Horizontal wells have emerged as a new means for well-productivity enhancement. Simultaneously, they have brought forward the need to recognize and account for permeability anisotropies, including vertical-to-horizontal and horizontal-to-horizontal directions. In addition, there is the possibility of multiple horizontal drainholes emanating from the same vertical well. Performance relationships for the most interesting well configurations are presented, including both early-time and late-time differences rather than only bounded flow regimes. Solutions for arbitrarily oriented single or multiple horizontal wells are introduced, along with a discussion of well-known existing relationships.

Keywords:
kuchuk, pressure drop, drillstem testing, point source, shape factor, reservoir, transformation, drillstem/well testing, spe formation evaluation, no-flow boundary
Subjects:
Directional drilling, Drilling Operations, Drillstem/well testing, Flow in porous media, Formation Evaluation & Management, Pressure transient analysis, Reservoir Fluid Dynamics
Copyright 1996, Society of Petroleum Engineers
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