ANALYSIS OF THE EFFECT OF CRITICAL PARAMETERS ON CONING IN HORIZONTAL WELLS

Abstract

Water coning is described as an upward movement of water into the perforation in oil-producing wells which lead to water production along with the crude oil. This coning may reduce oil production rate and could substantially increase water production. Hence, many correlations from previous study and available solutions were investigated to estimate the actual critical oil rate to control water-coning in horizontal wells. Specifically, the effects of fluid and rock properties such as viscosity, formation thickness, horizontal permeability, length of horizontal wells and density difference between oil and water on the critical flow rate were investigated. Results show that the oil viscosity and density difference between oil and water have more pronounced effects on coning rate than other parameters. However, while coning tendency becomes more pronounced as the oil becomes more viscous, it is more favorable as the density difference increases (i.e. lighter oil). Moreover, the critical coning rate increases with an increase in the horizontal permeability and the well length. Knowledge of the impact of rock and fluid properties on coning is crucial in the design of mitigation strategies to prevent or effectively manage excessive water influx into the wellbore during oil and gas production.

Keywords

• water-coning
• oil-critical rate
• correlations
• viscosity
• density difference
• horizontal wells