The Completion

ChallengeModeling
Potential Well Solutions
Advanced completion, or smart-well, technology
is set to play a key role in the development and
management of oil and gas fields. Today, the
exploration and production industry faces oil-price
fluctuations and increasingly hostile operating
environments. Smart-well technology is helping
operators in the Middle East and Asia to meet these
challenges. In this article, Mustafa Sengul of Saudi
Aramco, Burak Yeten of ChevronTexaco and Fikri
Kuchuk of Schlumberger outline the value of
multilateral techniques and examine how detailed
modeling of possible multilateral strategies can help
asset teams to optimize field development.

Number 5, 2004

Middle East & Asia Reservoir Review

shorter lateral branches may prove to

be more cost-efficient than producing
the same reservoir section through
a single, longer horizontal borehole
because spreading the production
inflow across two or more laterals
reduces the frictional pressure losses
during production.
When a multilateral approach
has been selected for reservoir
development, the key challenges
facing the asset team are placing
the laterals accurately within the
productive zones and controlling the
flow of reservoir fluids to maximize
production and recovery rates.
Emerging advanced completion
technologies allow asset managers to
optimize reservoir performance in real
time, and these powerful techniques
look set to dominate the management
of multilateral reservoirs for years
to come. Advanced completions
offer unrivalled flexibility and
responsiveness, but, in this approach,
operators must perform a costbenefit
analysis on a field-by-field basis.
Advanced completion technologies
allow operators to reconfigure
well architecture at will and to
acquire real-time data without well
intervention. However, there are
additional benefits that can be gained
from remote monitoring and control
of a well. For example, operators can
optimize reserves by choking zones
with high gas/oil and water/oil ratios
eliminate intervention, which
removes the risk of losing the well
and reduces operating expenditure
minimize health, safety, and
environment risks
acquire more accurate data that
will facilitate informed decision
making earlier in an assets life
optimize surface facilities and so
reduce capital expenditure.
The information gathered by smart
wells provides a clearer image of the
asset. When improved understanding is
reached early in a reservoirs life cycle,
the operator will reap greater rewards
from the application of that knowledge.

12,000
Africa
Asia
Australasia
Latin America

10,000

North America
Western Europe
Others

USD million

8,000
6,000
4,000
2,000
0
1998

1999

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

Year

Figure 1.1: Expenditure on deepwater exploration and production projects shows a rising trend for
many areas of the world as easily recoverable reserves become harder to find.

Accelerated and optimized field development

Production

Conventional field development

Advanced well completions

Early production facilities

High-resolution
seismic data

Conventional
completion
technology
Traditional field
development
Conventional
seismic data

Time

Figure 1.2: Advanced completion technology helps to accelerate production and increase recovery
levels, thereby helping to secure economic benefits as soon as possible.

normal completions, but in new and

remote subsea plays, intervention
needs can be so demanding that the
field becomes uneconomic.
These factors define the arena in
which advanced completions must
operate: they have to be able to
accelerate production; reduce the
need for well intervention, particularly
downhole; and deal with the geological
complexity and uncertainty of new or
remote subsea fields.
Advanced completions deliver
flexibility in production management
that allows operators to fine-tune
production from each well and so
achieve optimal depletion. This and
the accompanying reduction in the

number of interventions should reduce

costs and boost NPV. In addition,
operators may also reduce well risks
through eliminating difficult well
operations that could compromise
well integrityand improve safety
performance levels by removing
personnel from those operations.

The value of multilaterals

Multilateral completions increase
productivity by penetrating more
of the reservoir than a single-bore
vertical or horizontal well (Figure 1.3).
Multilateral wells allow higher flow
rates at lower pressure drops. In
certain situations, producing through

Figure 1.3: Carefully planned multilateral completions increase productivity

by penetrating more of the reservoir than single-bore vertical (top) or
geometrically steered horizontal (middle) wells. Multilateral wells (bottom)
are cost-effective and increase total recovery.

Number 5, 2004

dvanced completion can be

defined as using technologies that
include monitoring and controlling
well and reservoir performance
without having to deploy a rig or mast
to alter the physical configuration of
the well. This capability, and the
strategy of minimum intervention
that it makes possible, can reduce the
economic, health, safety, environment
risks associated with hydrocarbon
production.
When combined with multilateral
wells, advanced completions allow the
asset team to manage the reservoir
more effectively and increase the
production and recovery rates. The
exploration and production industry
has always understood how to
optimize economic value through
active management of the reservoir.
But, until now, market conditions
have never provided the impetus for
implementation. Technology is a key
element in the advanced completion
story, but it is the need to overcome
new economic challenges that has
driven the industry toward the
advanced completion concept.
In many parts of the world, easily
recoverable reserves are becoming
harder to find. For the operators who
are aiming to replace their depleting
assets and meet future demand,
the challenge is to explore deeper
reservoir formations, many of
which are in deepwater plays or
geographically remote locations,
with relatively small hydrocarbon
reservoirs (Figure 1.1). The whole
process of asset management will
have to change if these projects are
to be economically viable.
Conventional completion
techniques tend to result in delayed
production and lower net present
value (NPV). Oil and gas operators
want to accelerate production and
so secure economic benefits as soon
as possible (Figure 1.2). As a wells
life cycle progresses, numerous
interventions for data collection, a key
part of the reservoir characterization
process, and subsequent closure or
opening of new reservoir zones will
be required. In some cases, these
interventions can be the largest
single cost in the life of a well. Wellintervention costs are significant in

Middle East & Asia Reservoir Review

Marginal field exploitation

Advanced completion technology may
also help operators to develop marginal
fields. Minimal water production,
coupled with the high oil-recovery rates
that are possible with an advanced
completion, makes the technology a
natural choice for small or isolated oil
accumulations (Figure 1.4).
In the future, permanent reservoir
monitoring will continue to expand its
applications, and production control will
become a standard part of completions.
There will also be more integration
between downhole technology and field
management software. This means
much greater field automation.
Downhole oilwater separation
systems (Figure 1.5) enable engineers
to separate produced fluids in the
well. This separation results in an oilrich stream being brought to surface,
with the separated production water
being reinjected. These systems will
accelerate production, increase the
recoverable reserves, and offer

environmental advantages such as

energy savings and smaller topside
processing facilities.
Autonomous actuation of control
devices in response to changes in
water quality, injection pressure,
or inflow water cut will improve
the reliability of separation systems
and enable operators to schedule
maintenance by predicting the time
to failure using output from the
condition-monitoring sensors.

Reservoir management
Advanced completion technology has
many potential applications. The most
pressing need identified by the industry
is minimizing the costs of the intrusive
interventions that are required to
prevent water breakthrough and sand
influx problems.
In the longer term, the ability
to make real-time decisions for all
surface and subsurface activities
is the key to optimizing reservoir
management, and advanced

completions will play a central role.

Advanced completions will be
particularly useful for water flow
control in horizontal injectors;
monitoring and control of electrical
submersible pumps (ESP); intelligent
gas lifting; multilaterals and the
solution to crossflow; and intelligent
data analysis and control.
Until recently, the main impediments
to the adoption of advanced completion
technology were concerns about the
reliability of intelligent completions and
their lack of track record. To overcome
these obstacles, Schlumberger has
worked to prove and improve the
reliability of its systems at every stage
in their development. The company has
adopted build on what you know as
its guiding design principle and has
developed new systems from proven
technologies.
At the strategic level, this has
involved identifying and clarifying
the risks, and undertaking
experimentation, testing, and
reliability monitoring and analysis,
Surface
separation
Producer

Injector

Downhole
separation
Autoinjector

before carrying out integration testing

and installation trials. This work has
shown that there is no single solution
for reliability testing. Engineers need
to combine knowledge from field
experiments, laboratory tests, failedequipment postmortems, and
mathematical analyses in their quest
for improved reliability.

The Gulf

Qatar

Ghawar
field

Making knowledge work

The range of sensors and
measurement devices that can be
fitted in wells is expanding rapidly.
These systems provide data on
reservoir pressure, temperature, flow
rate, and even fluid composition. And,
when the well features inflow control
valves and chokes, data transmitted to
surface can be translated into direct
corrective action. This process-control
loop allows engineers to optimize well
performance and, by extension, the
performance of entire fields. Data
gathered can be used to continuously
update field models so that asset
teams can make informed decisions
in every phase of field development.

Evaluating advanced well

completions in Ghawar field
Saudi Aramco has conducted an
evaluation study on the potential
benefits of deploying and utilizing
advanced completion technology within
the Arab-D formation of the Ghawar
reservoir (Figure 1.6). The study
focused on the flanks of the reservoir
where the remaining dry oil column is
less than 40-ft thick. The aim was to
explore the applicability and efficiency
of advanced completion as a method
for producing the remaining oil.

Figure 1.6: A detailed

completion simulation
project was conducted
in part of Saudi
Arabias Ghawar field.

Saudi Arabia

Well control optimization

A typical advanced completion well,
with control and monitoring devices
installed, divides the wellbore into
several independent branches
(Figure 1.7). The ultimate aim of this
approach is to balance the inflow
rates for each branch and, thus,
maximize oil production. The main
objectives of any well optimization
study are to determine how many
downhole flow control valves are
required and where they should
be placed, and then to develop the
optimum scheduling for their use
in fluid control operations.

The number and the location of

the control devices are influenced by
reservoir heterogeneity, particularly
faults, fractures, and boundary
conditions. Engineers can estimate
the number and the location of the
valves needed in the wellbore by using
reservoir connectivity information,
which can be derived from reservoir
characterization. Reservoir sections
with high flow ratesthose dominated
by stratiform super-permeability
(super-K) features or fractureswill
lead to high inflow for a particular
segment of the well.
Where the well intersects one or
more super-K layers, engineers will

Packer
Liner

Valve

Pressure
maintenance
Tubing

Figure 1.7: This

schematic of a smart well
shows how fluids from three
separate zones are brought together
in the tubing. Valves control the inflow from
each layer and allow the reservoir engineer to
control production rates to minimize water influx.

Middle East & Asia Reservoir Review

Figure 1.5: Downhole oilwater separation

systems reduce the scale of surface facilities.

Number 5, 2004

Number 5, 2004

Figure 1.4: Advanced completion technology is the natural choice for small or isolated oil
accumulations because of its tight control of water production coupled with high oil-recovery rates.

Middle East & Asia Reservoir Review

5500ft

5560ft
5600ft

Water support

Figure 1.11: The detailed permeability

distributions and the thin layers that represent
the stratiform super-K features are shown in a
cross section through the simulation model.

2000

Figure 1.8: ECLIPSE reservoir simulation software was used to model the performance of flow
control devices in the Ghawar study area.

generated a multisegment well model

using ECLIPSE* reservoir simulation
software and used this model to model
the flow control devices (Figure 1.8).
To establish the relative value of
multilaterals, the study team compared
three different well options: a set of
three vertical wells; a horizontal well;
and a three-branched multilateral
(trilateral) well. The horizontal and
trilateral wells were modeled as
advanced completions. The team
developed a three-dimensional model
that captured the approximate

existing oil and water distributions

and the location of the oil/water
transition zone (Figure 1.9).
Ghawar is a carbonate reservoir
with stratiform super-K layers and
fractures. Although the matrix in the
upper zones has good permeability and
makes significant contribution to fluid
flow, the fractures and the stratiform
super-K layers, where present, provide
the most efficient fluid flow paths
within the reservoir (Figure 1.10).

Stratiform super-K layers

Fracture layers

Figure 1.10: The orientation of fractures and

stratiform super-K layers on the simulation grid.

1600
1400

Vertical well 1

1200
1000
800

Vertical well 2

600
400
200
0
0

200

400

600

800 1000
Time (days)

1200

1400

1600

1800

Figure 1.12: Vertical well performance over the course of the simulated
production period. Well 2 watered out before the end of the simulation
period. Well 3, located furthest from the fractures, delivered the highest
production rates throughout.

A cross section through the

simulation model shows detailed
permeability distributions and the thin
layers that represent the stratiform
super-K features (Figure 1.11). The
WOC is set at 5560 ft and the
structural high is seen at 5500 ft. The
reservoir units dip gently to the east,
with peripheral injection and a weak
aquifer providing pressure support to
the model from the east. Porosity and
thickness values are represented as
being homogeneous within each layer.
The stratiform super-K layers are
2-ft thick. The average oil column is
around 40-ft thick. The model included
the Arab-D zones 1 and 2: generally,
zone 2 has much better porosity and
permeability than zone 1.

Well options
For the horizontal and multilateral
options, the study also examined the
potential benefits of using advanced
completion technology. An ECLIPSE
multisegment well model was used to
evaluate the pressure drops within
the horizontal well and in the laterals.

Vertical wells
The first option used three vertical
wells. The performance of each well
(Figure 1.12) is directly influenced by
its proximity to the fractures within
the reservoir (Figure 1.13).
The wells were located 1600-ft
apart. The lowest completions in
the wells were situated immediately
above the water/oil transition zone.

Vertical well 3

Figure 1.13: Plan view of the vertical well

positions showing fracture locations and
orientations.

Each well was allocated to produce

2000 STB of liquid and was set a
constraint of 250 psi of tubinghead
pressure. During the simulations,
any completion where water cut
exceeded 65% was automatically
worked over and its production shut
off by the simulator.
Vertical wells 1 and 2 required
several workover operations. Well 2
watered out before the end of the
simulation period because it was very
close to a fracture, whereas well 3,
which required no workovers and
produced steadily, was located far
away from the fractures.
For the vertical wells, the
cumulative oil production after 1800
days of simulation was 4.37 MMSTB
a recovery of 24%.

Middle East & Asia Reservoir Review

Number 5, 2004

Number 5, 2004

Figure 1.9: A three-dimensional view of

the conceptual simulation model. The red blocks
indicate oil, blue blocks water, and the blocks in between the
transition zone between oil and water. The model consists of a
25 33 10 grid. The movable oil originally in place is estimated at 18 MMSTB.

10 Middle East & Asia Reservoir Review

Vertical well 1
Vertical well 2
Vertical well 3

1800
Oil production rate (STB/D)

have to equilibrate or reallocate the

inflow along the wellbore to avoid
or delay coning and/or cusping of
the driving fluids. Under these
circumstances, advanced completions
can help to achieve balanced and
efficient reservoir depletion. Another
approach might involve cycling
production from different segments
of the well to control the rise of the
water/oil contact (WOC).
Fractures have a significant effect on
flow rates in Ghawar, and the number
of fractures that intersect the well and
their location will determine how many
valves are required to control flow
and where they should be located.
Downhole control valves should be
placed at strategic locations, and their
real-time monitoring capabilities used
to evaluate optimum settings.
Ghawar field is highly heterogeneous,
so it may be necessary to deploy a
control device for each branch within
any multilateral well. This would
ensure that the asset-management
team could retain flexibility in
production allocation regardless of
reservoir heterogeneity. At present,
multilateral technology does not offer
tubing or liner completions within the
branches (except in the case of Level 6
multilateral wells) so valves should
be deployed on the main trunk.
In the evaluation study, Saudi
Aramco wanted to explore the
potential benefits of applying smartwell technology. The project team

11

The third option considered in

the study was a trilateral well with
the laterals positioned so as to
be consistent with previous well
configurations. All three laterals
and the main trunk were horizontal
(Figure 1.16).
The first simulation for this
configuration was performed without
advanced completion technology.
Figure 1.17 shows the oil production
profiles for individual branches. The
6-MMSTB production target was
distributed unequally among them and
resulted in imbalanced production.
Branch A, which was closer to the
heel of the well, tended to pull more
than the other branches because of
pressure losses along the main trunk.
Branch B produced significantly more
than branch C, especially during the

A
A

Well
Well

B
B

Figure 1.14: Areal view of the horizontal well

completions. The heel of this well is
highlighted with a green circle.

Figure 1.16: Areal view of the trilateral well

completions. A green circle indicates the heel of
the main trunk. Branch A was closest to the heel
and branch C furthest from the heel. Branch B
intersected one of the fractures, and branch A
was situated close to the other. Branches A and
B were approximately 2000-ft long and branch C
around 3000-ft long. All branches had openhole
completions and were fully perforated. The main
trunk was not perforated.

4000

Branch A
Branch B

3000

Branch C

2000
1000
0
0

200

400

600

800
1000
Time (days)

1200

1400

1600

1800

Figure 1.17: Oil-production profiles without smart control.

Trilateral well with

advanced completion

0.8

The next step was to transform the

well into an advanced completion unit
by deploying control devices. Three
valves were installed, one for each
lateral, on the tubing within the main
trunk to act as gates to the main
trunk. Altering the closure of each
gate controlled the flow. Each lateral
was an openhole completion and had
its own branch within the main trunk
as a result of separation provided by
the packers.
An algorithm was developed to
determine the optimum closure of
the valves at various time steps,
thereby maximizing the cumulative
oil production.
With optimized valve settings, the
oil-production profiles showed that
more production was allocated to
branch C than to the other branches
(Figure 1.19). The production
allocation was reset at 720 days to
favor branch C, while production from
branch A was in rapid decline. Branch
B, with its direct connection to the
fracture, was given the smallest
production allocation.
The smart trilateral well produced
7.14 MMSTB of oil, which corresponded
to a recovery of 40%. A comparison
of oil production from the original
trilateral well with that of the smart
trilateral well indicated an incremental
recovery of about 1 MMSTB
(Figure 1.20). Applying smart-well
technology accelerated production and
reduced water cut by almost 5% after
five years.
The horizontal well had an
incremental recovery 31% higher
than the three vertical wells, and the

0.6

0.7
Branch A

0.5

Branch B

0.4

Branch C

0.3
0.2
0.1
0.0
0

200

400

600

800
1000
Time (days)

1200

1400

1600

1800

Figure 1.18: Water-cut profiles without smart control.

Branch A

6000

Branch B

5000

Branch C

4000
3000
2000
1000
0
0

200

400

600

800
1000
Time (days)

1200

1400

1600

1800

Figure 1.19: Oil-production profiles with optimized valve control.

6000

Trilateral well
Smart trilateral well

5000
4000
3000
2000
1000
0
0

200

400

600

800
1000
Time (days)

1200

1400

1600

1800

Figure 1.20: Oil-production profiles for the original trilateral and the smart trilateral wells.

Middle East & Asia Reservoir Review

Number 5, 2004

Number 5, 2004

12 Middle East & Asia Reservoir Review

Figure 1.15: Side view of the horizontal well

completions. The white ellipse indicates the
packer location.

Branch oil production rate (STB/D)

Multilateral well

early stages before water broke

through. The greater length of
branch C, which it was believed might
boost oil rates, had little effect on
production.
Plots of water cut for each branch
(Figure 1.18) indicated that the water
content in branch C barely reached
10%, while the other branches
watered out early. Water built up
quickly in them and reduced the
overall oil production.
Production from the trilateral well,
without smart control, amounted to
6.16 MMSTB of oila recovery of 34%.

Branch water cut

The standard horizontal well, which

was not completed at and around the
fractures, produced 5.74 MMSTB of
oila recovery of 32%.

Branch oil production rate (STB/D)

The next option was a single

horizontal well about 1-km long
and intersecting both fractures
(Figure 1.14). In the simulation,
the well was not completed at the
fracture; this followed current field
practice. Selective perforation was
applied whenever possible, especially
in thin oil zones. Selective perforation
requires a liner, as do advanced
completions. However, by not
completing the horizontal well at or
around the fractures, the detrimental
effects of fractures (such as
accelerated water breakthrough)
are greatly reduced.
As it had been decided not to
complete within the fractures, there
was almost no potential application
for an advanced completion in the
horizontal well. There was no
preferential coning tendency, nor an
obvious path for water breakthrough.
However, to test the technology,
a single flow control device was

installed at the heel of the well and a

packer placed close to the midpoint
(Figure 1.15). The left branch of the
packer had a liner completion, while
the right branch had a tubing
completion that was required for
the flow control device. The well was
then ready for cycling, which simply
involved opening and closing the
valve for set time periods so that
production alternated between the
heel and the toe of the well. This was
done to test whether water moving
through the matrix might recede from
the areas around the choked branch.
It was hoped that this approach
would help to reduce water cut and
so increase recovery. However, high
matrix permeability in zone 2A
prevented this technique from
working efficiently. When a side was
choked, the water did not recede, but
moved quickly to the open branch
through the highly permeable matrix.
Cycling was more effective, but the
incremental recovery obtained was
little more than 1%.

Oil production rate (STB/D)

Horizontal well

13

The importance of
heterogeneity

14 Middle East & Asia Reservoir Review

Cumulative oil production (MMSTB)

Vertical

Trilateral

Horizontal

Smart trilateral

6.5

5.5

4.5

3.5

2.5
No
heterogeneity

Medium
permeability

Super
permeability

Fracture +
super
permeability

Fracture +
medium
permeability

Reassessing mature reservoirs

Fracture

Figure 1.21: The simulations and optimizations were repeated for various types and combinations of
heterogeneity to assess the cumulative production in each case.

20
16

17

15

that come with smart-well technology.

Once the performance of each lateral
has been established, with or without
choking, a control strategy could then
be developed.

12
10
7
5
2

Multilateral triples production

0
No
heterogeneity

Medium
permeability

Figure 1.23: A RapidConnect multilateral completion system helped to boost well productivity in
an established Java Sea field.

Super
permeability

Fracture +
super
permeability

Fracture +
medium
permeability

Fracture

Figure 1.22: The incremental production obtained by applying each well type is crucial in establishing
the economic viability of any planned development.

team to base its technical planning on

sound economic data (Figure 1.22).

Lessons from Ghawar field

The comparison of completion
types in Ghawar field indicated that
unconventional wells outperformed
vertical wells in terms of accelerated
production. Multilateral wells offered
major benefits, especially when
dealing with heterogeneous features
of the type that are commonly
encountered in Ghawar. Drilling
multilateral wells would also allow
the acquisition of diverse and
directional reservoir property data,
which would enhance the reservoir
characterization of the field.

The sensitivity studies also

indicated that unconventional wells
reduced the level of uncertainty
concerning oil recovery. Multilateral
wells, in particular, have the potential
to buffer reservoir performance
against the unexpected effects of
heterogeneity. Converting these highperformance wells into smart wells
would allow the asset team to improve
efficiency and boost field performance
by allocating the appropriate
production to each lateral.
It may be difficult to determine the
optimum production to be allocated for
each lateral if there is no historymatched model of the area. In this
case, it might be appropriate to test the
laterals using the permanent gauges

A RapidConnect* multilateral
completion system, which provides
selective drainhole access and
connectivity, with expandable sand
screens was recently deployed in a
multilateral well in the Java Sea,
offshore Indonesia (Figure 1.23). The
operators principal aim was to boost
well productivity in an established
field. Careful planning and detailed
modeling of the asset played a crucial
role in the success of this project.
Five service companies collaborated
on the project, with Schlumberger
acting as the main service provider
during the planning, drilling, and
completion phases. After completing
a detailed study of reservoir data, the
team optimized well placement using
the Bima multipurpose service vessel
to drill two sacrificial vertical wells.
This careful refinement of the target
location helped the team to exploit
a net oil pay zone that was much
thicker than expected.
The casing window was milled, and
both wells were drilled using synthetic
oil-base mud, VISION* Formation

Evaluation and Imaging While Drilling

services, and PowerPak* steerable
motors. The RapidConnect system
provided optimal mechanical
protection of the junction between
the two lateral wellbores with the least
amount of flow restriction. Shaker
screens helped to minimize formation
damage by optimizing particle size
for mudcake and flowback. During
completion, the drill-in fluid was
allowed to flow back through the
screens. The use of expandable sand
screens, rather than a conventional

Weizhou field in Beihai Bay, China,

(Figure 1.24) is a mature field where
pressure has slowly fallen and
producing wells have been converted
to use ESPs. Oil production from the
field has declined, but the continued
use of ESPs has raised the drawdown
pressure and increased the volume
of water produced from the reservoir.
Faced with high water cuts in some
wells, the operators selected several
wells for temporary abandonment.
In 1999, the operating company
decided to use multilateral wells as
a cost-effective alternative to drilling
new wells. In June 2000, a candidate
well was selected and approved. The
first step was to isolate the lower
uneconomic production zones. A
casing exit window was milled to
expose new formation, and a
directional pilot well was drilled
through the reservoir and into the
lower water-contact zone. The project

China

Vietnam

Weizhou
field Hainan
Laos

South China Sea

Thailand
Number 5, 2004

Number 5, 2004

All of the simulations and optimizations

were repeated for various types and
combinations of heterogeneity, such as
fractures and high-permeability layers,
to assess the cumulative production in
each case (Figure 1.21).
Where there was no special
heterogeneity, the three vertical wells
performed adequately, but not as well
as the unconventional alternatives,
which produced about 20% more oil
than the vertical wells.
Neither the horizontal nor the
vertical wells performed well when
exposed to stratiform super-K
features, since these layers are
continuous and bring water quickly
from the aquifer to the wells.
The trilateral wells were least
affected by the presence of stratiform
super-K features. Their wider areal
coverage meant that drawdown was
distributed in a plane. As a result,
the super-K layers could not influence
the well from a single point (as in the
vertical well) or from a line of points
(as in the horizontal well). The
incremental production obtained
by applying each well type would,
therefore, be crucial in establishing
the economic viability of any planned
development and would allow the asset

completion, may have contributed to

a reduction in the skin effect and the
much improved productivity index.
Since production startup, the
multilateral well has surpassed all
previous field productivity levels and
achieved a stabilized rate of 5500 B/D
of oil and 4.5 MMcf/D of gas. These
rates are three to four times the net
oil-production rate for any other well
in the field. From spudding to ESP
startup, the job was completed in
36 days2 days ahead of schedule.

7.5

Incremental recovery (%)

trilateral well with smart control had

an incremental recovery 16% above
that of its conventional counterpart.
All the alternatives with laterals
had substantially higher incremental
recoveries than the three vertical
wells. The additional production
obtained from the smart trilateral
well was around 3 MMbbl. Recovery
from the trilateral well was not
substantially better than that from the
horizontal well because branches A
and B were the main producing
laterals on the trilateral well and their
combined lengths almost matched the
length of the horizontal well. There
was, therefore, little difference
between the two wells, except that
the trilateral well had wider areal
exposure to the reservoir. This and
the additional lateral (branch C)
added 427,000 bbl to production.
Field economics would have to be
used to help the asset team to select
the best development option.

Figure 1.24: Weizhou field in Beihai Bay, China.

Middle East & Asia Reservoir Review

15

team then logged the pilot and

evaluated it. This helped to identify
the water contact level within the
producing reservoir. After logging, the
pilot well was isolated using cement.
The project team devised a second
directional plan that would allow
them to drill a long, horizontal lateral
in the reservoir above the water
contact level. The trajectory of this
lateral well was controlled using
logging- and measurement-whiledrilling packages. The production
lateral was completed openhole with
screens and isolated from the pilot
hole by a long external casing packer.
Installation of the RapidConnect
multilateral connection system was
a key element in the success of the
project. The RapidConnect system
allowed engineers to tie back the
producing lateral to the main bore
and provide additional reinforcement
at the junction against overburden
pressure applied by the formation.
The RapidConnect system will also
allow reentry for the lateral and main
bore in future operations and isolation
of the lateral if required. The well is
being monitored and evaluated as it
continues to produce oil at rates
significantly above the initial value.

Managing data throughout the

life of a field

16 Middle East & Asia Reservoir Review

More data, more detail

The volume of well data gathered
will increase dramatically, and this
will influence how the asset team
handles and uses data. Traditionally,
wellbore data have been low volume
and relatively simple. In the future,
reservoir management will rely on
two-way communication between
surface and downhole, with a highvolume data stream from the bottom
of the well to the surface. This will
provide detailed information on
pressure, temperature, and fluids.
Surface data-handling systems
and associated network links to the
reservoir database are well-developed
areas of technology. Transmission
speeds and bandwidth will undoubtedly
improve and will allow the teams to
share information more effectively.
As teams change the way they
control assets and move from a
simple, extractive model to managed
process control, a key consideration
will be the design of the reservoir
database system. This must store data
continually collected from many fields
and wells, and provide ease of access
to numerous technical specialists.

developers is how to improve data

visualization and interpretation.
Interpretation of reservoir behavior
requires analysts to examine data at
many different scales. For example, a
geoscientist examining a 3D image of
a reservoir unit may want to examine
the pressure history of a particular
well that penetrates the unit and then
switch to examining a specific buildup from that well. The complex
interaction of datasets at varying
scales presents a significant challenge
to the industry (Figure 1.25).
An improved understanding of
reservoir structure and behavior must
then be applied to the practical issue of
enhancing the fields economic value by
accelerating production, increasing
recoverable reserves, or both.
In some oil provinces, engineers are
installing downhole systems that allow
them to control reservoirs in the same
way as process plants. This requires a
very detailed understanding of
reservoir structure and facies
variations (Figure 1.26). In their
simplest form, reservoir partition
systems divide the reservoir into
management intervals. A typical
interval would comprise a group
of sands or limestones, which are
expected to behave as a single flow
unit, usually with impermeable layers,
such as shales, above and below
(Figure 1.27). The ability to
differentiate clean sands from shaly
sands or shales gives a clearer
indication of pay thickness, which can
be difficult to establish in thin-bedded

Software enhancement
Seismic
data

The first challenge facing the software

Openhole neutron porosity

Figure 1.25: The complex interaction

of (p.u)
.45
datasets from various sources and at Openhole density porosity
.45
(p.u)
varying scales presents a significant
challenge to the industry. Seismic, well,
and production data all influence the
reservoir model and simulations
based on it.
Well data

-0.15

Compressional
l
and shear
coherence nal

Model

-0.15 100

Tri-lateral
Smart tri-lateral

(s/m)

Production
data

GR

Petrophysical
Static
Proportion of
FMS
results
FMS image heterogen. conductivity

FMS perm. indicator

Core
facies 0.2 Core perm. 2000

FMS/log
facies

Units

Gamma-ray
interpretation

Algal-rud. R
A
Pel.-skel. G/P

00

Conductivity
ranges
Average
conductivity
on FMI
pad

50
Dense

Clean sand
Sand
Shale

Forum W

Dense
50
C

00

Forum W
D

50

Layer
lithotypes

Dense

00

Algal W/P

Skel. LM
F
50

Algal W/P

Figure 1.27: The high-resolution conductivity measurements recorded

Figure 1.26: Reservoir facies derived from image heterogeneities and

openhole logs in a lower Cretaceous limestone sequence. This degree of
detail is essential in reservoir development and helps reservoir engineers
to plan multilateral wells.

reservoirs, and allows the asset team

to calculate the sand/shale ratio and
define flow units between major shale
boundaries. In the wellbore, zonal
isolation packers separate the
production liner into these managed
intervals, which are typically between
10- and 30-m thick. Between the
packers, variable chokes regulate the
movement of fluids in or out of the
reservoir management interval. The
key components of this system are
power supply, surface facilities,
control devices, instrumentation, and
communications.
The emergence of multilateral wells
has greatly improved reservoir
management. Increased reservoir
coverage allows greater control and,
potentially, access to more oil. By
adopting a multilateral technique,
reservoir engineers can use the primary
wellbore to
produce oil from low-permeability
areas in heterogeneous reservoirs
access a large number of highproductivity fractures
reach several reservoirs

by the FMI* Fullbore Formation MicroImager help geologists to calculate

sand/shale ratios and identify the sedimentary features that influence
reservoir performance.

manage water and gas injection more

effectively.
Controlling the flow from multiple
laterals is critical to their success. Basic
flow modeling indicates that the
highest-pressure lateral will dominate
the system and restrict flow from the
laterals where pressures are lower.
Downhole choking devices can help
engineers to maximize production by
choking back flow from high-pressure
laterals. Supplying power to the laterals
is still a major challenge.
Future field developments will
deliver improved understanding of the
reservoir that should help to increase
recoverable reserves beyond the 35%
typical in existing fields and to enhance
the value of each new field. At the
same time, the reduced need for well
interventions, for either data acquisition
or changing well configurations, should
cut operating costs.

as dehydration, separation and even

chemical or energy conversion. Moving
surface processes downhole presents a
range of technical challenges. However,
the potential benefits are minimal
surface facilities and wells that deliver
only the desired production fluids.
The technology associated with
advanced completions is moving
rapidly. Those who adopt this approach
to well control and field management
are helping to define how the industry
will develop over the coming decades.

Going underground

Number 5, 2004

Number 5, 2004

In the future, there will be much

greater volumes and a wider range
of well data; these data will be
gathered continuously throughout
the life of a field. At present, data
are usually restricted to point values
of temperature and pressure within
the wellbore and to some flow
profiling. However, there is
considerable uncertainty and
ambiguity in this approach.
The additional data gathered
from future wells will fall into two
categories: in-well data and betweenwell data. Within this decade, oil and
service companies will definitely
enhance the quality of in-well data,
and gather more detailed and accurate
pressure, temperature, water-cut,
viscosity, and compositional profiles.
These will provide substantially more
information about the day-to-day
performance of both reservoir and
well. However, acquiring between-well

data is a major challenge. If an asset

team could image the structures and
fluid flow between wells, it would
represent a dramatic step toward
managing reservoirs as
processproduction systems.
These developments will help to
move reservoir management away from
imprecise visualization of what appears
to be happening toward more precise
mapping of fluid fronts and reservoir
properties throughout the reservoir.

In the future, advanced completions

may also offer processing options such
Middle East & Asia Reservoir Review

17