Wellbore Section Contribution in Fractured Horizontal Openhole Wells (SPE 153326)

More and more horizontal wells are completed as openhole and fractured with multistage fractures. The question is what is the contribution of the openhole section to total production in a fractured horizontal openhole well? Based on actual production data of a horizontal well before and after multistage fracturing, combining the data from a cemented casing horizontal well nearby, the paper analyzes popular horizontal and fractured horizontal well correlations first, and then presents a new inflow performance model accounting both the horizontal openhole section and the fractures of horizontal wells. Data from 13 fractured horizontal openhole wells were used to check the presented model. The paper can be used to study the inflow performance of a horizontal gas well, and to check how much the horizontal openhole section contributes in a fractured well. The presented analyses can also be used to determine fracture numbers and weather to use openhole or cemented casing completion. For a fractured horizontal openhole well, both wellbore and fractures contribute to the total production of the well. Openhole length, fracture number and the ratio of horizontal to vertical permeability are the major control factors. The producing part from the wellbore section is less than that from widely used horizontal models (like JoshiC"s). The more the fractures are, the less the openhole section contribution is. The model can be used for horizontal wells with or without fractures. The presented new model gives better results for authors 13 wells. Previous fractured horizontal well models overestimate the production from the wellbore, and underestimate the production from the fractures. The paper presents the change of fluid flow direction due to hydraulic fractures into the wellbore.