Horizontal wells with long laterals are drilled to reduce surface footprint, maximize productivity, and improve project economics(1). Many onshore production wells have been drilled with a lateral length more than 5 km. The lateral configuration varies from well to well to follow the pay zone, but is typically toe-up, toe-down, horizontal, or undulating(2). Flowback operation is often required to clean the wellbore and the near-wellbore region before normal production starts. Flowback operation is a dynamic multiphase phenomenon, so a transient multiphase simulator is required for the study. This paper investigates the effect of lateral profile on gas well flowback performance. The study results are critical to the design and/or selection of flowback skid, hydrate risk management, and reduction of gas flaring.

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