Development of Hybridized Completions for Extended Reach Horizontal Wells

Non-uniform production and injection profiles in extended reach horizontal wells invite several production and recovery issues. Downhole flow control devices, along with dynamic reservoir modeling, have been beneficial in regulating flow, improving productivity from the toe section, delaying water breakthrough, reducing water coning, and improving overall reservoir sweep. However, such measures add to substantial completion costs and may not be economical for marginal reservoirs. Using simple slotted liners is a cheaper option but may not be effective in regulating injection/production profiles in the longer term. This research focused on applying “coupled static and dynamic modeling” to examine and compare five different types of completion designs, using data from a heterogeneous carbonate reservoir. Results show that inflow control device (ICD) integrated completions can achieve better recovery than the slotted, pre-perforated, or engineered liners. Engineered-slotted liners perform better than the pre-perforated-slotted liners. The pre-perforated-slotted liners do not show much improvement over open-hole completions. Finally, a hybrid completion design is optimized by combining ICD with engineered-slotted liners, which showed higher well productivity, lower water cut production, and reduced completion cost.