial Oil = (stb)
Initial oil at reservoir conditions = (rb)
Volume of oil at reduced pressure p = (rb)
Net oil expansion = (rb)
2. Expansion of liberated gas:
Gas dissolved at initial condition = (scf)
Gas dissolved at reduced pressure p = (scf)
Liberated gas = (scf)
Volume of gas at reservoir conditions = (rb)
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Quiz
Volume change due to expansion of oil and liberated gas:
= (rb)
Let us consider a material balance accounting for just this
volume change term (ignoring gas cap expansion, water
influx or pore volume reduction):
Withdrawl:
Amount of oil produced = (stb)
Oil produced at reservoir conditions = (rb)
Volume of gas produced = (scf)
Let us look at this quantity of gas at the reduced pressure p
Volume of gas dissolved in Np vol. of oil at p = (scf)
Remainder gas is the subsurface gas withdrawl in the form of
expanding liberated gas and expanding free gas
Subsurface withdrawl of gas = (scf)
Subsurface withdrawl of gas in reservoir bbls = (rb)
4/19/2023 Dr. Mai Cao Lân, Faculty of Geology & Petroleum Engineering, HCMUT, Vietnam 369
MBE for Volumetric Oil Reservoirs
For oil reservoirs without any injected/influx fluids,
the MBE can be simplified as follow:
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A Further Simplified MBE
For a saturated oil reservoir with no initial gas cap and
negligible expansion of rock and connate water, the MBE can
be further simplified as follow:
N p Bo Rs Bg G p Bg
N
Bo Boi Rsi Rs Bg
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MBE Application for Reservoir
Production Forecast
1 n N 1p g G1p
Calculate N 1,i i 1
Set (from Calculate p
n R g
Assume ΔN1,i→i+1p and
to ) and ( )
ΔG1,i→i+1p G1,p i i 1 N 1,p i i 1 R
Bo Rs Bg
n
( Bo Boi ) (R si Rs ) Bg
Bg
g
( Bo Boi ) (R si Rs ) Bg
NO
Calculate Calculate the Calculate the
Calculate
N1,i+1p and oil saturation average solution ( ) ( )
and
G1,i+1p gas/oil ratio ( )
(4.8455 S g 0.301)
G 1,i 1
G G
1,i 1,i i 1
Bo kro 10 krg o Bo
p p p
So (1 S w )(1 N 1p ) krg 0.730678S g 1.892 R Rs
1,i 1 1,i i 1
Boi kro g Bg
N N N
1,i
S g 1 So S wi
p p p YES
Using the Excel’s SOLVER to End
solve the problem
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MBE Application for Reservoir
Production Forecast
N N po Gp g
Bo Rs Bg Bg
o g
Bo Boi Rsi Rs Bg Bo Boi Rsi Rs Bg
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MBE Application for Reservoir
Production Forecast
Consider the cumulative oil and gas production associated
with 1 STB of initial oil in place, one has
Np Gp
1 o g
N N
Let Np1 and Gp1 be the cumulative production of oil and gas
associated with 1 STB of the original oil in place. Our MBE is
then written as follow:
1 N 1p o G1p g
4/19/2023 Dr. Mai Cao Lân, Faculty of Geology & Petroleum Engineering, HCMUT, Vietnam 374
MBE Application for Reservoir
Production Forecast
The oil and gas productions cumulated from ti to ti+1 can be
expressed using the incremental productions as follows:
N 1,p i 1 N 1,p i N 1,p i i 1 G1,p i 1 G1,p i G1,p i i 1
The incremental MBE can be then expressed as follow:
1 N 1,p i N 1,p i i 1 o G1,p i R N 1,p i i 1 g
where G1,p i i 1
R
N 1,p i i 1
1,4500 4100
N 1,4100
p N 1,4500
p N p
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Exercise
Predict the cumulative production of oil and gas associated with 1 STB of the original
oil in place for each reservoir pressure interval given in the table below. The
reservoir is produced from the bubble point pressure to abandonment reservoir
pressure of 2500 psi. The reservoir is assumed to be volumetric and oil saturated
without initial gas-cap gas. The connate water saturation is Swi = 20% and it is
assumed that no water is produced on the surface. The relative permeability to the oil
and gas phase are given as follows:
Reservoir pressure Bo Bg Rs µg
psia rb/stb rb/scf rb/scf cp
4500 1.2 6.90E-04 840 0.01
4300 1.195 7.10E-04 820 0.01
4100 1.19 7.40E-04 770 0.01
3900 1.185 7.80E-04 730 0.01
3700 1.18 8.10E-04 680 0.01
3500 1.175 8.50E-04 640 0.01
3300 1.17 8.90E-04 600 0.01
- 3100 1.165 9.30E-04 560 0.01
2900 1.16 9.80E-04 520 0.01
2700 1.155 1.00E-03 480 0.01
2500 1.15 1.10E-03 440 0.01
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