A GENERALIZED APPROACH TO RESERVOIR MATERIAL

BALANCE CALCULATIONS

M.P. WALSH

this article begins on the next page F

Modelling of Undulating Wellbore Trajectories R. SHARMA Computer Modelling Group D. ZIMMERMAN Hyprotech Ltd. F. MOURITS CANMET Abstract A technique for the efficient modelling of horizontal and undulating well trajectories is presented. In order to resolve the fluid saturations and pressures, the layer containing the undulat- ing wellbore is refined in the vertical direction. The undulating wellbore is then represented by a series of discrete, cylindrical wellbore segments which are parallel to the principal grid direc- tions. The pressure drop and liquid holdup within the
wellbore are determined through a material balance equation and multi- phase pipe flow correlations. Several examples illustratina the application of this method are given for the modelling of undulating well trajectories. A comparison between the source/sink model and the discretized wellbore model for undulating wells is mide. It is demonstrated that the discretized wellbore model should be used when the total wellbore pressure drop is coniparable to the drawdown pressure. The effect of capillary pressure is atso examined for several different well trajectories. Finally, the
effect of well tra- jectory for the production from within oil column with bottom water drive and a gas cap is examined. Introduction Interest in horizontal wells has increased dramatically in recent years due to improved drilling technology and increased efficien- cy and economy of oil recovery operations. This improvement results form the extensive contact between the reservoir and the horizontal well giving rise to lower fluid velocities around the wellbore, while providing economical total flow rate. 'I'here are three methods used to represent horizontal wells in reservoir
simulation. The first approach is the source/sink repre- sentation. This method is applicable when the financial pressure drop along the wellbore is small compared to the well drawdown pressure. Furthermore the line source/sink method can yield erroneous results when wellbore backflow occurs or when the reservoir permeability is high due to the presence of fractures. 'I'he second approach is very comprehensive and requires the Simultaneous solution of equations of the conservation of mass, momentum and energy in the wellbore together with the reservoir equations. This is needed when
the detailed flow in the well bore and its vicinity is important for accurate predictions. Because of the comprehensive treatment of the wellbore, the computational cost of this approach is high and therefore may be prohibitive in large field scale simulations. Furthermore in large field scale sim- ulations it may not be necessary to model the detailed flow phe- nomenon in the wellbore. A good approximation of the pressure drop, phase saturation and composition distribution in the well- 16 Laye, 1 Laye, 2 undulating wellbore The third approach termed "the discretized wellbore
model", couples the wellbore and reservoir flow equations by judiciously casting the wellbore flow equations in a form similar to the res- voir flow equations. Thus, efficient numerical techniques that have been developed for reservoir simulation can be used to accu- rately model the wellbore flow. In really, horizontal wells are not perfectly horizontal and can have complex well trajectories. These well trajectoies can result in either slanted or undulating wells. For typical cases, the hor- zontal well trajectory can vary by as much as ±5m. Figure I shows a schematic
representation of such undulating well. Often, it is desired that the well trajectory not be horizontal in order to take advantage of geological heterogeneities and anom- alies as well as variations in fluid distribution. 'I'he deveations of well trajectories form the horizontal direction can have a significant influence on the oil and gas recov- ery for most reservoirs. For these cases, the well trajectory passes through regions with large variations in the fluid saturations and reservoir properties. In particular these deviations have a strong influence on the oil and gas recovery
for cases where the well is producing from a region of a very thin oil column sandwiched between a water zone and a gas cap. ln this paper, we describe the discretized wellbore approach for modelling horizontal and vertical wells and extend this method for undulating well trajectories. The issues that should be considered in the simulation of undulating wells are dicussed and the methods used for these simulations are described. Several Simulations runs are carried out and results are presented for the purpose of demonstrating the techniques for modelling undulating wells and showing
the effect of well trajecotory on overall oil and gas production The Journal of Canadian Petroleum Technology