Pre-1977 injection volumes from water flood and water disposal wells in Kern County, California

Abstract

Water is injected into the subsurface in and near oil fields in Kern County, California as water flood wells and water disposal wells for purposes of enhanced oil recovery and disposal of produced water. Location and volume of these injection process from 1977 onward are available in public databases hosted by the California Division of Oil, Gas, and Geothermal Resources (DOGGR). Injection data prior to 1977 are only available in yearly format in the published DOGGR Summary of Operations and as monthly reports from oil and gas producers. The undigitized nature of this pre-1977 data makes it difficult to understand the water injection history in and around oil fields during this period. In an effort to understand this pre-1977 history, water injection volumes were manually extracted from the DOGGR Summary of Operations. These records contain injected volume, subdivided annual by field, area, and pool between 1956 and 1976 for water flood and water disposal wells in DOGGR District 4 of California. Data was compiled, then joined with post-1977 data to understand the long-term history of water injection in this area. The data shows water injection rates in Kern County were relatively low until the late 1960s and then rapidly increase. Fields on the eastside of the San Joaquin Valley, such as Mount Poso, Round Mountain, and Kern River, collectively had the highest cumulative injection pre-1977; however, rates of injection were much lower post-1977 injection. Fields in southern and central regions, such as North Coles Levee, Rosedale Ranch, and Wheeler Ridge were most notable for their injection rates pre-1977 relative to post-1977. North Coles Levee and Mount Poso stand out because their cumulative injection was the highest at 264 and 233 MMbbls of injection respectively, compared to the next highest field, Round Mountain, with a total of 155 MMbbls. North Coles Levee also had the most extreme changes in water injection rates pre-1977. Water injection rates in North Coles Levee from 1969-1977 increased from 9.1 MMbbls/yr to 42.4 MMbbls/yr, and then decreases to 15.2 MMbbls/yr; injection rates decrease to a steady rate of 1-2 MMbbls/yr in 1988. Future work will involve determining the volume and depth of injection in select fields on a well-by-well basis.

AAPG Datapages/Search and Discovery Article #90339 ©2019 AAPG Pacific Section Convention 2019, Long Beach, California, April 1-3, 2019