Abstract
In recent years, improving oil recovery (IOR) has become an important subject for the petroleum industry. One IOR method is infill drilling, which improves hydrocarbon recovery from virgin zones of the reservoir. Determining the appropriate location for the infill wells is very challenging and greatly depends on different factors such as the reservoir heterogeneity. This study aims to investigate the effect of reservoir heterogeneity on the location of infill well. In order to characterize the effect of heterogeneity on infill well locations, some geostatistical methods, e.g., sequential gaussian simulation, have been applied to generate various heterogeneity models. In particular, different correlation ranges (R) were used to observe the effect of heterogeneity. Results revealed that an increase in correlation ranges will lead to (1) a higher field oil production total, and (2) a faster expansion of the drainage radius which consequently reduced the need for infill wells. The results of this study will help engineers to appropriately design infill drilling schemes.
Highlights
Infill drilling technique plays an important role in reservoir development especially in tight reservoirs
This study aims to investigate the effect of reservoir heterogeneity on the location of infill well
Results revealed that an increase in correlation ranges will lead to (1) a higher field oil production total, and (2) a faster expansion of the drainage radius which reduced the need for infill wells
Summary
Infill drilling technique plays an important role in reservoir development especially in tight reservoirs. As the recovery ratio is controlled by many complicated factors, such as the level of reservoir heterogeneity, determining the location of infill wells seems to be a very challenging issue (Soto et al 1999). There is no homogeneous reservoir in reality, and it is widely believed that in heterogeneous reservoirs infill drilling plays an important role (Hou and Zhang 2007; Barber et al 1983) and improves oil recovery by accelerating productions (Driscoll 1974; Gould and Munoz 1982; Gould and Sarem 1989; Sayyafzadeh and Pourafshari 2010). One of the applications of infill wells is to reduce the distance between the wells which helps maintain layer continuity and enhances well connectivity (Wu et al 1989; Malik et al 1993)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callMore From: Journal of Petroleum Exploration and Production Technology
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
