Paper: Rebecca J. Larkin, Kinder Morgan Production Co.

Balancing injection-withdrawal ratio on a pattern basis is essential in optimizing tertiary recovery projects, where high lease expenses tend to marginalize even the best of candidates. Advances in reservoir modeling techniques provide increasingly reliable predictions of long term field-wide production response; however, a gap frequently exists in supplying routine or short term individual well forecasts. This paper describes a simple allocation technique utilizing a modified version of Darcy's equation for linear flow within the setting of a field-wide pattern network. Generated factors allocate actual injection to offset production, calculating idealized production volumes on a gross reservoir barrel basis for comparison to actual production to influence uniform injection-withdrawal. In other words, a check and balance system to assist in guiding operations. Developed over the past several years for use in the SACROC Unit in West Texas, tailoring is possible for other secondary/tertiary recovery projects given field specific conditions.