Drainage Areas, Shapes, and Reserves for Wells in Reservoirs with Multiple Fluid Contacts / Constant Pressure Boundaries

Abstract

Well drainage areas and shapes for wells in reservoirs with aquifer contact or gas-oil contact (constant pressure boundary) take varying shapes, such as, water coming from one-side (edge water drive) to water coming from 3-sides when the 4th-side is a sealing fault. This information is important in well test interpretations, peripheral flooding, aquifer injection, gas and CO2 aquifer storage, geothermal reservoirs, and any subsurface recovery schemes involving injection-production well pairs. A knowledge of well drainage shapes is helpful in optimizing well placement, well productivity estimations, and to maximize reserves. Results show that for a 2-well 3-sided water-drive reservoir system, each well drains an equal area when the well-rates are equal; however, the drainage areas of a well increases logarithmically with an increasing ratio of its flow rate to that of an adjacent well. In case of a multiple well system, results show that the drainage area of well closer to water contact is smaller than that of an interior well, farther away from the water-contact. Results are presented in graphical form and equations to determine the drainage area and shapes for varying production rate-ratios between wells in a multiple constant pressure boundary rectangular reservoir. An algebraic procedure is presented to generalize results from a 2-well system for extension to a multi-well system with similar multiple constant pressure boundary conditions. The equations yield result within 5% of those obtained from complex streamline simulations. A well's location within its drainage area is needed to determine mean well pressures from MBH (Matthews-Brons-Hazebroek) functions for water drive reservoirs, and to estimate productivity index and cumulative water influx volumes.

Sensitivity analysis of oil and gas production as a result of increasing the drainage area with changes in well parameters during different completion of wells

“…In this case, increasing horizontal well length to close to the reservoir boundary will not give higher oil and gas recovery, because, reservoir properties are low in this area [2]. This case happened because of the drainage radius achieved by the well near the reservoir boundary is getting in narrow effective thickness of reservoir layer.…”