Extending the Production Life and Improving the Recovery by Utilizing ICD’s in Horizontal Well Completion, Success Story of Mumbai Offshore Field, India

Abstract

Abstract Better sweep efficiency and larger drainage area in horizontal well design improves the well production performance. As a matter of fact, it is widely used in water drive reservoirs and tight formations. Horizontal well completion, in combination with mechanical water control design, influences the performance in a much better way. Water production is habitually a significant apprehension during the production life of a well producing from the heterogeneous carbonate bottom water drive reservoir with high permeability. Continuous increase in water production impacts the operating costs, economics of production and early relocation/abandonment. This paper focuses on success story of improving oil production from an offshore carbonate reservoir field through completion of inflow control devices (ICD's) with swell packers in horizontal wells. The adoption of this technology resulted in delayed/reduced water production and improved sustainability of oil rate and higher cumulative oil production. The ICD is a throttling device that creates additional pressure differential when the reservoir fluids flow into the wellbore through this device. It is able to control drawdown to eliminate the water coning caused by reservoir heterogeneity and the heel-toe effect, so that the horizontal well liquid profile is balanced and the oil-water interface is uniformly raised. Selection of pertinent well completion system requires understanding of historical production performance with their completion details, possible sources of early water production, available methods for reduction of water production and efficacy of adopted measures for water control in the field. This case study brings about the impact of ICD completion used in horizontal wells in the water drive reservoir wherein improved well performance; delayed water cut and additional oil production than the slotted liner completion has been witnessed. Selecting the precise and appropriate completion method directly determines the future development and production options with improvement in oil recovery. This extends the well production life span with low investment to achieve more production. And thus, ICD's in horizontal well completion plays a significant role in maximising the economic benefits from field development strategies.