Numerical Simulation Study Of Herringbone Well Based On Finite Element Method

The herringbone horizontal well can increase the drainage area, reduce drilling quantity,use the existing mining wells, saving cost of oilfield development, especially has outstandingadvantages for the marginal oilfield. With the rapid development of drilling technology andexploration technology, complex branch well technology such as herringbone well is alsogradually mature. It gets more and more attention and extensive application.This paper used the finite element method to derive the oil phase pressure and watersaturation finite element equation based on the two-dimensional two-phase model. It usedmixed finite element method for the two-dimensional seepage problem. The line element wasused to describe the herringbone well and the triangular element of arbitrary shape was usedto describe the formation. This paper has solved the problem of wellbore reasonabledescription combined with line element and triangle element.According to the characteristics of herringbone well, this paper studied the differentbranch number, branch angle, branch length of herringbone well schemes by numericalsimulation. Analysed the herringbone well seepage characteristics of different parameters andstudied the effect of branch number, branch angle and branch length on the productivity ofhorizontal wells. Then the pressure distribution and saturation distribution picture and themoisture content, the daily oil production, cumulative oil production dynamic curve ofdifferent parameters can be got. Through the analysis of the dynamic curve, this paperoptimized the various parameters of herringbone well. Then it could give the differentparameters’ optimal values which could provide a theoretical guidance for the design andconstruction of herringbone well.