New semianalytic technique to determine horizontal well productivity index in fractured reservoirs

Simplified analytical relations derived for homogeneous formations are usually applied to the determination of the productivity of horizontal wells, regardless of the presence of heterogeneities in the reservoir. Furthermore, complex well architectures and the wealth of completion options currently available cannot be taken into account properly because the well trajectory can only be schematized as a single horizontal wellbore. However, the use of numerical reservoir simulators to reliably forecast the productivity of horizontal wells draining heterogeneous reservoirs may be time-prohibitive or not feasible because of a lack of sufficiently detailed information, especially during the appraisal phase or the early stages of production. A new semianalytic technique is proposed in this paper to solve the inflow equations in an approximate yet reliable manner. A solution to 3D problems of single-phase flow into a horizontal well, taking into account friction in the wellbore, is provided for both single-layer reservoirs and reservoirs comprising two interfering layers. The method also has been extended to describe the fluid flow when the well intercepts one or more fractures. The presented technique allows very fast calculation of the well productivity in oil and gas reservoirs, offering great flexibility in the placement and architecture of the wells. The method has been applied to two field cases for which the well productivity under pseudosteady-state conditions was measured. One of these is a 200-m-long horizontal well draining an isotropic carbonatic reservoir and intersected by a natural low-conductivity fracture. The other is a similar well, intercepting a natural high-conductivity fault, but the oil-bearing formation is anisotropic. Good correspondence was found between the actual productivity and the predictions obtained by application of the proposed semianalytic technique.