A Novel Water-Flooding Characteristic Curve Based on Fractal Theory and Its Application

Ke Li, Xulin Du (), Jing Li, Junzhe Jiang and Shaobin Cai
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Ke Li: State Key Laboratory of Offshore Oil and Gas Exploitation, Beijing 100028, China
Xulin Du: State Key Laboratory of Offshore Oil and Gas Exploitation, Beijing 100028, China
Jing Li: State Key Laboratory of Offshore Oil and Gas Exploitation, Beijing 100028, China
Junzhe Jiang: State Key Laboratory of Offshore Oil and Gas Exploitation, Beijing 100028, China
Shaobin Cai: State Key Laboratory of Offshore Oil and Gas Exploitation, Beijing 100028, China

Energies, 2025, vol. 18, issue 6, 1-15

Abstract: There are currently numerous types of water-flooding characteristic curves, most of which are derived from fundamental theories such as material balance, relative permeability, along with experimental results. A single exponential or power function expression cannot accurately characterize the complex flow characteristics of different types of reservoirs, and the equivalent relationships corresponding to production wells and entire oilfields remain unclear. Consequently, practical applications often encounter issues such as curve tailing, difficulty in determining linear segments, inability to identify anomalous points, and inaccuracies in dynamic fitting and prediction. This paper derives a novel water-flooding characteristic curve expression based on fractal theory, incorporating the fractal characteristics of two-phase oil–water flow in reservoirs, as well as the micro-level pore–throat flow features and macro-level dynamic laws of water flooding. The approach is analyzed and validated with real oilfield cases. This study indicates that fitting with the novel water-flooding characteristic curve yields high correlation coefficients and excellent fitting results, demonstrating strong applicability across various types of oilfields and water cut stages. It can more accurately describe the water-flooding characteristics under different reservoir conditions and rapidly predict recoverable reserves, offering significant application value in the dynamic analysis of oilfields and the formulation of development strategies.

Keywords: water-flooding characteristic curve; dynamic analysis; ultra-high water content period; fractal theory; recoverable reserves (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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