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Evaluation of added value in reservoir management by application of flow control with intelligent wells

Institute of Petroleum Engineering, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh EH14 4AS, UK(David.Davies{at}pet.hw.ac.uk)

Intelligent Well-systems Technology (IWsT) provides the delivery and management of production flexibility thorough downhole measurement and control. This paper uses a new workflow to evaluate the suitability of a wide range of reservoir types for IWsT application. This is achieved by a systematic study of a series of generic reservoir scenarios, based on property distributions derived from real field data and operational oil-field models. These geological scenarios were tested to determine the ‘Added Value’ from IWsT compared with standard well completions. Added value is expected through incremental oil recovery.

Results show that IWsT can control uneven, invading fluid fronts, which develop along the wellbore length due to permeability differences, reservoir compartmentalization, or different strengths of aquifer or gas cap support. The degree of improvement depends on the reservoir type (whether layered, faulted, channelized, etc.) and the distribution of porosity and permeability within it. Guidelines for the optimum placement of Internal Control Valve (ICV) locations in the planned completion zone are discussed. A global methodology was developed for the initial screening of favourable geological scenarios for the implementation of IWsT, and an ‘Application Envelope’ was developed based on the formation's correlation length and variability. The validity of this envelope is illustrated by its application to a real reservoir modelling case.

KEYWORDS: intelligent wells, reservoir type, uneven fluid fronts, reservoir heterogeneity, production optimization