| The additional pressure drop caused by the well completion can strongly affect the overall well performance in production and/or injection wells. Particularly in horizontal wells, where the reservoir pressure drop is low, any pressure drop through the completion can be critical. A comprehensive completion model is developed to describe the pressure and flow rate relationship (inflow performance) for different types of completions, focusing on behavior in horizontal laterals. The completion types include slotted liners, cased/perforated completions, screens, gravel packs, and pre-packed screens. Because of the complex flow geometry in the near wellbore region, finite element modeling is the most efficient means of simulating the completion inflow performance. A 2-D and 3-D finite element simulator is developed to estimate the inflow performance. The study also considers the effect of scale (precipitated solids) on the performance of screens or slotted liners and the effect of damage on a gravel pack. Based on the simulation results, semi-analytical completion inflow models are derived as skin factor models so that they can be easily coupled with reservoir inflow models. It is expected that in most cases, this will be a rate-dependent skin factor, similar to the way non-Darcy flow is represented in reservoir inflow models. |
