Current status and trend of separated layer water flooding in China

Separated layer water injection is one of the crucial means to keep long-term high and stable production of oilfield. “Bridge eccentricity + steel cable measuring and adjustment” has come into being as the principal water flooding technology, which, with improving adaptability, can meet the need of conventional water injection wells. As the water flooding fields enter high water-cut period, sand control for water injectors, separated layer flowrate test at low injection rate, high pressure and high temperature water injection, separated layer water injection for high-inclination wells and separated layer water injection monitoring and control will be the developing trend, directing water flooding towards automatization, intelligence and integration to meet the requirements of water injection under different reservoir and well type conditions for the purpose of ensuring efficient oil field development. Currently periodic progress have been made in downhole wireless communication, flowrate monitoring, nozzle dynamic adjustment, etc, forming the theoretical basis for automatic water flooding.