Skip to main content

Relationship between Azimuths of Flood Anisotropy and Local Earth Stresses in Oil Reservoirs

  • Conference paper

Abstract

Theoretical models have recently opened up the possibility that extensive induced rock fracturing can accompany many normal oilfield waterfloods, particularly in some North Sea reservoirs. Additionally, multiple sets of natural fractures in flooded reservoirs are likely to have anisotropy in conductivity governed partly by local earth stresses. If fracturing were implicitly involved in the processes of fluid movement through a reservoir, then one could anticipate a relationship between the preferred direction of water movement in a flood and the azimuth of local maximum horizontal principal stress. Modern-day earth stress orientation data are sparse, but coherent trends are apparent from published measurements across North America and a growing number of measurements in North Sea wells.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Buying options

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD   109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  • Alexander, W.G. (1986). Geologic controls on producibility at Clear Creek field, Uinta County, Wyoming. Presented at the 61st Annual Meeting of the Society of Petroleum Engineers, New Orleans, October 1986, SPE 15528.

    Google Scholar 

  • Aydin, A. and Johnson, A.M. (1983). Analysis of faulting in porous sandstones. Struct. Geol. 5 (1), 19–31.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barfield, E.C., Jordan, J.K. and Moore, W.D. (1959). An analysis of large-scale flooding in the fractured Spraberry Trend area reservoir. J. Petroleum Technol. 11 (4) 15–19.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bell, J.S. and Babcock, E.A. (1986). The stress regime of the Western Canadian basin and implications for hydrocarbon production. Bull. Can. Petroleum Geol. 34 (3), 364–378.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bell, J.S. and Gough, D.I. (1981). Intraplate stress orientations from Alberta oil-wells. In: O’Connell, R.J. and Fyfe, W.S. (eds), Evolution of the Earth. American Geophysical Union and Geological Society of America, Geodynamics Series, Vol. 5, pp. 94–104.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bolling, J.D. (1985). A full field model study of the East Velma West Block Sims Sand Unit reservoir. J. Petroleum Technol. 37 (9), pp. 1429–1440.

    Google Scholar 

  • Budding, M.C. et al. (1988). Probabilistic modelling of discontinuous reservoirs. Proceedings Indonesian Petroleum Association Seventeenth Annual Convention, October 1988, paper IPA 88–21.04.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carnes, P.S. (1966). Effects of natural fractures or directional permeability in water flooding. Society of Petroleum Engineers of American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical, and Petroleum Engineers. North Texas Section seventh biennial secondary recovery symposium, preprints pp. 17–24, paper SPE1423.

    Google Scholar 

  • Craig, F.F., Jr. (1971). The reservoir engineering aspects of waterflooding. Society of Petroleum Engineers American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical, and Petroleum Engineers, Monographs, Vol. 3, Henry L. Doherty series.

    Google Scholar 

  • Crampin, S. and Atkinson, B.K. (1985). Microcracks in the Earth’s crust. First Break 3, 16–20.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dikken, B.J. and Niko, H. (1987). Waterflood-induced fractures: a simulation study of their propagation and effects on waterflood sweep efficiency. Presented at Offshore Europe ′87, Aberdeen, September, 1987, SPE 16551.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dusseault, M.B. (1985). Fluid injection design to preclude induced shear failure of formations. Presented at the 36th Annual Technical Meeting of the Petroleum Society of Canadian institute of Mining, Edmonton, June 1985, paper 85–36–6.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dyes, A.B. and Johnston, O.C. (1953). Spraberry permeability from build-up curve analyses. Petroleum Trans. Am. Inst. Mining, Metall. Petroleum Eng. 198, 135–138.

    Google Scholar 

  • Elkins, L.F. and Skov, A.M. (1962). Large scale waterflood performance, Sprayberry Field, West Texas. Presented at the 37th Annual Meeting of the Society of Petroleum Engineers of the American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical and Petroleum Engineers in Los Angeles, October, 1962, SPE 405.

    Google Scholar 

  • Elkins, L.F., Skov, A.M. and Gould, R.C. (1968). Progress report on Spraberry waterflood-reservoir performance, well stimulation and water treating and handling. J. Petroleum Technol. 20 1039–1049.

    Google Scholar 

  • Evans, R.C. (1987). An investigation into the influence of common sedimentary structures and diagenesis on permeability, heterogeneity and anisotropy in selected sands and sandstones. Society of Petroleum Engineers unsolicited paper number SPE 17130.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fehler, M., House, L. and Kaieda, H. (1987). Determining planes along which earthquakes occur: method and application to earthquakes accompanying hydraulic fracturing. J. Geophys. Res., 92 (B9), 9407–9414.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Garon, A.M., Lin, C.Y. and Dunayevsky, V.A. (1988). Simulation of thermally-induced waterflood fracturing in Prudhoe Bay. Presented at the Society of Petroleum Engineers California Regional Meeting, Long Beach, California, March 1988, SPE 17417.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goggin, D.J. et al. (1988). Patterns of permeability in eolian deposits: Page sandstone (Jurassic), Northeastern Arizona. SPE Formation Evaluation 3 (2), 297–306.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Harper, T.R. and Last, N.C. (1989). Interpretation by numerical modelling of changes of fracture system hydraulic conductivity induced by fluid injection. Geotechnique 39 (1), 1–11.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jaeger, J.C. and Cook, N.G.W. (1979). Fundamentals of Rock Mechanics (3rd edn.). Chapman and Hall, London.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Janot, P., Gauer, P. and Gross, E. (1988). Orientation de la contrainte tectonique dans l’Europe de l’Ouest a partir des ovalisations de trous de forages. Revue de l’Institute Francais du Petrole 43 (4), 517–521.

    Google Scholar 

  • Klein, R.J. and Barr, M.V. (1986). Regional state of stress in Western Europe. In: Proceedings of the International Symposium on Rock Stress and Rock Stress Measurements, Stockholm, September, 1986, pp. 33–44.

    Google Scholar 

  • Koning, E.J.L. (1985). Fractured water wells—analytical modelling of fracture propagation. Paper SPE 14684.

    Google Scholar 

  • Koning, E.J.L. and Niko, H. (1985). The effect of reservoir pressure and temperature variations on fracturing conditions during a waterflood operation. Proceedings of the Third European Meeting on Improved Oil Recovery, Rome, April, 1985.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lake, L.W. (1988a). The origins of anisotropy. J. Petroleum Technol. 40 (4) 395–396.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lake, L.W. (1988b). Author’s reply to discussion of The origins of anisotropy. J. Petroleum Technol. 40 (7), 905.

    Google Scholar 

  • Landrum, B.L. and Crawford, P.B. (1960). Effect of directional permeability on sweep efficiency and production capacity. Trans. Am. Inst. Mining, Metall. Petroleum Eng. 219, 407–411.

    Google Scholar 

  • Morales, R.H. et al. (1985). Detection of formation fracture in a waterflooding experiment. Paper SPE 13747 Presented at the Society of Petroleum Engineers 1985 Middle East Oil Technical Conference and Exhibition, Bahrain, March, 1985, SPE 13747.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mortada, M. and Nabor, G.W. (1961). An approximate method for determining areal sweep efficiency and flow capacity in formations with anisotropic permeability. Soc. Petroleum Eng. J. 1, 277–286.

    Google Scholar 

  • Perkins, T.K. and Gonzalez, J.A. (1984). Changes in earth stresses around a wellbore caused by radially symmetrical pressure and temperature gradients. Soc. Petroleum Eng. J. 24 (2), 129–140.

    Google Scholar 

  • Perkins, T.K. and Gonzalez, J.A. (1985). The effect of thermo-elastic stresses on injection well fracturing. Soc. Petroleum Eng. J. 25 (1), 78–88.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pine, R.J. and Batchelor, A.S. (1984). Downward migration of shearing in jointed rock during hydraulic injections. Int. J. Rock Mech. Mining Sci. Geomech. Abstr. 21 (5) 249–263.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rajan, V.S.V. (1988). Discussion of the origins of anisotropy. J. Petroleum Technol. 40 (7), 905.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schneider, J.J. (1972). Geological factors on the design and surveillance of waterfloods in the thick structurally complex reservoirs in the Ventura field, California. Paper SPE 4049, Presented at the 47th Annual Fall Meeting of the Society of Petroleum Engineers of the American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical and Petroleum Engineers in San Antonio, Texas, October 1972, SPE 4049.

    Google Scholar 

  • Szpakiewicz, M J., McGee, K. and Sharma, B. (1987). Geologicproblems related to characterization of clastic reservoirs for EOR. SPE Formation Evaluation 2 (4), 449–460.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Thomas, L.K. et al. (1987). Ekofisk waterflood pilot. J. Petroleum Technol. 39 (2), 221–232.

    Google Scholar 

  • Walsh, J.B. (1981). Effect of pore pressure and confining pressure on fracture permeability. Int. J. Rock Mech., Mining Sci. Geomech. Abstr. 18, 429–435.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Warpinski, N.R. and Teufel, L.W. (1987). Influence of geologic discontinuities on hydraulic fracture propagation. J. Petroleum Technol. 39 (2), 209–220.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zoback, M.L. and Zoback, M.D. (1987). Tectonic stress field of the Continental United States. In: Pakiser, L. and Mooney, W. (eds), Geophysical Framework of the Continental United States. Geological Society of America Memoir.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Editor information

A. T. Buller E. Berg O. Hjelmeland J. Kleppe O. Torsæter J. O. Aasen

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 1990 Norwegian Institute of Technology

About this paper

Cite this paper

Heffer, K.J., Dowokpor, A.B. (1990). Relationship between Azimuths of Flood Anisotropy and Local Earth Stresses in Oil Reservoirs. In: Buller, A.T., Berg, E., Hjelmeland, O., Kleppe, J., Torsæter, O., Aasen, J.O. (eds) North Sea Oil and Gas Reservoirs—II. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-0791-1_21

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-0791-1_21

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-010-6843-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-009-0791-1

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

Publish with us

Policies and ethics