Experimental Research for Breakthrough Position of Horizontal Wells in Reservoirs with Bottom Water

Abstract

Finding the breakthrough position of horizontal wells is essential to water plugging and improving oil production in bottom water drive reservoirs. Physical modeling was carried out in this paper to research the law of bottom water’s movement. The experimental results indicated that: pressure drop in wells, well trajectory and area reservoir heterogeneity were all sensitive factors for breakthrough of bottom water, and the entry points of horizontal wells were determined by the combined function of them. In different well trajectory models, the concave down part of the well cooperate with pressure drop influenced the breakthrough position. Bottom water below the heel end reached the well earliest if the concave down part located at the heel end. When the concave part located at the middle of the well, the two factors played role respectively which resulted in breaking through of bottom water at two places with larger swept area. In different heterogeneous models, permeability difference and pressure drop were both favorable factors for bottom water’s non-uniformly rise. In the model that the heel end located at high permeability part, bottom water under the heel end reached the well earliest. If the heel end was set at the low permeability part, the breakthrough of bottom water occurred at the middle of the well.