Ghawar is not water flooded, it produces naturally. It is 5 giant fields lumped together for discussion purposes. The Saudis are tight with information so the technical data on the field is not known, most data is very old and production outside of Saudi can only be guessed.
Water flooding is also a GOOD thing. Most depletion drive reservoirs will have a maximum recovery factor of 10-15%. A strong water dive or well designed water flood can get the recovery up to 40-50%.
Recovery factor is how many barrels you can recover divided by the number in place in the ground. The flow mechanisms in the rock, the pore geometries and the capillary pressure characteristics of the rock and oil determine the recovery factor.
Quote:
Originally Posted by pawoSD
It will happen when a few of the world's largest oil fields go into rapid decline. Probably not too far off for a few of them. Especially Ghawar in Saudi Arabia. They over-extract by forcing water under ground.
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