Productivity model of horizontal wells in a sour gas reservoir

ABSTRACT

The utilization of a horizontal well has a great significance in the development of sour gas reservoir. The accurate prediction of the productivity of horizontal well will become more and more important in developing sour gas reservoir. In this paper, the effect of sulfur deposition on permeability is considered and a productivity prediction formula of the horizontal well is established. The effects of the length of horizontal well, the effective thickness of the reservoir, elemental sulfur deposition, and reservoir heterogeneity on productivity are analyzed and calculated. The theoretical results show that elemental sulfur disposition and the heterogeneity are the most important factors. According to the field case, the calculating results of improved Joshi’s equation approaches the real productivity, which means that it could be used to predict the productivity of horizontal well at initial stage during sour gas reservoir development. The results can be used as a reference for the development of similar sour gas reservoir.