Attenuation of water coning using dual completion technology

Water coning causes a reduction of oil production and an increase of production costs. Dual completion (downhole water sink) is one of the methods adopted to attenuate water coning. This work describes numerical results associated with this completion technique. The water cone shape and water breakthrough time are investigated to define the mechanism and performance of this technical procedure. The numerical results show that dual completion deforms the shape of the cone. For instance, the top of the water–oil interface is shifted away from the well yielding (under high water production rates) oil breakthrough into water perforations. The water breakthrough is proportional to dimensionless density difference and horizontal permeability and inversely proportional to oil production rate, mobility, and anisotropy ratios. High oil production rates yield elevation of water coning height that intercepts oil flow. Paradoxically, high production rate at water sink is not recommended, the improvement of water breakthrough begins when dimensionless density difference is greater than 0.05. The dual completion technique delays water breakthrough time (BT*). In general, the BT* is delayed by two times that of single completion and critical oil rate is augmented compared to single completion.

[1]  Morris Muskat,et al.  Physical principles of oil production , 1949 .

[2]  Andrew K. Wojtanowicz,et al.  New Dual Completion Method Eliminates Bottom Water Coning , 1995 .

[3]  H. K. Menouar,et al.  Water Coning And Critical Rates In Vertical And Horizontal Wells , 1995 .

[4]  D. K. Lowe,et al.  Horizontal Barriers for Controlling Water Coning , 1962 .

[5]  Suhas V. Patankar,et al.  A Calculation Procedure for Two-Dimensional Elliptic Situations , 1981 .

[6]  G. L. Chierici,et al.  A Systematic Study of Gas and Water Coning By Potentiometric Models , 1964 .

[7]  Zaki Bassiouni,et al.  Segregated production method for oil wells with active water coning , 1994 .

[8]  M. Kuo.  A simplified method for water coning predictions , 1983 .

[9]  Sylvain J. Pirson,et al.  Water Coning Control in Oil Wells by Fluid Injection , 1963 .

[10]  H. D. Outmans.  Effect Of Coning On Clean Production Rate Of Well In Heterogeneous Reservoir , 1964 .

[11]  R. Johns,et al.  Prediction of Capillary Fluid Interfaces During Gas or Water Coning in Vertical Wells , 2005 .

[12]  Federico Fortunati.  Water Coning At The Bottom Of The Well , 1962 .

[13]  B. Guo,et al.  A simple approach to optimization of completion interval in oil/water coning systems , 1993 .

[14]  I. Chaperon.  Theoretical Study of Coning Toward Horizontal and Vertical Wells in Anisotropic Formations: Subcritical and Critical Rates , 1986 .

[15]  James Gunning,et al.  Coning in dual completed systems , 1999 .

[16]  Swisher,et al.  In Situ-Segregated Production of Oil and Water - A Production Method With Environmental Merit: Field Application , 1996 .

[17]  K. Aziz,et al.  Petroleum Reservoir Simulation , 1979 .

[18]  Francois M. Giger,et al.  Analytic Two-Dimensional Models of Water Cresting Before Breakthrough for Horizontal Wells , 1989 .

[19]  Hazim H. Abass,et al.  The Critical Production Rate in Water-Coning System , 1988 .

[20]  Salah Chikh,et al.  Transient Behavior of Water-Oil Interface in an Upward Flow in Porous Media , 2003 .

[21]  N. Rudraiah,et al.  Nonlinear Convection in Porous Media: A Review , 2003 .

[22]  S. Patankar.  Numerical Heat Transfer and Fluid Flow , 2018, Lecture Notes in Mechanical Engineering.

[23]  Svein M. Skjaeveland,et al.  Critical Rate for Water Coning: Correlation and Analytical Solution , 1989 .

[24]  Roger M. Butler,et al.  Vertical Confined Water Drive To Horizontal Well - Part 1: Water And Oil Of Equal Densities , 1992 .

[25]  Weiping Yang.  An Analytical Solution To Two-Phase Flow In Porous Media And Its Application To Water Coning , 1992 .

[26]  A. Garder,et al.  Mechanics of Two Immiscible Fluids in Porous Media , 1954 .

[27]  M. Muskat,et al.  An Approximate Theory of Water-coning in Oil Production , 1935 .

[28]  Svein M. Skjaeveland,et al.  Cone breakthrough time for horizontal wells , 1991 .

[29]  Weiping Yang,et al.  Water Coning Calculations for Vertical and Horizontal Wells , 1991 .