Reservoir Engineering 2

EE053-3-2-RE2 / VE1

Drive Index
 TOPIC & STRUCTURE OF THE
LESSON

• MBE and reservoir driving mechanism

• Explain and draw GOR, Pr, Np, and
water cut vs time for solution gas drive,
gas cap drive and water drive
• Solve combination drive indexes
reservoir

EE053-3-2-Reservoir Engineering 2 Ch5-Drive Index Slide 2

 LEARNING OUTCOMES

• At the end of this topic, YOU should be

able to:
– Interpret the reserve estimation based on
fundamentals of material balance
equation. (C3, PLO1)

EE053-3-2-Reservoir Engineering 2 Ch5-Drive Index Slide 3

 KEY TERMS YOU MUST BE ABLE
TO USE

• If you have mastered this topic, you should be able

to use the following terms correctly in your
assessments: -
– Depletion Drive Index
– Segregation Drive Index
– Water Drive Index
– Compaction Drive

EE053-3-2-Reservoir Engineering 2 Ch5-Drive Index Slide 4

 Introduction

• Drive index is used to assess the relative strength of drive

mechanism.

• It is also used to estimate the fraction of total production

attributed to each mechanism.

EE053-3-2-Reservoir Engineering 2 Ch5-Drive Index Slide 5

 MBE and Reservoir Drive Mechanism

• In many cases, reservoir have a predominant main type

of drive mechanism:

• These are:
– Solution gas drive (Depletion drive)
– Gas cap drive (Segregation drive)
– Natural water drive
– Compaction drive (Expansion of rock-liquid drive)
– Gravity drainage

EE053-3-2-Reservoir Engineering 2 Ch5-Drive Index Slide 6

 • Each drive mechanism has certain typical performance characteristics
in terms of:
– Recovery factor (RF)
– Pressure decline
– Gas-oil-ratio (GOR)
– Water production

EE053-3-2-Reservoir Engineering 2 Ch5-Drive Index Slide 7

 Solution Gas Drive

• A solution gas drive reservoir is one in which the principal

drive mechanism is the expansion of the oil and its originally
dissolved gas.

• The increase in fluid volume during the process is equivalent

to the production.

• Ultimate recovery 5 – 30%

EE053-3-2-Reservoir Engineering 2 Ch5-Drive Index Slide 8

EE053-3-2-Reservoir Engineering 2 Ch5-Drive Index Slide 9
 Production of Solution Gas Drive
Reservoir

EE053-3-2-Reservoir Engineering 2 Ch5-Drive Index Slide 10

EE053-3-2-Reservoir Engineering 2 Ch5-Drive Index Slide 11
 Gas cap Drive

• Gas cap drive reservoirs can be identified by the presence of

a gas cap with little or no natural water influx.

• Due to the ability of the gas cap to expand, these reservoirs

are characterized by a slow decline in the reservoir pressure.

• The natural energy available to produce the crude oil comes

from the following two sources:
– Expansion of the gas cap
– Expansion of the solution gas as it is liberated

• Ultimate recovery 20 – 40%

EE053-3-2-Reservoir Engineering 2 Ch5-Drive Index Slide 12

EE053-3-2-Reservoir Engineering 2 Ch5-Drive Index Slide 13
EE053-3-2-Reservoir Engineering 2 Ch5-Drive Index Slide 14
 Water Drive

• A drop in the reservoir pressure, due to the production of

fluids causes the aquifer water to expand and flow into the
reservoir, leading to a very gradual decline in reservoir
pressure.

• It is common to speak of edge water or bottom water in

discussing water influx into a reservoir.

• Bottom water occurs directly beneath the oil and edge water
occurs off the flanks of the structure at the edge of the oil.

• Ultimate recovery can be in range of 35 to 75%.

EE053-3-2-Reservoir Engineering 2 Ch5-Drive Index Slide 15

EE053-3-2-Reservoir Engineering 2 Ch5-Drive Index Slide 16
EE053-3-2-Reservoir Engineering 2 Ch5-Drive Index Slide 17
 Gravity Drainage Drive

• Factors that influence effectiveness of gravity drainage:

– Relative density of the fluids
– Vertical permeability
– Fractures reservoirs
– Relatively high dipping of formation bed
– Less oil viscosity

• If these factors are favorable, oil recovery could be up to

80%!

EE053-3-2-Reservoir Engineering 2 Ch5-Drive Index Slide 18

 Compaction Drive

• Withdrawal of liquids or gas from a reservoir can result in a

reduction in the fluid pressure and thus in an increase in
effective grain pressure.

• Compaction drive is the expulsion of reservoir fluids due to

the dynamic reduction of the pore volume.

• It will only be significant if the pore compressibility is large

(shallow reservoirs).

EE053-3-2-Reservoir Engineering 2 Ch5-Drive Index Slide 19

EE053-3-2-Reservoir Engineering 2 Ch5-Drive Index Slide 20
 General MBE

EE053-3-2-Reservoir Engineering 2 Ch5-Drive Index Slide 21

 • Re-arranging the equation gives:

The above equation can be abbreviated and expressed as:

EE053-3-2-Reservoir Engineering 2 Ch5-Drive Index Slide 22

 • The four terms of the left-hand side of the previous equation
represent the major primary driving mechanisms by which oil may
be recovered from oil reservoirs. These driving forces are:
– Depletion Drive. Depletion drive is the oil recovery mechanism wherein the
production of the oil from its reservoir rock is achieved by the expansion of the
original oil volume with all its original dissolved gas. This driving mechanism is
represented mathematically by:

– Segregation Drive. Segregation drive (gas-cap drive) is the mechanism

wherein the displacement of oil from the formation is accomplished by the
expansion of the original free gas cap. This driving force is described by:

EE053-3-2-Reservoir Engineering 2 Ch5-Drive Index Slide 23

 – Water Drive. Water drive is the mechanism wherein the
displacement of the oil is accomplished by the net encroachment of
water into the oil zone. This mechanism is represented by:

– Expansion Drive. For undersaturated oil reservoirs with no water

influx, the principle source of energy is a result of the rock and fluid
expansion. Where all the other three driving mechanisms are
contributing to the production of oil and gas from the reservoir, the
contribution of the rock and fluid expansion to the oil recovery is
too small and essentially negligible and can be ignored.

EDI = 1 – SDI – DDI – WDI

EE053-3-2-Reservoir Engineering 2 Ch5-Drive Index Slide 24
 • If magnitude of an index is reduced, then other indexes increases.
• Reservoir should be operated to yield a maximum water drive and
minimum depletion drive or gascap indexes.
• Depletion drive is the most inefficient drive.
• Drive mechanisms continuously change over production life, and thus, the
Pirson’s correlation must be periodically checked.
• Reducing oil rate leads to increased water drive index & reduced
depletion drive index.
• A reservoir with weak water drive but has a large gas cap will have gas
cap drive as the most efficient drive. Need to maintain it by reinjection of
produced gas.
• Low vertical permeability might limit gas cap expansion.
• Gas coning will reduce the effectiveness of gas cap expansion drive.
• The higher the gas production rate, the greater the coning.

EE053-3-2-Reservoir Engineering 2 Ch5-Drive Index Slide 25

 A producing well with no coning A producing well subject to gas and
water coning

EE053-3-2-Reservoir Engineering 2 Ch5-Drive Index Slide 26

 Example 1
A combination-drive reservoir contains 10 MMSTB of oil initially in place. The ratio
of the original gas-cap volume to the original oil volume, i.e., m, is estimated as
0.25. The initial reservoir pressure is 3000 psia at 150°F. The reservoir produced 1
MMSTB of oil, 1100 MMscf of 0.8 specific gravity gas, and 50,000 STB of water by
the time the reservoir pressure dropped to 2800 psi. The following PVT is available:

The following data are also available:

Swi = 0.20 cw = 1.5 × 10−6 psi−1 cf = 1 × 10−6 psi−1

Calculate:
a) Primary driving indexes at 2800 psi

EE053-3-2-Reservoir Engineering 2 Ch5-Drive Index Slide 27

 Calculate parameter A

A = N p éëBt + ( Rp - Rsi ) Bg ùû = 106 éë1.6655+ (1100 -1040) 0.00092ùû = 1, 710, 000

Calculate drive indexes

Conclusions
- 43.85% of the recovery was obtained by depletion drive
- 34.65% by gas cap drive
- 21.12% by water drive
- 0.38% by connate water and rock expansion (can be neglected in the
presence of a gas cap or when the pressure of reservoir drops below the
bubble point pressure)
EE053-3-2-Reservoir Engineering 2 Ch5-Drive Index Slide 28
 Exercise 1
To calculate the stock tank barrels of oil initially in place
in a combination drive reservoir.
Given: Volume of bulk oil zone = 112,000 ac.ft.
Volume of bulk gas zone = 19,600 ac.ft.
initial reservoir pressure = 2710 psia = pi
initial FVF = 1.340 bbl/STB = Bti
initial gas volume factor = 0.006266 cu.ft/SCF= Bgi
initial dissolved GOR = 562 SCF/STB= Rsoi
oil produced during the interval = 20 MM STB = Np
reservoir pressure at the end of the interval = 2000 psia = P
Average produced GOR = 700 SCF/STB = Rp
Two-phase FVF at 2000 psia = 1.4954 bbl/STB = Bt
Volume of water encroached = 11.58 MM bbl = We
Volume of water produced = 1.05 MM STB = Wp
Ans: 98.97 MMSTB
FVF of the water = 1.028 bbl/STB = Bw
Gas volume factor at 2000 Ch5-Drive
EE053-3-2-Reservoir Engineering 2
psia =Index0.008479 cu.ft/SCF = Bg
Slide 29
 Exercise 2
Explain what is happening to drive mechanism for a combination drive reservoir as
shown below:

EE053-3-2-Reservoir Engineering 2 Ch5-Drive Index Slide 30

 QUICK REVIEW QUESTIONS

• How many drive indexes are there?

• List down all drive indexes

EE053-3-2-Reservoir Engineering 2 Ch5-Drive Index Slide 31

 SUMMARY OF MAIN TEACHING
POINTS

• Reservoir main mechanism

– Solution gas drive (depletion drive)
– Gas cap drive (segregation drive)
– Natural water drive
– Compaction drive (expansion of rock-liquid drive)
– Gravity drainage
• Plot GOR, Pr, Np, and water cut vs time for solution gas
drive, gas cap drive and water drive
• Solve combination drive indexes reservoir
– DDI
– SDI
– WDI
– EDI
EE053-3-2-Reservoir Engineering 2 Ch5-Drive Index Slide 32
 QUESTION AND ANSWER
SESSION

Q&A

EE053-3-2-Reservoir Engineering 2 Ch5-Drive Index Slide 33

 WHAT WE WILL COVER NEXT

• Chapter 6 – Waterflooding

EE053-3-2-Reservoir Engineering 2 Ch5-Drive Index Slide 34