Increasing use of advanced (intelligent) completions has provided the facility for real time reservoir monitoring through use of permanent downhole instrumentation and control of production from different zones within the reservoir through use of surface operated inflow control devices. The potential for the real-time data generated by advanced completion solutions is now being exploited to a greater extent.

The paper will demonstrate that trending analysis of the pressure drop (dP trending) using the data delivered by sensors located strategically in a multi-zone horizontal or multilateral intelligent completion can identify the time and location of water influx into a well. It will be shown that "pressure drop trend signatures" can identify the location of the water influx and application of this approach will be illustrated by use of two, three and four zone completions in synthetic reservoirs. A more complex, field based example will also be employed to illustrate the robustness of the technique. Prompt recognition of the influx of unwanted fluid and its location can be achieved using the technique described in this paper.

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