Staged Premium Screen Completion Design for Horizontal Well Based on Laboratory Test: A Successful Application in Block 451, Shengli Oil Field

Abstract

Staged premium screen has been applied to balance the inflow profile of horizontal well under open hole completion in Shengli Oil Field, China. Perforation density of base pipe is the key parameter of staged screen for inflow control, however, it is used to be determined by only considering drawdown due to perforation itself, ignoring two dominant parts caused by formation sand filter cake around screen and sand retention material, therefore the decision plan is not suitable. To solve this problem, a laboratory apparatus was run to test a screen sample, and thoroughly analyzed the effect of perforation density on total inflow control drawdown. A base pipe was also tested, working as a reference to screen sample. The test simulated down hole flowing condition in Well DXY451P21, Block 451, Shengli Oil Field, test results were directly utilized to design staged premium screen for this target well. Finally, the following conclusions can be drawn: pressure drop in screen sample is much sensitive to perforation density, and is obviously larger than that in base pipe sample; flowing pressure is mainly lost in formation sand filter cake and sand retention material, where the flow pattern is seepage flow; perforations on base pipe of premium screen mainly play a part in regulating flowing field, i.e. smaller perforation density will lead produced liquid to flow a longer distance in seepage media and bring a larger additional drawdown; the production performance of Well DXY451P21 is much better than adjacent wells, and promotes economic benefits.