The Study into the Optimal Placement of Horizontal MSHF Wells Relative to the Regional Stress in a West Siberian Field Using the Dynamic Marker-Based Production Profile Surveillance Technology

Abstract

In the context of hard-to-recover hydrocarbon reserves, the role of timely and high-quality decision-making at the initial stage of project implementation is becoming even more crucial. Along with numerous variable parameters used in the development system design tasks, such as the producer/injector ratio, well spacing, well types, completion method, etc., one of the key factors is the selection of a placement pattern for horizontal wellbores of production wells relative to the regional stress. Given the low-permeability reservoirs at the West Siberian fields, hydraulic fracturing (HF) is virtually the only method to manage the reservoirs in an efficient and economic manner. In this region, horizontal wells fitted with frac sleeves are drilled on a permanent basis, while an urgent task that affects the formation of an efficient drainage zone is to substantiate the location of the wellbore and of man-induced fractures that appear during multi-stage hydraulic fracturing (MSHF) relative to the maximum stresses. In this paper, a study into the optimal placement of horizontal MSHF wells was made to ensure stable oil reserves recovery and increase the reservoir sweep efficiency in one of the areas of a large oil field. The key objective in this work was to determine the long-term reserves recovery efficiency in the wells with different orientations of their horizontal boreholes. In order to assess the inflow profile and composition in the horizontal wells, the dynamic marker-based production profile surveillance technology, which is one of the advanced industry standards in production logging, was applied [1].