Waterflood Oil Recovery in Fractured Reservoirs With Directionally Drilled Wells
Abstract A technique has been developed to estimate the potential effects of directionally drilled wellbore orientation on pattern waterflood oil recovery in anisotropically fractured reservoirs. The technique attempts to quantify the tradeoff between drilling directional wells either more vertically or better aligned with the major fracture orientation in situations where simple vertical wells are not possible. Among the incentives to deplete some reservoirs with directionally drilled wells are the ability to access reserves located beneath large bodies of water from shore or island structures and the economy of centralized surface facilities. The orientation of these directionally drilled wells in anisotropically fractured oil reservoirs may have a significant impact on recovery efficiency. The described method involves combining the directional permeability characteristics of the reservoir caused by fractures, drilling accuracy, and the proposed wellbore orientation to estimate the volume of reservoir that may be affected by a nonvertical well. The distribution of fractures in the reservoir, average fracture length, and effective vertical permeability are noted as being major factors influencing the effect of directionally drilled wells on oil recovery. When applied to the Norman Wells oil field (N.W. Ter., Canada), it was possible to identify elongated target areas within which any directionally drilled well is expected to have similar oil recovery. Introduction Recent advances in drilling technology have made it possible to drill wellbores deviated from the normal vertical position, up to and including completely horizontal. This type of directional drilling will allow the depletion of oil reservoirs that are located beneath surface obstacles by drilling wells from remote surface locations. Access to many of the world's remaining petroleum reserves, in such offshore areas as the Canadian Beaufort Sea and the east coast, will have to be by drilling from conveniently located island or platform structures. The Norman Wells oil reservoir, of which approximately 60% lies beneath the MacKenzie River, is a current example of how directional drilling will make oil recovery possible. The proposed reservoir depletion program involves drilling wells from centralized surface facilities to program involves drilling wells from centralized surface facilities to implement a pattern waterflood oil-recovery scheme (Fig. 1). The wells will be deviated at as much as 700 to the vertical to reach the target locations from the centralized surface locations (Fig. 2). The reservoir rock is anisotropically fractured, and optimization of the wellbore orientation with respect to the fractures was recognized as an area of study with considerable potential for increasing oil recovery. Initial development planning indicated that wells should be as vertical as possible and aligned with the main fracture trend. This simple guideline resulted in many technically impossible wells and wells with poor anticipated oil recovery. The optimization procedure developed here subsequently was applied in the development planning of the Norman Wells reservoir and is believed to have helped maximize oil recovery while maintaining technically feasible and economically viable well designs. Background geological data and details of the proposed Norman Wells development plan are documented in Refs. 1 and 2. Theory Several analytical methods have been presented for determining the vertical and areal sweep efficiencies of pattern waterflood operations. These methods, or more sophisticated reservoir simulation techniques, may be employed to determine the recoverable reserves associated with the waterflooding of homogeneous reservoirs or reservoirs composed of discrete homogeneous units. The presence of fractures in an oil reservoir adds a new dimension to this problem because the flow characteristics of fractured rock systems are difficult to predict. SPEJ p. 375