Optimizing productivity in oil rims: simulation studies on horizontal well placement under simultaneous oil and gas production

Thin oil rim reservoirs are predominantly those with pay thickness of less than 100 ft. Oil production challenges arise due to the nature of the gas cap and aquifer in such reservoirs and well placement with respect to the fluid contacts. Case studies of oil rim reservoir and operational properties from the Niger-Delta region are used to build classic synthetic oil rim models with different reservoir parameters using a design of experiment. The black oil simulation model of the ECLIPSE software is activated with additional reservoir properties and subsequently initialized to estimate initial oil and gas in place. To optimize hydrocarbon production, 2 horizontal wells are initiated, each to concurrently produce oil and gas. Well placements of (0.5 ft., 0.25 ft. and 0.75 ft.) are made with respect to the pay thickness and then to the fluid contacts. The results show that for oil rim with bigger aquifers, an oil recovery of 8.3% is expected when horizontal wells are placed at 0.75 ft. of the pay thickness away from the gas oil contact, 8.1% oil recovery in oil rims with larger gas caps with completions at 0.75 ft. of the pay zone from the gas oil contacts, 6% oil recovery with relatively small gas caps and aquifer and 9.3% from oil rims with large gas caps and aquifers, with completions at mid-stream of the pay zone.

Automated summary

This study focuses on optimizing hydrocarbon production by using case studies and operational properties from the Niger-Delta region to build synthetic oil rim models with various reservoir parameters. Results show that by strategically placing wells in different types of oil rims, higher oil recovery rates can be achieved.