Horizontal wells can be both challenging and rewarding. Ken Feather, CMO, TGT Diagnostics offers his insights.
Managing their performance is a complex task for petroleum engineers and asset teams. But, with the right strategies in place, a horizontal well will usually deliver much higher levels of productivity than could be achieved with a vertical well. TGT’s new Horizontal Flow diagnostics technology has been designed to assess flow in horizontal wells and to deliver a clearer picture of well-system behaviour.
Flow inside the wellbore of a horizontal well can be challenging to decipher, but flow outside is even more complex, and way beyond the reach of conventional production logging (PL) surveys. For years, petroleum engineers have been searching for better survey options in horizontal wells and for systems that could deliver continuous flow profiles across different completion and reservoir scenarios. TGT has addressed these needs with its Horizontal Flow product, an advanced flow-diagnostics resource powered by Cascade3 technology.
This innovative technology features a powerful modelling and simulation engine that predicts the hydrodynamic and thermodynamic behaviour of fluids and their surroundings as those fluids flow through the well-reservoir system. Horizontal Flow is specifically designed for use in horizontal wells and, using the industry’s most advanced hydrodynamic and thermodynamic modelling technologies, it can translate temperature, pressure, and other well-system data into continuous reservoir flow profiles.
These profiles deliver a true picture of inflow and outflow even in challenging wells, such as those with natural or hydraulically induced fractures. The new technology evaluates the common types of flow pattern encountered in horizontal well systems (radial, spherical and linear/fracture), thereby making it possible to assess the linear flow occurring in fractures and to determine fracture contribution. This is particularly useful when combined with the Chorus acoustic sensing system that identifies fracture locations.
Horizontal Flow helps asset teams:
• establish reliable, continuous flow profiles
• locate water or gas breakthroughs
• reduce carbon per barrel
• maintain a more accurate reservoir model
• measure effective pay length
• make more accurate reserves assessments
• reveal crossflow problems
• evaluate the performance of inflow control devices and packers
• assess fractures
• make more accurate production forecasts
• optimise completion designs.
Production engineers, reservoir engineers and the wider asset team need to ensure that each well system performs to expectations by achieving production targets and maximising recovery. Effective management of horizontal wells can deliver huge production benefits. TGT’s new Horizontal Flow diagnostics technology offers clearer insights and helps keep well and reservoir performance on track.
For more information, visit www.tgtdiagnostics.com/knowyourflow
