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PublisherAmerican Petroleum InstituteLanguageEnglish
Document ID 47-080
Content TypeConference Paper
TitleWater Flooding In Haynesville Field, Louisiana
AuthorsP. S. Ervin, Haynesville Operators Committee
SourceDrilling and Production Practice, 1947
Copyright1947. American Petroleum Institute
PreviewABSTRACT
The Haynesville Pettit lime reservoir underlines a surface area of 14,500 acres. The upper Pettit section is a relatively thin and uniform oolitic lime except for a thin shale break covering approximately two-thirds of the field and separating the upper Pettit into two porous sections. Geological data indicate the reservoir to be a sealed stratigraphic trap. From the production history, bottom-hole sample analyses, and pressure data, it has been determined that it is a solution gas-drive reservoir. Recoveries under natural production methods are estimated to be 18 to 20 Per cent. Recoveries under pressure-maintenance operations, with central injection of 80 per cent of the produced gas, have been estimated to be not over 30 per cent of the original reserves. Experimental water-flooding operations, commenced in March 1946, indicate that a minimum of 37 per cent of the original reserves can be recovered under such operations with no water production and assuming coverage of 100 per cent of the field. It is concluded that water-flooding operations can be economically conducted in fields of 40- to 80-acre well spacing, provided injection capacities are sufficient, provided that a single line-drive pattern as contemplated for the Haynesville upper Pettit will give economic results, and provided the field is still producing economically in the primary stage. Increased daily production of large quantities of oil directly attributable to the water-flooding program will occur when the water flood becomes a linear system. The pressure-maintenance program will provide energy for lifting the large quantities of additional oil to be recovered as a direct result of the water-flooding operations.

INTRODUCTION

Numerous water-flooding projects have been successfully operated in shallow sand fields of small spacing. However, to our knowledge, no projects have previously been instituted in a lime reservoir originally under solution-gas drive and currently under pressure-maintenance operations through central injection of produced gas. It is the purpose of this paper to present a review of the results obtained since March 1946 by experimental water-flooding operations conducted in the Haynesville upper Pettit lime reservoir, which is of the type mentioned previously. Injection histories, injection capacity tests, bottom-hole pressure, production history data, and results of potentiometric model study were used in the preparation of this report in order to arrive at the conclusions presented. The Haynesville Pettit lime field produced from November 1941 to May 1, 1944 under individual-company operation. At the beginning of 1943, when the type of recovery mechanism had been determined, discussions were started among the operators as to the feasibility of pressure-maintenance operations by gas injection and as to a basis for unitization of the Pettit lime reservoir. By May 1, 1944 a majority of 22 operators, both companies and individuals, and a majority of the acreage percentage of more than 1,400 royalty owners had signed the \"Haynesville Unitization and Pressure- Maintenance Agreement\"; and on this date, after public hearings in Louisiana and Arkansas, the Department of Conservation of Louisiana and the Arkansas Oil and Gas Commission issued appropriate orders unitizing the respective portions of the Pettit lime field in Louisiana and Arkansas.
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