A Comparative Study of Inflow Performance Models for Multilateral Wells under Single and 2-Phase Flow Production Conditions

Over the last the last decade, multilateral well have emerged as a proven alternative to vertical as well as horizontal wells to optimize the recovery of hydrocarbon. These wells are designated to overcome the unfortunate events of discontinuous reserves. Although it was introduced in the year 1950, multilateral well become more popular over the last two decades with the advancement in directional drilling. These milestones achieved in directional drilling have steered the multilateral technology into a new phase of rapid exponential development. Designing a multilateral well requires great innovation and experience in directional drilling. Unlike Multilateral Well, a conventional well such as vertical based design requires only a simple method of finding out the inflow performance rate and productivity index. Few new models have been introduced to overcome this shortcoming. These models vary in results in addition to the methods and assumptions taken into contemplation. A comparative study shall be conducted to these models and the results obtained will be reviewed. This comparative analysis will be conducted for dual lateral well in one phase and also two phase flow condition. Both these phase inflow performance is generated in steady state condition. Sensitivity analyses are then performed to all this models to predict the inflow performance at different reservoir condition and well configuration such as the fluid properties and also reservoir geometry. This study is vital in judging the well reserves from the economic point of view. It will also aid in planning the entire process of producing the hydrocarbon from the well. The accurate prediction on the well reserves will help the petroleum engineers in optimizing the production rate of the reservoir.