Facing the challenge of high water cut in oilfields: Casues, diagnosis and chemical means of control

Abstract

The water produced from oil fields represents an environmental, technical, and economic challenge that must be resolved in order to obtain more profitable, sustainable, uninterrupted and environmentally friendly operations. This paper explores and characterizes the main issues surrounding the problem of excessive water production, among which are critical areas such as indicators of a high water cut, mechanisms to determine the existence of excessive water production, some of the means available to solve the problem and there is a special emphasis on water control through gels that reduce the water relative permeability. For this purpose, a thorough bibliographic review was carried out, where a selection and classification by categories of the subject of study was made by the author. In this article, the main useful topics in water control are addressed chronologically and some gaps can be identified, some concepts that the researchers handle in similar ways and it is easy to see how the paradigm of water control has changed over the years. The main contribution of this work is centered in the summary and chronological organization of the main issues around the problem of excessive water production from oil fields and the use of gelling systems for its control.