Interval Control Valves (ICVs) are important tools for managing production challenges such as localized water or gas breakthrough, particularly in multilateral wells and horizontal wells with open-hole completions. This paper describes an automated workflow designed exclusively for wells with intelligent completions that use ICVs and real-time sensors for both down-hole and surface data. The workflow was designed to provide right-time production monitoring, well diagnostics, and ICV optimization for those intelligent wells equipped with ICV and multiple downhole pressure and temperature sensors. The automated workflow performs several tasks: collect and condition production data, provide local history matching, generate several optimization iterations to estimate the best valve setting, and use numerical simulation to generate a number of scenarios where the ICV positions are changed over simulation time. To perform these tasks, the workflow models fluid mechanics between the ICV and a heterogeneous reservoir using next generation software such as steady-state hydraulic applications and a numerical simulator that accounts for the ICV settings. Tracking and visualization of streamline trajectories was used to add value of optimization process particularly the calculation of well distribution factors. The horizontal well in this study has 5 ICVs positioned at different locations. The reservoir model is dual porosity-dual permeability. Local Grid Refinement (LGR) is used to model the horizontal section. The reservoir is subjected to a waterflooding process with more than 10 years of history. Two injectors are associated with a horizontal producer. The workflow operates in two ways: reactive mode and proactive mode. Reactive mode is activated when water cut increases and oil rate or flowing bottomhole pressure (BHP) decreases, at which point the workflow performs local history matching to update the well performance model and optimize the settings of the 5 ICVs to obtain the minimum water cut and maximum oil rate at given constraints. Proactive mode occurs every month or quarter when the numerical simulation runs hundreds of scenarios to obtain the best combination of ICV settings to maximize oil recovery and minimize water injection and production. The workflows described in this paper demonstrate the potential to manage ICV settings to substantially increase oil production while managing water influx.
展开▼
