A New model for inferring interwell connectivity between horizontal wells and balanced injection for horizontal injectors

ABSTRACT

Because of the long horizontal length and reservoir heterogeneity, water production and injection are different along different locations of a horizontal well. Besides, the conventional models for inferring interwell connectivity between directional wells are not suitable for horizontal wells. In this paper, a new model for inferring interwell connectivity between horizontal wells is built and a new water injection string is presented which can meet the demand of water injection of different locations for a horizontal well. Based on the conventional water injection string, a water distributor working cylinder was installed to respectively distribute water to root and toe of a horizontal well. A horizontal well can be considered as several directional wells with different physical properties such as permeability and porosity and so on. The reservoir is characterized as a coarse model consisting of a number of interwell units which is controlled by any two directional wells. Injection and production data were used to infer interwell connectivity and geological characteristics. The results obtained from the new proposed model are in consistent with the oxygen activation of injectors. Interwell connectivity coefficient of each injector was calculated and the preponderance flow paths were found.

KEYWORDS:

• Interwell connectivity
• horizontal wells
• balanced injection
• water injection string
• different locations of a horizontal well

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).