Limited Entry Perforations in HVO Recovery: Injection and Production inHorizontal Wells (2006)

Limited Entry Perforations In HVO Recovery: Injection And Production In Horizontal Wells Artyom Burtsev; Artyom Burtsev Shell Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Felix A. Ascanio; Felix A. Ascanio Shell Intl. E&P B.V. Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Alexander M. Mollinger; Alexander M. Mollinger Shell Intl. E&P B.V. Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Boris Kuvshinov; Boris Kuvshinov Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Eric Pierre De Rouffignac Eric Pierre De Rouffignac Shell E&P Co. Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Paper presented at the SPE Russian Oil and Gas Technical Conference and Exhibition, Moscow, Russia, October 2006. Paper Number: SPE-102656-MS https://doi.org/10.2118/102656-MS Published: October 03 2006 Cite View This Citation Add to Citation Manager Share Icon Share Twitter LinkedIn Get Permissions Search Site Citation Burtsev, Artyom, Ascanio, Felix A., Mollinger, Alexander M., Kuvshinov, Boris, and Eric Pierre De Rouffignac. "Limited Entry Perforations In HVO Recovery: Injection And Production In Horizontal Wells." Paper presented at the SPE Russian Oil and Gas Technical Conference and Exhibition, Moscow, Russia, October 2006. doi: https://doi.org/10.2118/102656-MS Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentAll ProceedingsSociety of Petroleum Engineers (SPE)SPE Russian Petroleum Technology Conference Search Advanced Search AbstractThis paper presents an assessment of the performance of a horizontal well, completed by limited-entry perforation (LEP) technique, based on reservoir and well simulation of a typical HVO reservoir, e.g., Peace River field and theoretical calculations. The issues that are primarily covered in the LEP simulation work address the comparison of horizontal LEP injector with conventionally perforated liner for a generic reservoir; the role of the sand-screen in LEP design during HVO production and the analysis of the pressure drops through the LEP hardware.Modelling of the injection scenario with LEP's has shown that in high permeability contrast reservoirs at critical flow conditions, perforations located in zones with permeability variation between 10,000 and 1,000 mD, have the same maximum injection rate. If the wells from Peace River perform similar to the Imperial D-36 HWCSS LEP wells from Cold Lake, then the expected gross production performance that these wells will have under LEP conditions will be around 16 m3/day per perforation. These results are in line with the production performance observed in pad D-36 and also in line with our simulations. The calculations performed here do not take into account any skin damage effects that potentially could occur when LEP's are applied in the field.Calculated total pressure drops across the LEP hardware have shown that the liquid flow is limited by the ability of the reservoir to deliver the necessary amount of fluid to the LEP. The simulation results show that for a steam injection flow rate of 42 m3/day per perforation the expected net oil production rate of the LEP with a sand-screen in Peace River reservoir is around 4.8 m3/day/perf.Overall it can be concluded that injection through LEP's is feasible and production through LEP's in their current configuration is possible if the formation properties are similar to Cold Lake. Potential adverse impact of skin damage under Peace River conditions could invalidate our conclusions; this should be confirmed by the testing of LEPs in the field.IntroductionStudies show that heavy oil constitutes a strategic option for the industry to increase reserves by tapping into at least 12 trillion barrels of in-place heavy hydrocarbons worldwide. We target the present work to increase reserves and production from a typical heavy oil reservoir, e.g., Shell Canada's Peace River asset. Quantitatively it means the development and utilization of technology that can increase the recovery by relatively uniform deposition of large amounts of heat in a reservoir. One of such technologies is the limited-entry perforation (LEP) technique originated from the "pin-point" method, which was commonly utilized in the late 60's as a well completion technique used for hydraulic fracturing [1], [2], [3]. At that time "limited-entry" was a term for the practice of limiting the number of perforations in a completion interval to promote the simultaneous entry of hydraulic fracturing fluid into multiple reservoir zones with varying in-situ stresses.Few years later the LEP completion technique was introduced in steam-injection wells by Mobil Oil Corp. in 1975 [4]. Mobil Oil Corp. tested this technique in the Tulare formation D and E zone sands as a part of continuous-steam injection with vertical wells in the South Belridge field, Kern County, California.Shell introduced LEP completion design in a portion of the South Belridge field in September 1982 [5]. By Dec. 1984, the LEP technique was used in approximately 400 vertical steam-injection wells. Injection data from LEP wells was in close agreement with the theoretical design maximum rate per 0.25inch. (6.4 mm)-diameter hole of 63 b/d (10.0 m3/d) of steam.A standard completion design does not guarantee steam profile control when a wellbore passes through thick, higher permeability sands, layered with thin, lower-permeability sand shales, in between (i.e., so-called high permeability contrast reservoir). Efficient steam distribution control with such multi-sand completion wells is extremely difficult. Usually, higher-permeability sands will act as thief zones with respect to the thinner, tighter sands open in the same wellbore, thus, establishing preferential steam paths and resulting in poor injection profile. Consequently, many sands cannot be effectively steamed and produced. Keywords: production control, thermal method, enhanced recovery, Completion Installation and Operations, Fluid Dynamics, flow rate, diameter, perforation, Modeling & Simulation, steam-assisted gravity drainage Subjects: Well & Reservoir Surveillance and Monitoring, Reservoir Fluid Dynamics, Improved and Enhanced Recovery, Perforating, Flow in porous media, Thermal methods, Completion Installation and Operations, Completion Operations This content is only available via PDF. 2006. Society of Petroleum Engineers You can access this article if you purchase or spend a download.