Simulation of Waterflooding Oil Recovery With Advanced Multilateral Wells Under Uncertainty by Using MRST

Abstract

Abstract The suitable design of Advanced Multilateral Well (AMW) completions under uncertain information is challenging but crucial for achieving cost-effective and low-carbon oil recovery. This requires an accurate and fast coupled dynamic well-reservoir model. To this end, some commercial software packages are available to be used. However, using a free open-source tool like MATLAB® Reservoir Simulation Toolbox (MRST) can help oil companies to reduce costs and allows petroleum engineers to make fit-for-purpose simulation models. This paper aims at using MRST to assess the performance of AMWs in improving waterflooding oil recovery under petrophysical uncertainties. Using the MultisegmentWell class in MRST, this study develops appropriate models for the simulation of long-term oil recovery from AMWs completed with various Flow Control Devices (FCDs). Inflow Control Devices (ICDs), Autonomous Inflow Control Devices (AICDs), Autonomous Inflow Control Valves (AICVs), and Interval Control Valves (ICVs) are the main types of FCDs and are evaluated in this paper. Considering several uncertain parameters with varied distribution profiles, the Latin Hypercube Sampling (LHS) approach is applied to generate various realizations of the reservoir model for providing a confident degree of petrophysical uncertainty. The MRST simulation results are validated against the obtained results from the EclipseSM reservoir simulator, and these simulators are compared in terms of speed and accuracy. The preliminary findings demonstrated that in the waterflooding oil recovery, the production of oil is improved with an optimum design of AMWs completed with reactive FCDs (AICDs or AICVs) and proactive FCDs (ICVs) compared to employing passive FCDs (ICDs). Moreover, water production is highly reduced by using reactive and proactive FCDs than passive FCDs. Lifting and separating water is costly and carbon-intensive. Therefore, deploying AMWs with reactive and proactive FCDs is a valuable measure for achieving efficient and environmentally friendly waterflooding oil recovery. According to the preliminary results, it can also be concluded that ICV and AICV completions have better functionality than AICDs and ICD completions in mitigating the risks associated with reservoir uncertainties. Besides, the initial comparison of the MRST and Eclipse performances in the modeling and simulation of AMWs proves that MRST is a robust and computationally efficient tool for developing industry-standard simulation models.