Performance of Horizontal Wells with Inflow Control Devices in Homogeneous Reservoirs with Bottom Water Drive

Abstract

Horizontal well techniques play an important role in the development of unconventional oil and gas plays. A key challenge in horizontal well completions is that water cut will rise rapidly once water breakthrough without inflow control. Inflow control devices restrict flow by creating an additional drop in pressure to equal the drop in wellbore pressure in order to reduce water or gas coning. Once a control device is installed in the wellbore, it is almost impossible to adjust. As a result, it is extremely important to understand the oil–water pressure profile and the long-term behavior of well completions with ICDs. We use the theory of dynamic simulation-coupled well-reservoir flow to analyze the performance of horizontal well completions with and without ICDs using the multi-segment well model. This study proposes a new single-flow wellbore model and develops the model of oil–water flow in horizontal wellbore with influx. The performance of horizontal well completions with ICDs in reservoir with water drive is analyzed on the basis of the new coupled reservoir–wellbore model. Simulation results show that water breakthrough first occurs near the heel of the horizontal well due to the drop in pressure in the wellbore by the end of water-free production period in the homogeneous reservoirs. We also point out that completion with ICDs can optimize production in horizontal wells with long production sections, low drawdown pressure and high production rates. In these situations, the effects of a drop in oil–water two-phase pressure are significant.