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Water Coning Prediction: An Evaluation of Horizontal Well Correlations

Received: 30 January 2018     Accepted: 11 February 2018     Published: 14 March 2018
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Abstract

Oil production from bottom-water drive reservoirs is characterized by water production related problem - water coning. Most times, horizontal wells are used to attenuate this production challenge. That notwithstanding, overtime, depending on the production rate, water coning is also experienced with horizontal wells. Therefore, several correlations have been developed to predict the critical rate, breakthrough time and water-cut performance after breakthrough in horizontal wells. However, limited studies have evaluated the predictions of these developed water coning correlations. Therefore, an evaluation has been made to predict the various water coning correlations in horizontal wells. The obtained results show that the critical rate directly depends on the stand-off to drainage width and horizontal well length to drainage width ratios. Also, it is shown that the breakthrough time directly depends on the horizontal well length to drainage width ratio. Furthermore, the correlations developed from water-cut data for the prediction of post-water behaviour (i.e., water-cut performance) after breakthrough indicate more proficient water-cut profile than the correlations developed from water-oil ratio. Therefore, to prolong the occurrence of water coning in horizontal wells, the ratios of stand-off to drainage width and horizontal well length to drainage width should be considered to achieve maximum critical oil rate and breakthrough time in bottom-water reservoirs.

Published in Engineering and Applied Sciences (Volume 3, Issue 1)
DOI 10.11648/j.eas.20180301.14
Page(s) 21-28
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2018. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Bottom-Water Reservoir, Water Coning Prediction, Critical Rate, Breakthrough Time, Water-Cut Performance, Horizontal Wells

References
[1] Okon, A. N., Appah, D. and Akpabio, J. U. (2017). Water Coning Prediction Review and Control: Developing an Integrated Approach. Journal of Scientific Research and Reports, Vol. 14, No. 4, pp. 1-24.
[2] Okwananke, A. and Isehunwa, S. (2008). Analysis of Water Cresting in Horizontal Wells. Paper presented at the 32nd Annual Society of Petroleum Engineers International Conference and Exhibition held in Abuja, Nigeria, 4-6 August.
[3] www.petrowiki.org/Water_and_gas_coning. Accessed 10th May, 2017.
[4] Azim, R. A. (2016). Evaluation of Water Coning Phenomenon in Naturally Fractured Oil Reservoirs. Journal of Petroleum Exploration, Production and Technology, Vol. 6, pp. 279-291.
[5] Muskat, M. and Wyckoff, R. D. (1935). An Approximate Theory of Water Coning in Oil Production. Petroleum Development and Technology in Transactions of American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers, Vol. 114, pp. 144-163.
[6] Osisanya, S. O., Recham, R. and Touami, M. (2000). Effects of Water Coning on the Performance of Vertical and Horizontal Wells - A Reservoir Simulation Study of Hassi R’ Mel Field, Algeria. Paper presented at Canadian International Petroleum Conference held at Calgary, Alberta, Canada, 4-8 June.
[7] Efros, D. A. (1963). Study of Multiphase Flows in Porous Media. Gastoptexizdat, Leningrad.
[8] Karcher, B., Giger, F. and Combe, J. (1986). Some Practical Formulas to Predict Horizontal Well Behaviour. Paper presented at Society of Petroleum Engineers 61st Annual Conference held in New Orleans, Louisiana, 5-8 October.
[9] Giger, F. M. (1986). Analytic Two-Dimensional Models of Water Cresting before Breakthrough for Horizontal Wells. Paper presented at Society of Petroleum Engineers Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition held in New Orleans, Louisiana, 16-19 September.
[10] Chaperon, I. (1986). Theoretical Study of Coning Toward Horizontal and Vertical Wells in Anisotropic Formations: Subcritical and Critical Rates. Society of Petroleum Engineers, SPE Paper 15377.
[11] Joshi, S. D. (1988). Augmentation of Well Productivity using Slant and Horizontal Wells. Journal of Petroleum Technology, pp. 729-739.
[12] Yang, W. and Wattenberger, R. A. (1991). Water Coning Calculation for Vertical and Horizontal Wells. Paper presented at the 66th Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition of the Society of Petroleum Engineers held in Dallas, Texas, 6-9 October.
[13] Recham, R., Osisanya, S. O. and Touami, M. (2000). Effect of Water Coning on the Performance of Vertical and Horizontal Wells – A Reservoir Simulation Study of Hassi R’mel Field, Algeria. Paper presented at Society of Petroleum Engineers/Petroleum Society of Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum International Conference on Horizontal Well Technology held in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, 6-8 November.
[14] Papatzacos, P., Herring, T. M., Martinsen, R. and Skjaeveland, S. M. (1989). Cone Breakthrough Time for Horizontal Wells. Paper presented at Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition held in San Antonio, Texas, 8-11 October.
[15] Ozkan, E. and Raghavan, R. A. (1990). A Breakthrough Time Correlation for Coning toward Horizontal Wells. Paper presented at Society of Petroleum Engineers Europeans Conference held in The Hague, Netherlands, 22-24 October.
[16] Bahadori, A. (2010). Determination of Well Placement and Breakthrough Time in Horizontal Wells for Homogeneous and Anisotropic Reservoirs. Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering, Vol. 75, No. 1-2, pp. 196-202.
[17] Makinde, F. A., Adefidipe, O. A. and Craig, A. J. (2011). Water Coning in Horizontal Wells: Prediction of Post-Breakthrough Performance. International Journal of Engineering and Technology, Vol. 11, No 1, pp. 173-185.
[18] Souza, A. L. S., Arabi, S. and Aziz, K. (1997). A Practical Procedure to Predict Cresting Behaviour in Horizontal Wells. Paper presented at the 5th Latin American and Caribbean Petroleum Engineering Conference and Exhibition held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 30 August-3 September.
[19] Permadi, P. and Jayadi, T. (2010). An Improved Water Coning Calculation for Horizontal Wells. Paper presented at Society of Petroleum Engineers/Russian Oil and Gas Technical Conference held in Moscow, Russia, 26-28 October.
[20] Inikori, S. O. (2002). Numerical Study of Water Coning Control with Downhole Water Sink (DWS) Well Completions in Vertical and Horizontal Wells. Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana University.
[21] El-Gogary, A. F., El-Masry, H. H., Kortam, M. M. and El-Rayek, H. R. (2015). Innovative Water Coning Techniques for Horizontal Wells in Isotropic Reservoirs – Successful Case History from Belayim Field. Paper presented at Society of Petroleum Engineers North Africa Technical Conference and Exhibition held in Cairo, Egypt, 14-16 September.
[22] Khalili, A. (2005). A Review of Critical Coning Rate Correlations and Identifying the most Reliable Equation. Unpublished M.Sc. Dissertation submitted to the School of Petroleum Engineering, University of New South Wales.
[23] Karami, M., Manshad, A. K. and Ashoori, S. (2014). The Prediction of Water Breakthrough Time and Critical Rate with a New Equation for an Iranian Oil Field. Journal of Petroleum Science and Technology, Vol. 32, No. 2, pp. 211-216.
[24] Wagenhofer, T. and Hatzignatiou, D. G. (1996). Optimization of Horizontal Well Placement. Paper presented at Society of Petroleum Engineers Western Regional meeting held in Anchorage, Alaska, 22-24 May.
[25] Kumar, M., Sharma, P. and Gupta, D. K. (2017) Sensitivity Study of Horizontal Length, Offset from Water Oil Contact and Withdrawal Rate of Horizontal Well in Bottom Water Drive Reservoir. Journal of Petroleum Exploration, Production and Technology. doi.10.1007/s13202-0170348-9.
[26] Permadi, P. (1995). Practical Method to Forecast Production Performance of Horizontal Wells. Paper presented at Society of Petroleum Engineers Asia Pacific Oil and Gas Conference held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 20-22 March.
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Cite This Article
  • APA Style

    Anietie Ndarake Okon, Dulu Appah. (2018). Water Coning Prediction: An Evaluation of Horizontal Well Correlations. Engineering and Applied Sciences, 3(1), 21-28. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.eas.20180301.14

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    ACS Style

    Anietie Ndarake Okon; Dulu Appah. Water Coning Prediction: An Evaluation of Horizontal Well Correlations. Eng. Appl. Sci. 2018, 3(1), 21-28. doi: 10.11648/j.eas.20180301.14

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    AMA Style

    Anietie Ndarake Okon, Dulu Appah. Water Coning Prediction: An Evaluation of Horizontal Well Correlations. Eng Appl Sci. 2018;3(1):21-28. doi: 10.11648/j.eas.20180301.14

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  • @article{10.11648/j.eas.20180301.14,
      author = {Anietie Ndarake Okon and Dulu Appah},
      title = {Water Coning Prediction: An Evaluation of Horizontal Well Correlations},
      journal = {Engineering and Applied Sciences},
      volume = {3},
      number = {1},
      pages = {21-28},
      doi = {10.11648/j.eas.20180301.14},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.eas.20180301.14},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.eas.20180301.14},
      abstract = {Oil production from bottom-water drive reservoirs is characterized by water production related problem - water coning. Most times, horizontal wells are used to attenuate this production challenge. That notwithstanding, overtime, depending on the production rate, water coning is also experienced with horizontal wells. Therefore, several correlations have been developed to predict the critical rate, breakthrough time and water-cut performance after breakthrough in horizontal wells. However, limited studies have evaluated the predictions of these developed water coning correlations. Therefore, an evaluation has been made to predict the various water coning correlations in horizontal wells. The obtained results show that the critical rate directly depends on the stand-off to drainage width and horizontal well length to drainage width ratios. Also, it is shown that the breakthrough time directly depends on the horizontal well length to drainage width ratio. Furthermore, the correlations developed from water-cut data for the prediction of post-water behaviour (i.e., water-cut performance) after breakthrough indicate more proficient water-cut profile than the correlations developed from water-oil ratio. Therefore, to prolong the occurrence of water coning in horizontal wells, the ratios of stand-off to drainage width and horizontal well length to drainage width should be considered to achieve maximum critical oil rate and breakthrough time in bottom-water reservoirs.},
     year = {2018}
    }
    

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  • TY  - JOUR
    T1  - Water Coning Prediction: An Evaluation of Horizontal Well Correlations
    AU  - Anietie Ndarake Okon
    AU  - Dulu Appah
    Y1  - 2018/03/14
    PY  - 2018
    N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.eas.20180301.14
    DO  - 10.11648/j.eas.20180301.14
    T2  - Engineering and Applied Sciences
    JF  - Engineering and Applied Sciences
    JO  - Engineering and Applied Sciences
    SP  - 21
    EP  - 28
    PB  - Science Publishing Group
    SN  - 2575-1468
    UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.eas.20180301.14
    AB  - Oil production from bottom-water drive reservoirs is characterized by water production related problem - water coning. Most times, horizontal wells are used to attenuate this production challenge. That notwithstanding, overtime, depending on the production rate, water coning is also experienced with horizontal wells. Therefore, several correlations have been developed to predict the critical rate, breakthrough time and water-cut performance after breakthrough in horizontal wells. However, limited studies have evaluated the predictions of these developed water coning correlations. Therefore, an evaluation has been made to predict the various water coning correlations in horizontal wells. The obtained results show that the critical rate directly depends on the stand-off to drainage width and horizontal well length to drainage width ratios. Also, it is shown that the breakthrough time directly depends on the horizontal well length to drainage width ratio. Furthermore, the correlations developed from water-cut data for the prediction of post-water behaviour (i.e., water-cut performance) after breakthrough indicate more proficient water-cut profile than the correlations developed from water-oil ratio. Therefore, to prolong the occurrence of water coning in horizontal wells, the ratios of stand-off to drainage width and horizontal well length to drainage width should be considered to achieve maximum critical oil rate and breakthrough time in bottom-water reservoirs.
    VL  - 3
    IS  - 1
    ER  - 

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Author Information
  • Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, University of Uyo, Uyo, Nigeria

  • Department of Gas Engineering, University of Port Harcourt, Port Harcourt, Nigeria

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