Publications

The application of horizontal wells became more popular because it offers some advantages, mainly in providing higher productivity and recovery. Particularly in bottom water drive reservoirs, higher recovery can be achieved by reducing or delaying water coning or cresting. However, the coning problems are not solved yet. A better study on the horizontal well performances by using scaled physical model (sand pack as a porous media) is considered necessary.The model was designed by scaling down all parameters from the prototype reservoir using dimensionless analysis based on the Buckingham p theorem. Therefore, the results can be applied to the reservoir prototype represented. The applications of this study to other reservoirs are conducted using similarity concepts between the model and the prototype. The most prominent point in this study is the mobility ratio effect on well productivity performance. The mobility ratio was varied by using three kinds of oil sample with different viscosities. The well productivity performance was evaluated on four parameters: breakthrough time, water cut, recovery, and water oil ratio.The results show that the higher mobility ratio will affect an early breakthrough time, slower water cut increment, and lower recovery. It also show that the breakthrough and recovery factor increase as the ratio of gravity to viscous forces (R) increases. By determining the ratio of gravity to viscous forces (R), the results can be used for selecting optimum fluid production rate.