Title: Water/oil cresting in horizontal wells, a sensitivity study

Authors: Hector Ngozi Akangbou; Martin Burby; Ghasem Nasr

Addresses: Petroleum Technology and Spray Research Groups, School of Computing Science and Engineering, University of Salford, Manchester, M5 4WT, UK ' Petroleum Technology and Spray Research Groups, School of Computing Science and Engineering, University of Salford, Manchester, M5 4WT, UK ' Petroleum Technology and Spray Research Groups, School of Computing Science and Engineering, University of Salford, Manchester, M5 4WT, UK

Abstract: This work presents a rigorous sensitivity analysis on cresting using a physical model, to investigate the effects of varying oil viscosity, inclined section and lateral insertion lengths of a horizontal well. This was investigated in both thick- and thin-oil rim homogeneous reservoirs faced with strong bottom aquifer and considerable gas cap. From the results, it was observed that the geometry of the horizontal well and location of the bottom water injection points significantly influence the cumulative liquid produced, particularly in thin-oil rim reservoirs. The cumulative water produced and cumulative water cut were found to increase with an increase in oil viscosity. The oil recovered from the thin-oil rim reservoir, was as high as 17.84% and 24.92% for oil viscosity of 50 cP and 100 cP respectively, whereas water cuts of 19.15% and 13.93% were observed for cumulative water produced in thick-oil rim reservoir at 50 cP and 100 cP, respectively. [Received: September 28, 2016; Accepted: April 15, 2017]

Keywords: cresting; oil recovery; water cut; reservoir homogeneity; horizontal wells; gas-oil contact; GOC; water-oil contact; WOC; strong bottom aquifer; pressure drawdown; optimisation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJOGCT.2019.099522

International Journal of Oil, Gas and Coal Technology, 2019 Vol.21 No.1, pp.57 - 75

Received: 18 Oct 2016
Accepted: 15 Apr 2017
Published online: 08 May 2019 *

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