Effective Use of Passive Inflow Control Devices to Improve the Field Development Plan

Abstract

The concept of one completion tool affecting overall recovery from a field may seem unlikely at first thought. This is due to the fact that standard procedures in the oil industry have long designed completions on a well to well basis rather than analyzing the effect that said completions would have on field-wide hydrocarbon recovery. When the deliverability of a reservoir is evaluated, the well is usually thought of as a pressure point, a simplification used to make predictive modeling easier. However, when multiple wells are drilled and completed with maximized reservoir contact, the completions used within these wells have significant impact on the overall recovery from their associated drainage areas. As such, wells should no longer be treated merely as pressure points if one desires a realistic premise from which to predict field performance. This paper revolves around simulations carried out comparing cases with different completion installations. The completion designs were as follows: 1-Standard Screen 2-Passive Inflow Control Devices (PICD) with Open-Hole Isolation PackersThe use of PICDs is not widely understood by the industry as the operational criteria that determine the technology's effectiveness have not made it universally necessary. These essential screening criteria have been largely explored in published literature, particularly the works of Martin P. Coronado, et al. Yet once a positive assessment has been made and PICD is seen as a viable option, an execution of a time-dependent simulation for describing completion performance over time should be the next step in the process. Evaluating the performance of a completion over time is extremely important as conditions are always changing throughout the life of the well. Examples of conditions that need to be factored into the performance of the completion include the following:1-Fluid Saturations 2-Changing fluid properties (Pressure and temperature dependent) 3-Reservoir Pressure 4-Production Drawdown (Pressure difference between the drainage region pressure and flowing bottom hole pressure) a. Associated flow rates at the sand face and into the completion In all modeled scenarios, the criteria to justify the use of PICD were met. Establishing a link between the completion design and a numerical reservoir simulator was achieved, with the resulting output evaluated by researchers. When comparing the simulated completion types, the effectiveness of installing PICDs was made apparent with results that showed a significant increase in recovery factor of up to 4% when compared to the Standard Screen case.

Design of flow control devices in steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) completion

“…If the restrictionstyle FCD is oriented radially, the FCD also serves as the entrance into the production base pipe (Al-Khelaiwi and Davies 2007). The particular type of restriction may vary with common styles including thin and thick orifice chokes, nozzles, short tubes, and venturi restrictions (Abdelfattah et al 2012;Atkinson et al 2004;Banerjee et al 2013a, b;Banerjee and Hascakir 2015;Bybee 2008).…”

“…Since that initial field trial, FCDs/ICDs have been extensively used across the globe to delay water/gas breakthrough in high production rate horizontal wells (Abdelfattah et al 2012;Al-Khelaiwi and Davies 2007;Jain et al 2013;Karim et al 2010;Li et al 2013). In late 2008, FCDs were proposed for the use in a steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) well pair.…”

Flow Control Devices in SAGD Completion Design: Enhanced Heavy Oil/Bitumen Recovery Through Improved Thermal Efficiencies

“…Since that initial field trial, FCDs/ICDs have been extensively used across the globe to delay water/gas breakthrough in high production rate horizontal wells (Abdelfattah et al 2012;Al-Khelaiwi and Davies 2007;Jain et al 2013;Karim et al 2010;Li et al 2013). Multiple differing FCD geometries have been commercialized to accomplish the goal of equalizing reservoir flux along the wellbore.…”

A Novel Autonomous Inflow Control Device Design: Improvements to Hybrid ICD

“…Where: the numbers of FRR represent the equivalent pressure drop magnitude expected in pressure units of bar when flowing at the following conditions [17] : fluid density of 998.2 kg/m 3 , fluid viscosity of 1.003 cP, and flow rate of 30 m 3 /day. These designs use restrictive and/or frictional mechanism to generate the similar pressure drop.…”