Advanced Wells: How to Make a Choice between Passive and Active Inflow-Control Completions

Abstract

Horizontal and multi-lateral wells allow oil and gas companies to maximise contact with reservoir quality rock in either a single reservoir or multiple reservoirs. However they do not, by themselves, guarantee optimum reservoir drainage. Premature water or gas breakthroughs frequently occur due to:Reservoir permeability heterogeneity,Variations in distance between the wellbore and the fluid contacts, particularly in compartmentalized reservoirs,Variations in reservoir pressure in different regions of the reservoir penetrated by the wellbore.Pressure drop along the completion's flow path due to friction ("heel-toe" effect). Many such well and reservoir management problems can be mitigated by installation of downhole flow control devices - "Active" Interval Control Valves (ICVs) and "Passive" Inflow Control Devices (ICDs). ICVs were initially employed for controlled, commingled production from multiple reservoirs; while ICDs were developed to counteract the "heel-toe" effect. The variety of reservoir applications for both technologies has proliferated so that their application areas now overlap. Appropriate selection between an ICV and an ICD completion can be both a complex and a time consuming process. This paper compares the functionality and applicability of the two technologies. Completion Design selection guidelines are developed based on multiple criteria drawn from reservoir, production, operation and economic factors. Reservoir engineering aspects, such as uncertainty management, formation heterogeneity, and the level of flexibility required by the development are analyzed. Production and completion characteristics, such as tubing size, the number of separately controllable completion zones, the installation of multiple laterals and the value of real time information were also investigated. This systematic analysis forms the basis of a screening tool to identify the optimum technology for each particular situation. This study provides a robust, comparative framework for both production technologists and reservoir engineers to select between passive and active flow control for optimised, advanced well completions. 1. Introduction Increasing well-reservoir contact has a number of potential advantages in terms of well productivity, drainage area, sweep efficiency and delayed water or gas breakthrough. However, such long, possibly multilateral, Maximum Reservoir Contact (MRC) wells bring not only advantages by replacing several conventional wells; but also present new challenges in terms of drilling and completion due to the increasing length and complexity of the well's exposure to the reservoir [58]. The situation with respect to reservoir management is less black and white. An MRC well improves the sweep efficiency and delays water or gas breakthrough by reducing the localized drawdown and distributing fluid flux over a greater wellbore area; but it will also present difficulties when reservoir drainage control is required.

The Potential of Smart Well Solutions for the Development of Thin Oil Rims during Gas Condensate Production in the Yamal Region of Russia

“…The expected maximum of incremental oil production could be achieved by the deployment of well with Interval Control Valves (ICV's). The choice between active (ICV) and passive (ICD) control devices is a complex engineering task which depends on numerous criteria as derived by Birchenko et al, 2008;Alkhelaiwi et. al., 2008. In our case we are guided by the following priorities:…”

“…Till the present time the ultimate amount of ICV's in one well reached the level of 6 (Birchenko et al, 2008). We leveraged 4 valves, one over each horizontal section of 200 m. For the maximum flexibility resulting in the higher incremental production, we assumed more expensive valves implying continuous pressure drop adjustments over the wellbore.…”

Application of Horizontal well Multiphase Steady State Flow Model to Evaluate Water Control Effect of ICD

“…Inflow control device (ICD) completion is more advanced than conventional completions in oil and gas field development, and it has applied to many types of reservoirs [5]. Now there are hundreds of wells which have used that technology to successfully control the water and gas around the world [6] , and the world's three major oil and gas industry technology providers have developed distinctive inflow control devices for the upstream oil and gas industry, such as the channel ICD which can cause a pressure drop in a long time interval, the nozzle ICD which is less dependent on viscosity than other types of ICD and the orifice ICD which can get a different pressure resistance by controlling the numbers of close and open orifices [7][8][9] .…”

Analysis of the Impact of an Intelligent Well Completion on the Oil Production Uncertainty (Russian)

“…Ал-Хелайви и Бирчеко сделали подробный анализ области применения каждого типа компановок [2,3]. Кроме того, дополнительное оборудование может быть использовано для контроля притока жидкости в каждой зоне.…”