Abstract
Although currently, large-scale and multilateral horizontal wells are an important way to improve the oil recovery in the unconventional reservoirs, the flow behavior of fluid from the reservoir into the horizontal wellbore becomes more challenged compared to the single small-scale horizontal well. One of the main challenges is that pressure loss from the well completion section and wellbore cannot be ignored in the coupling process between the reservoir and the horizontal well. In this paper, a new method is presented to solve the coupling flow between the reservoir and the horizontal well with different well completions. The new coupling model is compared with Ouyang’s model (1998) and Penmatcha’s model (1997), and the predicted data are consistent with each other at both early and late times. Meanwhile, four different cases have been proposed to verify the application of the new coupling model with different well completions, and the results indicate that the uneven inflow profile can be effectively alleviated via reasonable completion parameters and different well completions. Based on two types of flow-node units, it can quickly model and solve the coupling problem between the reservoir and the horizontal well with complex completion cases. It can also depict the inflow profile of the horizontal well with different well completions, which is conducive to understand the coupling process. The new coupling model can provide theoretical support for further optimization of completion parameters and well completions and finally improve oil recovery.
Highlights
The horizontal well technology has been applied as early as the 20th century
0, Under given flowing bottom‐hole pressure, Under given production rate: ð28Þ. It can be seen from the steps of establishing the coupling model between the reservoir and the horizontal well that equation (27) is a set of nonlinear equations composed by equations of different types of flow nodes, junction equations between different completion modes, and boundary conditions
The coupling problem between the horizontal well and the reservoir is transformed into the interaction relationship between different flow sections using node discretization
Summary
The horizontal well technology has been applied as early as the 20th century. Nowadays, it has gradually developed into an effective technology for the oil field to create huge economic benefits. The model considers pressure drops due to fluid flow in the tubing, ICDs, and annulus, but it is only suitable for the single completion (just ICDs) and cannot solve the coupling problems with different well completions [29]. Based on two types of flow-node units, a flownode network with different well completions is constructed This method is suitable for the coupling problem between the reservoir and the horizontal well with different well completions and can be solved efficiently. It can more accurately simulate the coupling process between the reservoir and the horizontal well and improve the accuracy of production prediction in the horizontal well
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