Evaluation and optimization of multi-lateral wells using MODFLOW unstructured grids

Abstract

AbstractMulti-lateral wells have been increasingly used in recent years by different industries including oil- and gas industry along with coal bed methane- and water production. The common purpose of these wells is to achieve a higher production rate per well. More and more sophisticated well patterns and geometries can be implemented in practice which calls for improved modelling techniques. Complicated well geometries and small lateral diameters require high resolution models in the vicinity of the wells. With structured finite difference grids this can only be achieved by unnecessary refinements even far away from the wellbores. However the model may still suffer from orientation problems if laterals do not coincide with the rows or columns of the rectangular mesh.In the present work, we applied unstructured grids to model multi-lateral wells and compared the results to structured models. We used the MODFLOW-USG code, which simulates groundwater flow using a generalized control volume finite-difference approach, allowing grids other than orthogonal structured grids to be applied. This offers a solution for orientation and resolution problems. The second part of the paper aims to optimize multi-lateral well geometry by evaluating the effect of length, angle and number of laterals.