Inflow Performance Relationship for Horizontal Oil Wells in Fractured Reservoirs

Investigation of the rate-pressure behavior of oil wells is of great importance in well performance evaluation and optimization. Several authors reported that for horizontal wells, the shape of the inflow performance relationship curves is similar to those predicted by the Vogel or Fetkovich methods or a combination of them. However, the complex flow regime existing around a horizontal well precludes using simple empirical methods that are limited in applications. This paper presents an analytical approach for determination of inflow performance for horizontal wells in fractured reservoirs producing during the boundary dominated flow regime using the results of well test analysis. The proposed method, which is an extension of a general approach previously presented by the authors, is then applied to an example horizontal well in a naturally fractured reservoir. The generated IPR curve is then compared with selected methods of horizontal well performance analysis. Results of comparison show that this study is in very good agreement with Joshi method which is a widely accepted method.