.
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SPE 37084
Horizontal Well Length: Drill Short or Long Wells?
Samir E1-Sayed and Bill Beckie, Wascana Energy Inc.
Copyright 16SS, Sm?mlyof Petroleum Engmwr8, Inc
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Abstract
In a previous paper Ref. 1 it was mentioned that the reserves
of horizontal wells of heavy oil over water is not linearly
related to the well length. A series of workovers were
performed to verifj’ this ecmclusion. New wells were
especially designed to account for the non-linear relationship
between reserves and length for wells longer than the
optimum for reserves per meter. This paper is an update with
regard to the technique of segmenting the well and producing
different segments separately. The main criteria for the
success of the technique is to increase the reserve of the well
while maintaining a relatively high oil rate to maximize
revenue.
Details of a new water shut-off method specifically suitable to
water conning is described in detail.
Introduction
The Winter field ( Fig. 1) has been developed utilizing
horizontal wells to produce heavy oil ( 13.7 API oil of 2800
ep. viscosity) in a 12 m ( 37 ft.) thick Cummings sand
underlain by a very strong aquifer. Ref. 1 showed that the
reserve per well for the first six phases ( each year program is
called a phase) is the same despite the fact that the average
well length for the different phases varied from 574m. (1883
ft.) to 1111 m. ( 3645 ft.). It also showed that for over 250
horizontal wells, producing oil over water reservoirs in
Saskatchewan, the reserves per well is not linearly related to
the well length once the well length is longer than 500 m.
(1640 ft.). Both of the above lead to assume that for a long
well ( longer than a critical value around the 500 m ) the
nature of the pressure distribution in the wellbore and sand
SocietyofPetroleumEnginears
face together with the oil water interfaee being close,
cm premature conning takes place close to the heal of the well.
Once the water table establishes communication to the
of
wellbore, say, 300m. from the heal the well is reduced to
300m long well as far as oil production is ecmeemed. Most of
the drawdown will be satisfied by the less viscous water
coming from the infinite acting aquifer, and oil production,
from the pump intake at the heel to the water entry point, will
quickty vanish.
The above diagnosis led to two corrective approaches: 1) try
to shut-off the water cone by injeeting water shut-off material,
and 2) try to isolate the suspected area of the water cone
mechanically.
Water Shut-off Treatments
For a long time the oil industry has been looking for the ideal,
cheap, reversible, non-damaging anti-conning or water shut-
off material.
Now if we can find a smart fluid that when hot it behaves just
like water, preferentially displaces water and as it cools off it
becomes less mobile ( a solid ); it would be ideal for use as a
water shut-off material. If with such material the well inflow
is redueed below economic values it is easy to restore some
inflow. Hot water injection into the well will heat up the well
bore and sand-face rendering the materiaJ mobile again. Once
the well is pumped some of the materiat will be produced and
the productivity of the well is improved.
Wax, yes normal problem causing paraflh wax, was the
material of choice. A refinery supplied two samples of
paraftln wax, one of them has a melting point of 38-40
degrees C (100-102 F’)was considered perkt for the Winter
Field of reservoir temperature of 26 degree C (79 F). When
the wax is heated to 60-90 degree C (140-195 F) it is very
fluid with a viscosity much closer to water than to the 3000
cp. oil.
When a well waters out it is very diffkult to induce a draw
down even with a high rate of production. If we inject water
into the well, it takes it on vacuum. In other words wellbore
flow resistance is reduced dramatically. This was another
reason to choose hot wax
Here is the concept, if one cannot induce a pressure by
injecting water into a watered-out well, this is because the
423
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water immediately finds the water saturated cone and invades
it, the flow capacity of the cone to water is very high. Now if
we inject hot wax ( closer to water than oil in viscous
properties) it will preferentially invade the cone; if we let it
cool-cIffthe cone is sealed and no more water can access the
well bore from the wax treated zone.
The idea was acceptable ( theoretically) but it has to be tested
in the field to prove it practically.
Winter well 2C6-32 was drilled in 1994, by April 1995 the oil
cut was less than 80/0 after producing only 3000m3. 7m3 of
hot wax were injeded into the well after the well was
preheated with the injection of hot water. The well was shut
in for two days then put back on production. The oil cut
increased to more than so~o and the calendar day oil rate
increased form less than 9m3/d to over 20m3/d as shown in
Fig. 2, The effect of the treatment on the reserves is more
astounding as can be seen in Fig. 3 the oil cut oil cum plot
indicates that before the treatment the expected reserves at a
2% economic oil cut would be about 10,000 m3; after the
treatment the well cumulative production exceeded 11,000
m3 and the estimated reserves would be close to 20,000 m3.
This is at least double the reserve without the treatment.
The cost of this treatment in April 1995 was $7,000.00 ,
currentty such treatment could cost as littte as $3,000. The
success of this well proved that wax treatment concept is
technically valid and yields a very profitable outcome.
Other wells were treated with different degrees of success;
without a single deterioration of well performance. In other
words, treatments performed to date would either improve the
well performance or does not change it at all. This could
imply that the volumes of wax in the treatments were on the
small side. This could be very true for the following reasons:
1- One does not want to shut the well inflow with a material
known in the oil industry as trouble. 2- It is thought that there
could be multi cones in the wellbore, with different inftow
capacities, therefore, multi small treatments would be more
successfid than a single large treatment. Unfortunately, no
more than two treatments were given to the same well.
The treatment proved itself again during the 1996 drilling
program. One of the newly drilled wells produced at a 100%’o
water. A tracer survey was run and proved communication
with an old well. A treatment of 2m3 of wax did not improve
the performance. A second treatment of 4m3 wax resulted in
the oil cut increasing to 80% and the oil rate to be higher than
20 m3/d; this was a remarkable improvement for a total cost
of less than $6,000.
The concept of the wax treatment is presented here together
with the proof of its validity to encourage the industry to t~ it
and to challenge everyone to work hard on perfecting the
practice.
Other materials, such as asphalt, sulfur, .etc., that could be
cheaper or more suitable could be used.
424
Segmenting the Well by ECP
It was mentioned in Ref. 1 that the use of ECP and scab line]
proved effective in isolating the part of the production linel
that is producing nothing but water.
It was suggested that good engineering practice would sugges
to divide the well into at least two segments utilizing ECI
and scab-liner and produce only a portion of the well at tht
toe; thus the rest of the well is at Virgin condition. Thi
procedure eliminates the need of costly sand cleaning prior t(
the ability to move or pull out the liner. As that portion i!
close to being watered out the scab liner could be pulled ou
to the next ECP or out of the well. Having no production frorr
the portion of the well blanked by the scab liner means m
sand entry to the liner and ease of pulling the scab liner
Another operating practice would be to wait until the firs
part waters out, pulling the scab liner to the next ECP am
placing a bridge plug at the original ECP to block any irrflov
from the watered out portion of the well. Fig. 4 shows :
wellbore schematic of well 3D16-6, it has 2 ECP’S; initia
completion included a scab liner set at the deepest ECP; i.e
the liner was blanked with scab liner from the heel to tht
deepest ECP. Only the toe, one third of the well wa!
produced. The well produced in this completion from Mrq
1995 until April 1996 at which time the well has produ=
14,000 m3 of oil and the oil cut was around 20V0.The punq
needed to be changed with a bigger pump , it was decided a
that time to pull out the scab liner from the well to access tht
virgin part of the well and increase oil rate. Over th{
following three month the well maintained its oil cut at abou
20% while producing progressively higher oil rates as th(
pump speed is gradually increased. 3600 m3 were produce[
for a cum. total of 17600 m3 in 14 month, that’s an averag(
rate of over 40m3/CD. The last month production o
72.3m3/CD at an oil cut of 20’XO speaks very favorably of tht
proposed completion practice. Fig. 6 shows the reserw
estimate of that well. It is clear thatremoving the scab line]
arrested the decline of the oil cut, actually it increased the oi.
cut. It is too early to quanti& the effect of producing the entir(
wellbore on the reserves; the next few month will show tht
rest trend of the oil cut. The reserves of this well will ( veq
conservatively) exceed 30,000 m3 and could reach 50,000 m:
which is much higher than a typical well in such reservoir. I
would have been more conclusive that the propose(
completion is better, if the old portion of the well was isolat~
and only the virgin part was producd, however, the results St
far are veV encouraging.
Considering that the difference in cost of drilling a 600m
long horizontal or a 1600m horizontal ( both with cementw
intermediate) is relatively small most companies opted fol
drilling longer wells. Unfortunately, longer wells did no)
always produce more oil. Now with very little added cost ~
less than $40,000) for ECP and scab liner these longer well!
could be insured to yield much more reserves at higher rate!
 3

than the shorter wells.

Conclusions
1- Further evidence to the non-linear relationship betwwn
reserves and well length were shown, uneven water advance
and breakthrough is the cause of this non linear relationship.

2- Hot wax as a water shut of material is technically,

operationally and economically attractive.

3- The principle of segmenting the well into more than one

portion, by ECP and scab liner, and producing them
separately or in different sequence is valid and yields a higher
reserves and rate per dollar spent.

Acknowledgment
The authors would like to acknowledge the contributions of
many people in Wascana Energy Inc. Field staff for the
successfid implementation of the projeet. Technieal statT for
very stimulating discussions and suggestions. Management
for approval of cmying experimental tasks on a very
profitable field and for having the foresight to allow
publishing this paper.

References
1. Samir E1-Sayed,and Bill Beekie: “ Evolution of Production
Practice and Reservoir Management in the Winter Field”.
47th Annual Technical Meeting of CIM, Calgary, Alberta,
June 10-12, 1996.

425
+

II
 FIG. 2 Wl_NTER WELL 2C6-32 PRODUCTION HISTORY
1000 100000

10000

100

1000 2“

10

100

1 10
94.5 95 95,5 96 96,5 97
TIME
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428
 FIG. 4 WINTER WELL 3D1 6-6 TRAJECTORY
0 300

@~m !$3Mm39
GOOC

. 0 200

‘$ 4af9 FAIR

100

POOR
0

-40 -1oo
ECP ECP

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500 1000 1500 2000 2500
MEASURED LENGTH, M ECP1 1270-1300 ECP2 1670-1700
— TRAJECTORY , PAY — SLOTS
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 FIG. 6 WINTER WELL 3D1 6-6 RESERVE ESTIMATE

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Thousands
OCUM, M3