Horizontal well gas/water shutoff - Field results

Many horizontal wells have been drilled to control gas or water coning. However, after breakthrough, attempts to control inflow location among these wells have been expensive and frequently unsuccessful in reducing GOR and WOR. Cemented casing, casing with ECP's, open hole packers, selective stimulation and formation plugging agents have all been tried. Husky's experience with slightly inclined wells, over the past several years, suggested a "new" technique, which has recently been proven successful. Simply lowering tubing in a well, slightly inclined from horizontal, resulted in doubling of oil production rate and reducing gas production by 50%. Details of well configuration, field production results and a simple analytical model, explaining why it works, are presented in this paper. Special reservoir conditions which must exist for this technique are also discussed.