Abstract Waterflood recoveries from certain areas in this large, thick carbonate reservoir were below expectations. An integrated (geological, petrophysical, and engineering) study was undertaken to (1) develop a geological-petrophysical model covering the areas of interest, (2) evaluate past reservoir performance, (3) predict future performance for various operating plans, and (4) make appropriate recommendations based upon technical and economic considerations. It was concluded that low oil recovery resulted primarily from low to very low formation permeabilities, injected water channeling because of fracture treatments administered during primary production, net pay intervals still behind pipe (mainly in producers), and limited control of injection/production well profiles. Results of the study indicated that oil recovery could be increased significantly by infill drilling/waterflood expansion. However, the most attractive plan from an economic viewpoint was to open the unperforated net intervals in existing producers and injectors and to monitor/improve flow profiles. Other enhanced recovery methods were not attractive because of either low permeability or low oil gravity.
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