Scott Nelson & Leonard Kalfayan, BJ Services Co.
The need to effect water production through the use of relative permeability modifiers is becoming an everyday reality in the oil and gas industry today. Rising exploration and development costs, along with ever-increasing water management costs, require that cost-effective methods of reducing unwanted water production be developed and implemented. To address this issue, a new relative permeability modifier system has been developed. It is designed to be placed into the matrix of sandstone or carbonate formations. The relative permeability modifier selectively reduces the permeability to water, without detrimentally affecting oil or gas permeability. This new water management treatment approach provides simplicity in job application, is viable over a wide range of reservoir types, lithologies, and permeabilities, and can be employed in a broad range of job types, including matrix injection and hydraulic fracturing treatments.