Over the last two decades, directional and horizontal wells have become the most usual design in Brazilian offshore scenarios. The increasing use of these types of wells relies upon new drilling and completion techniques being developed at the same time so as to achieve the full benefits of this practice. The main usages of horizontal wells are: to increase the drainage area; to improve the ability to exploit thin reservoirs; for exploration of natural fractured formations; for water/gas conning reduction; and to increase the efficiency of Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) methods. The aim of this work is to present case studies involving horizontal wells simulations using computational fluid dynamics techniques. In order to predict the total flow rate and flow distribution along the extended reach horizontal wells, the three-dimensional CFD model was built comprising of the well geometry and its drainage radius over the reservoir. This methodology makes it possible for well engineers to determine, for specific scenario, the optimum configuration for a horizontal well design. The predicted flow fields obtained from the CFD simulations were in agreement not only with results found in literature (Troll Field -Ozkan et al. 1999), that were used to validate the model, but also with production data from some Petrobras oilfields (Sansoni et al. 2007). Using this CFD tool, it was possible to identify situations where the infinite conductivity approach is valid, and the cases where this assumption results in great errors in the production forecast.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.