ABSTRACT
Horizontal and multilateral wells are becoming a principal well architecture in the current field developments. (Al-Khelaiwi and Davies, 2007).However, the increase in wellbore length and exposure to different reservoir facies come at a cost. Excessive frictional pressure drop due to high flow rates in horizontal sections, compared to vertical wells, causes higher pressure drawdown in the heel section of the completion, resulting in an unbalanced fluid inflow along the horizontal well length. As a result, coning of water and gas toward the heel of the well is an inevitable problem. (Al-Khelaiwi and Davies, 2007).Over the last decades, use of Advanced Well Completions employing Downhole Flow Control technology such as Inflow Control Devices (ICDs) and Interval Control Valves (ICVs) have equipped the operators with effective techniques to tackle the aforementioned challenges (Al-Khelaiwi, 2013). This paper aims to investigate the technical advantages of using ICVs to control and improve the production from a horizontal well, which is under waterflood, in one of Iranian oil fields. For this purpose, the reservoir was first divided into different hydraulic flow units and then ICVs were installed in each identified unit. Following this, Integrated Production Modelling was employed to simulate and study the improvement in the oil recovery by using those downhole valves to manage the production from different zones. The results from this work demonstrate the effective application of Down-hole Control Devices for improving waterflood performance in terms of more oil recovery and less water production.
