Abstract
The gravel packing completion method for horizontal wells has the advantages of maintaining high oil production for a long time, maintaining wellbore stability, and preventing sand production, so it has become the preferred completion method for horizontal wells. At present, this technology still faces the problems of high sand bed height and poor gravel migration. In order to improve the efficiency of gravel packing in horizontal wells, pulsed gravel packing technology for horizontal wells is proposed for the first time. Based on the mechanism of hydraulic pulse, the Eulerian–Eulerian model, k-ε model based on the renormalization group theory (RNG k-ε model), and Fluent are used to simulate the solid-liquid two-phase flow. By optimizing the parameters such as frequency and amplitude of pulse waveform, the optimal pulse waveform of pulsed gravel packing in horizontal wells is determined. The effects of parameters such as sand-carrying fluid displacement, sand-carrying fluid viscosity, sand-carrying ratio, gravel particle size, and string eccentricity on pulsed gravel packing in horizontal wells are studied, and the distribution law of gravel migration velocity and volume fraction in horizontal wells is obtained. According to the results, it can be seen that with the increase of displacement and viscosity of carrier fluid, the volume fraction of fixed bed and moving bed decreases gradually, while that of suspension bed increases gradually. With the increase of sand-carrying ratio, gravel particle size, and string eccentricity, the volume fraction of fixed bed and moving bed increases gradually, while that of suspended bed decreases gradually. Comparing the effects of conventional gravel packing and pulsed gravel packing in horizontal wells, it can be concluded that the efficiency of pulsed gravel packing in horizontal wells is higher. The volume fraction of fixed bed and moving bed decreased by 30% and 40% respectively, while the volume fraction of suspended bed increased by 20%. The migration velocity of moving bed and suspended bed increased by 40% and 25%, respectively, and the migration ability of gravel improved obviously.
Highlights
With the rapid development of the petroleum industry, the advantages and remarkable economic benefits of using horizontal wells to exploit oil and gas fields have been paid more attention by all countries in the world, especially the exploitation of offshore oil fields with horizontal wells, which has a broader application prospect [1,2]
Comparing with conventional gravel packing, it is found that the pulsed gravel packing method in horizontal wells reduces the volume fraction of fixed sand bed and moving sand bed, and improves the transport velocity of moving sand bed and suspended sand bed, which proves the superiority of pulsed gravel packing in horizontal wells
The optimized sinusoidal pulse waveform was added to the inlet boundary to make the inlet displacement changes in pulse and to study the effect of sand carrying ratio on gravel migration and volume fraction
Summary
With the rapid development of the petroleum industry, the advantages and remarkable economic benefits of using horizontal wells to exploit oil and gas fields have been paid more attention by all countries in the world, especially the exploitation of offshore oil fields with horizontal wells, which has a broader application prospect [1,2]. Gruesbeck et al [10] proposed the concept of “equilibrium bank” for the first time based on the results of laboratory gravel packing experiments and established mathematical models for inclined and horizontal wells under the condition of complete packing This model can calculate the equilibrium height of sand bed, but it is not suitable for the condition of premature plugging. When Dong et al [24,25,26] conducted a numerical simulation study on the gravel packing process in horizontal wells, they took into account the influences of sand-carrying fluid filtration to the formation and fluid mass exchange between wellbore annulus and scrubber annulus on gravel packing. Comparing with conventional gravel packing, it is found that the pulsed gravel packing method in horizontal wells reduces the volume fraction of fixed sand bed and moving sand bed, and improves the transport velocity of moving sand bed and suspended sand bed, which proves the superiority of pulsed gravel packing in horizontal wells
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