Simulation study of controlling water coning in oil reservoirs through drilling of horizontal wells

Abstract

Oil production is affected by the reservoir pressure, where the higher the reservoir pressure, the higher the production rate. In most cases, water is also produced with oil, which can cause several negative issues. In oil wells, after a short period of oil production, early water production will cause serious decrease in oil production. Actually water coning is an event in which water and oil surfaces will move simultaneously to the well perforation. This event, if occurs in a well, will affect the well production and will increase the costs. Consequently, the production life of the well will be shortened. This paper presents the results of simulation study of an under saturated oil reservoir with no primary gas cap present in the reservoir with oil API gravity of 35. The feasibility of water coning remedy through drilling new horizontal and vertical wells was investigated using ECLIPSE software. The simulation results showed that water production rate is increased with increasing the oil production rate from the reservoir. In addition, water coning was signifi cantly reduced with drilling new horizontal and vertical wells. However, horizontal wells found to be more effective than the vertical wells. The oil production rate increased with horizontal wells while water production rate decreased signifi cantly.

Controlling excess water production in fractured carbonate reservoirs: chemical zonal protection design

“…Controlling water coning in fractured reservoirs is more challenging than the homogeneous reservoirs because of the rapid movement of water through the fractures (Reda 2016). To counter the problem, Dabiri et al (2017) suggested the benefits of horizontal wells over vertical wells, showing (through simulation) that critical oil production rate in horizontal wells is greater than that of vertical wells in fractured formations. However, the problems may be further aggravated due to faulty well trajectory or strong acid treatment, resulting in rapid deterioration of well performance.…”

Water Intrusion Characterization in Naturally Fractured Gas Reservoir Based on Spatial DFN Connectivity Analysis

“…Another parameter in relation to the fracture network that has been appraised and has an impact on the water intrusion corresponds to the well trajectory. Different studies concluded that horizontal wells are less susceptible to water intrusion than vertical wells, and thereby, water breakthrough may be delayed in fractured formations [8,12,13]. However, this concept might be subject to further analysis to avoid fracture data sampling bias from the fracture network.…”