Abstract
Inflow-control devices (ICDs) were developed to avoid coning problems in long horizontal wells mainly in heterogenous formations, but cause some additional drawdown which does not contribute to rate increase. This rate reduction is seen to be impairment to the productivity of horizontal wells. Therefore, horizontal wells that are equipped with ICDs require a pre-quantification of their productivity by determining skin caused by each ICD nozzle size. This will help prevent additional expenditure that will be spent for a corrective horizontal well intervention. Many authors have proposed equations that can be used to estimate skin due to damage, partial completion, slanted well and perforation. No author has provided a skin equation that can be used to estimate recoverable and productivity loss that may result from the use of inflow control devices. In this work, a 3D numerical model which includes inflow control devices along horizontal wells was used to investigate reservoir and production performances of various ICD nozzle sizes. Different productivity losses from different nozzle sizes were seen as skin and a 0.002ft2 ICD nozzle flow area estimated to have a zero skin. Consequently, a simple equation for calculating this skin due to restricted fluid entry through ICD nozzles was derived. The derived equation which shows insignificant deviation from skin equation is then used for selecting the right nozzle size for production and recovery optimization from horizontal wells. Key words: Inflow control device
Highlights
Horizontal wells have superior production and recovery performance compared to vertical wells because they have more contact with the reservoir
Zhu and Hill (2006) using the K ratio said if K is beyond 70%, using Inflow-control devices (ICDs) or other flow control devices can balance the flow along the wellbore, improve well performance, and increase recovery, but if K is less than 10%, adding ICDs to the completion for wellbore flow distribution may cause productivity losses
The reservoir was depleted at maximum drawdown of 305 psi. This constraint was applied mainly to observe any reduction in rate with changing ICD nozzle size
Summary
Horizontal wells have superior production and recovery performance compared to vertical wells because they have more contact with the reservoir. Zhu and Hill (2006) showed that the ratio K of pressure drop in the wellbore to the reservoir can be used to evaluate if an inflow control device will impair the productivity of a horizontal well. To Lee et al (2017), the additional pressure loss in an ICD completion will cause reduction of effective productivity of horizontal wells; in other words it will require lower flowing bottom-hole pressure for a well with ICD completion to produce the same liquid rate compared to a well without an ICD. A predetermination of skin due to ICD of the nozzle sizes which has to be installed is required for effective ICD designing and recovery optimization
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