Simulation Study for Smart Horizontal Wells Application in Maximizing Oil Reserves for Malaysian Field EOR Thin Oil Reservoir

Abstract

Horizontal wells become an important factor in improving well productivity, especially in brown-field development. Smart well completions are becoming the best in development technology with horizontal wells. Inflow control devices (ICD) are used to enhance the performance of the horizontal wells by delaying gas and water breakthrough. However, as smart completions make the horizontal well more expensive, so their use requires justification. Reservoir simulation studies are very helpful tools to optimize and evaluate the number, size and locations of the ICD along the horizontal section. This paper presents a simulation and optimization study which was carried out on the planned three horizontal infill wells in one of Malaysian field. The infill wells will be subjected to enhanced oil recovery (EOR) scheme after almost five years from their initial production. The EOR scheme will include drilling more gas and new water injectors in order to support the reservoir pressure. Application of the EOR scheme emphasizes need of using ICD to balance the expected gas and water production. The main target of the study is to properly model the horizontal wells with ICD completion using the multi segmented well approach. Several simulation runs were evaluated to cover the expected scenarios for the required ICD design. All results were compared to the case assuming production without using ICD. This is to observe the benefits of using ICD and to come up with the optimized ICD design suitable for each well. The study is crucial firstly, in evaluation of the initial simulation results of ICD application before drilling of the planned wells and secondly to have a proper ICD design model for each horizontal well which can be quickly modified in future based on the actual data during drilling operations where there is no more time available for the rig.