Cost Effective Reservoir Management Through the Application of Multilateral Technology

Abstract For a quarter of a century sustained technological advances in multilateral technology have enhanced economics and extended the production life of fields in the Middle East. Over this history, multilateral applications have evolved from standard cemented and non-cemented dual-laterals to dual-laterals with intelligent flow control, intervention capabilities, and improved junction integrity as common multilateral completion strategies in the Middle East. Observation wells are commonly used to monitor reservoir behavior during the production from the same reservoir in producer wells. It can be economically challenging to map the layout of both observation and producer wells in addition to the cost of drilled wells dedicated only for observation. The use of multilateral technology enables operators to convert an existing observation well to become a dual function well of observation/producer with both laterals accessible to rigless intervention operation. A new lateral window is opened from the existing observation well and a junction is created to drill the lateral to target depth. Multilateral technology allows accessibility to both laterals, therefore the functionality of the existing observation well is retained and accessibility to new lateral producer is also possible. Permanent downhole gauges can also be integrated to continuously monitor pressure and temperature in both laterals. The multilateral technology delivers an innovative solution towards implementation of best reservoir management practices to enable economical field developments. This paper will focus on a multilateral well design which enabled the operator to have the advantage of monitoring the reservoir behavior while producing from the newly drilled lateral in the same well, while also minimizing the number of dedicated observation wells. The multilateral well design allows accessibility to both mainbore and newly drilled lateral in fully rigless operations. The case study demonstrates how a multilateral well strategy reduces time-intensive operations by utilizing existing infrastructure and eliminating additional wellbore sections, leading to cost-effective field developments without sacrificing reservoir monitoring capabilities. The case study will include discussion of workover intervention operations, completions, and lateral creation systems. The case study discusses the first installation in the region where an operator has taken advantage of a multilateral well design to monitor the reservoir behavior while producing from the newly drilled lateral in the same well. The application will reduce well count leading to field development cost savings.