Rate Decline Analysis for Horizontal Wells with Multiple Sections

Abstract

The widely used application of horizontal well makes it significant to effectively evaluate rate performance of horizontal well in oil and gas reservoir. However, most models in previous work only focus on rate decline analysis (RDA) of horizontal well with single section (HWSS); they hardly address the problem that production rate distributes nonuniformly along horizontal wellbore in analyzing rate transient behaviors. However, only some horizontal segments contribute to the total production rates, and the production of each section along horizontal wellbore is not the same in fact, which may be caused by reservoir heterogeneity, selective completion, and nonuniform formation damage along horizontal wellbore. Therefore, the effect of these phenomena on rate decline characteristics cannot be ignored. The aim of this paper is to propose an analytical model to investigate transient rate response of a horizontal well with multiple sections (HWMS). The compound type curves, including the normalized production curve, the normalized production integral curve, and the production integral derivative curve, are developed to distinguish the different cases. The influences of some sensitive parameters on decline curves are further discussed. Results show obvious differences on the decline curves between the HWMS and HWSS. The parameters are sensitive on decline curves, which explore the feasible application on production performance evaluation and parameters interpretation through history matching the production data with the compound type curves in this paper.