f Gravitational Production Method

A method consisting of intersecting production wells and resulting in improved recovery in oil fields is introduced in this paper. It is called “Gravitational Production Method” and its advantages over the traditional methods are discussed.Implementation of this method is possible whenever a vertical well and a horizontal well are intersected. The aim of such configuration is to increase the production rate and hence the recovery. The advantages are numerous: both wells can be used for production purposes, the combined drainage area is extended, the gravitational pressure gain wherever a dip of stratum between wells exists helps to increase the reservoir pressure gradient and yields higher production rate, the occurance of water coning is delayed due to the horizontal part of the configuration, and finally a higher production rate becomes possible by setting the production pumps at deeper locations in wells. Although the initial investement is higher due to the additional costs for implementing the technologies involved in intersecting process of the wells, however, the rate of return is expected to be shorter because of increased recovery. The design of such method for Caylarbasi oil reservoir is discussed and the preliminary results of the field application in Batı Raman oil reservoir conducted recently are presented.