Abstract
Well completions in Latin American oil and gas fields are characterized by many challenging conditions, including reservoir traps with high structural and sedimentological complexity, diverse hydrocarbon reservoir fluids and rock properties, as well as fluid PVT properties and wettability characteristics that vary regionally within a reservoir. In addition, production units on land, offshore and particularly in deepwater environments have limited gas and water treatment capabilities. Accordingly, the objective of many assets is to produce at the lowest possible gas-oil ratio (GOR) and water cut (WCUT).
Horizontal wells are often completed with conventional slotted liners. Historical production data confirmed by several production logs indicate that a vast number of wells are under-performing due to non-uniform reservoir influx along the wellbore. This results in early water or gas coning and uneven reservoir drainage that leaves valuable bypassed oil in the ground. To compound the issue, the rapid production increase of highly mobile fluids such as water or gas generates high operational costs for fluid treatment, re-injection, and disposal.
Previous publications have explained Inflow Control Devices (ICD) and Autonomous Inflow Control Devices (AICD) principles and design. This paper present and describes examples of successful inflow control device installations in oil well producers in Latin America; installed to produce oil while restricting unwanted water in heavy oil reservoirs. A few variation of inflow control types covering a wide rnage of oil viscosities from 0.6 to 1000+ cP and rock properties and installations in already pre-installed screens to minimize water and gas entry, balance GOR, pressure drawdown aimed to re-vitalize mature fields.
ICDs and AICDs technologies have shown robustness and production performance, reducing high water production at a well, group or field level, extending production life and reducing production costs by minimizing the risk of handling unwanted fluids at the surface and leaving bypassed oil underground.
