Weidong Chen's report
by
Weidong Chen, MSE
University of Texas at Austin, 2002
Supervisor: A. Daniel Hill
A multilateral well deliverability model is developed to
predict the performance of multilateral completions. A horizontal
lateral model was first constructed, which couples a reservoir
inflow model with a lateral flow model to calculate the
production rate from each lateral. Pressure drop along the
lateral is considered in the model, then implemented the coupled
inflow/lateral model into a well system with more than one
lateral commingled to a main wellbore. The production from each
lateral, the overall production rate, and the pressure throughout
the well system are predicted by the multilateral deliverability
model.
In order to consider the pressure drop along the lateral, the
lateral is divided into many segments. Then for reservoir inflow,
Helmy and Wattenbarger’s correlation is adopted to
calculate the productivity for each segment. For flow in the
laterals, we adopted Ouyang’s single phase wellbore flow
models because we assume that the following pressure is always
greater than the bubble point. This model incorporates frictional
and accelerational pressure drop, and also the pressure drop
caused by inflow turbulence. For flow in the build section and
wellbore, the Mukherjee and Brill correlation is selected to
predict the pressure drop when the following pressure drops below
the bubble point. This empirical model enables the determination
of liquid holdup regardless of the angle of inclination and the
direction of flow.
The results from the model are verified by the published data.
Then present an example with single lateral which shows how
important the pressure drop along the lateral is considered. In
an extreme case, the flow from the far part of the lateral is
very small. Then another example calculation for a well with dual
laterals draining separate reservoirs illustrates how conditions
in one lateral can affect the performance of other laterals and
the overall performance of the well. In some case, crossflow may
occur between the different reservoirs.
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