Modeling of Inflow Well Performance of Multilateral Wells: Employing the Concept of Well Interference and the Joshi's Expression

Document Type : Research Article

Authors

Abadan Faculty of Petroleum Engineering, Petroleum University of Technology, Abadan, I.R. IRAN

Abstract

The use of multilateral well is becoming an emerging method to improve oil recovery efficiently and to drain reservoirs more efficacious. By developing drilling technology, completing the oil wells as multilateral wells become more interesting especially from economic point of view. On the other hand, lack of any means for forecasting the performance of this type of wells causes drilling of them economically a risky job. The major objective of this work is to present a simple and effective means to estimate the performance of a multilateral well. In a simple approach to the multilateral well, one can consider it as several horizontal wells flowing into a common well string. By employing the concept of well interference and the Joshi's expression for horizontal well performance, a mathematical model for computing multilateral wells performance has been developed. Two correlations for estimating the multilateral well performance with odd and even branches have been presented by utilizing the concept of well interference in conjunction with a horizontal well performance expression. Consequently, the generated correlations along with the concept of equivalent length have been used in this work to present a general method for predicting a multilateral well performance. Also, economic analysis developed model for a multilateral well is presented in this paper.  

Keywords

Main Subjects

References

[1] Bosworth S. et al., “Key Issues in Multilateral Technology,” Oilfield Review, Schlumberger, pp. 14–17 (1998).
[2] Novy R.A.: “Pressure Drops in Horizontal Wells: When Can They Be Ignored?” SPE Reprint Series No. 47, Horizontal Wells, SPE,Richardson, p. 109 (1998).
[3] Graves K.S, Multiple Horizontal Drainholes can Improve Production, Oil and Gas Journal; 92(7), (1994).
[4] Chen W., Zhu D., Hill A.D., "A Comprehensive Model of Multilateral Well Deliverability", SPE 64751, (2000).
[5] Kamkom R., Zhu D., "Two-Phase Correlation for Multilateral Well Deliverability", SPE 95652, (2005).
[6] Gue B., Zhou J., Ling K., Ghalambor A., "A Rigorous Composite-Inflow-Performance Relationship Model for Multilateral Wells", SPE Production & Operations, (2008).
[7] Retnanto A., Economies M.J., “Performance of Multiple Horizontal Wells Laterals in Low-to-Medium Permeability Reservoirs”, SPERE, pp. 73-77 (1996).
[8] Abdel-Alim H., Mohammed M., “Production Performance of Multilateral Wells”, this paper was prepared for presentation at the 1999 SPE/IADC Middle East Drilling Technology Conference held inAbu Dhabi, UAE, 8-10 (1999).
[9] Salas J.R., Clifford P.J., (BP Exploration Inc. & D.P. Jenkins, BP Exploration Operating Co.): “Multilateral Well Performance Prediction”, SPE35711, (1996).
[10] Wolfsteiner C., Durlofsky L.J., Aziz K., ”An Approximate Model for the Productivity of Non-Conventional Wells in Heterogeneous Reservoirs”, SPE56754, (1999).
[11] Joshi S.D., "Augmentation of Well Productivity with slant and horizontal wells", JPT, pp. 729-739 (1988).
[12] Raghavan R., Joshi S.D., Productivity of Multiple Drain Holes or Fractured Horizontal Wells, SPE Formation Evaluation, 8(1), (1993).
[13] Larsen L., "Productivity Computations for Multilateral, Branched and Other Generalized and Extended Well Concepts", SPE35711, (1996).
[14] Peters M.S., Timmerhaus, K.D., "Plant Design and Economics for Chemical Engineers", Mc Graw-Hill International Book Company,Singapore, (1981).

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics