Optimization of Waterflooding Patterns in Multilateral Wells – a Numerical Simulation Approach [ READ ]
M.B. Adamu, A.D.I. Sulaiman, A.A. Shamsudeen and A.I. Auwalu
Multilateral wells have been documented to afford better production performance than vertical wells in primary oil recovery processes especially in thin reservoirs. However, little is known about how multilaterals perform relative to vertical wells in water-injection secondary recovery processes, and how the configuration and pattern of arrangement of these multilaterals affect their performance. In this work, Boast98, a three-dimensional, three-phase, black oil reservoir simulator was used to simulate different waterflooding schemes involving various multilateral well configurations and patterns of arrangement using a synthetic reservoir of a given areal extend in order to compare the performance of vertical wells against multilaterals in a water-injection secondary oil recovery operation. Basically four types of multilateral well configurations were investigated which included the Dual lateral (two laterals), the Trilateral (three laterals), the Quadlateral (four laterals), and the Multilevel (four laterals) well configurations. Vertical and horizontal wells were used as base cases against which the performance of multilaterals were judged. The vertical five-spot pattern performed better than the best multilateral well scenario in terms of cumulative oil produced. All multilateral wells considered were found to be more profitable than vertical and horizontal wells because of their accelerated rate of recovery and reduced water production. The only exception was the trilateral six-spot pattern.
M.B. Adamu, A.D.I. Sulaiman, A.A. Shamsudeen and A.I. Auwalu
Multilateral wells have been documented to afford better production performance than vertical wells in primary oil recovery processes especially in thin reservoirs. However, little is known about how multilaterals perform relative to vertical wells in water-injection secondary recovery processes, and how the configuration and pattern of arrangement of these multilaterals affect their performance. In this work, Boast98, a three-dimensional, three-phase, black oil reservoir simulator was used to simulate different waterflooding schemes involving various multilateral well configurations and patterns of arrangement using a synthetic reservoir of a given areal extend in order to compare the performance of vertical wells against multilaterals in a water-injection secondary oil recovery operation. Basically four types of multilateral well configurations were investigated which included the Dual lateral (two laterals), the Trilateral (three laterals), the Quadlateral (four laterals), and the Multilevel (four laterals) well configurations. Vertical and horizontal wells were used as base cases against which the performance of multilaterals were judged. The vertical five-spot pattern performed better than the best multilateral well scenario in terms of cumulative oil produced. All multilateral wells considered were found to be more profitable than vertical and horizontal wells because of their accelerated rate of recovery and reduced water production. The only exception was the trilateral six-spot pattern.
