A Semi-Analytical Method for Simulating Two-Phase Flow Performance of Horizontal Volatile Oil Wells in Fractured Carbonate Reservoirs

Abstract

Two-phase flow behavior in fractured carbonate reservoirs was investigated due to the importance for geothermal and petroleum resource recovery, such as in this study the phase change of volatile oil. This paper presents a semi-analytical method for accurately modeling two-phase flow behavior and quickly predicting the production performance. The fractured carbonate reservoir was modeled with a dual-porosity model, and the phase change and two-phase flow were modeled using the black oil model. The production of the oil phase was obtained through linearizing and solving the mathematical model. The gas phase production was forecast using the producing gas-oil ratio (GOR), calculated using flowing material balance equations. By comparing the semi-analytical solution to the solution of the commercial numerical simulator and applying it to a field case, the accuracy and practicability of the proposed semi-analytical method could be validated. Based on the semi-analytical model, the influences of several critical parameters on production performance were also analyzed. The proposed model was shown to be efficient in evaluating two-phase production performance of horizontal volatile oil wells. Furthermore, the new technique is able to serve as a useful tool for analyzing two-phase production data and making forecasts for volatile oil wells in fractured carbonate reservoirs.

Keywords

• fractured carbonate reservoir
• two-phase flow
• horizontal well
• production performance
• semi-analytical method