Evaluate horizontal well production performance in heavy oil reservoirs

Abstract

© 2006-2016 Asian Research Publishing Network (ARPN). All rights reserved.Inconsiderable fraction of the hydrocarbon can be produced by the natural drive of the reservoir. Practical knowledge has proven that when the reservoir pressure is depleted, the recovery factor nearly reaches 20%. Some of heavy fluid reservoirs cannot be produced by all natural energy drivers. As a result, improved oil recovery is introduced as a strategy to increase oil recovery. Prior implementing an improved oil recovery process in a field, it is essential to investigate its potential for achievement. However, the objective of this project is to evaluate the improved oil recovery in a sandstone reservoir is considered in this study. GEM compositional reservoir simulator has been utilized, having injection and production wells. A model is developed to perform history matching with a field production data to verify the model results and to examine an improved oil recovery method on cumulative production and recovery factor. The results showed that the water flooding has insignificant impact on the cumulative oil production, while implementing horizontal production wells had improved and doubled the reservoir performance by a factor of 2 and reducing oil saturation from 80% to 30%.