Grid and Fluid Independent Description for Multilateral Horizontal Well in Dynamic Simulation

The method for modeling of a multilateral well design that is completely independent on the simulation grid and fluid properties is proposed. The method takes into account friction in the lateral branches and crossflow between them. Well parameters, such as trajectory, perforation intervals, roughness and diameter, are directly used to calculate pressure distribution along the wellbore at the current fluid composition and tubing head pressure (THP).

Well connections with grid blocks in a finite volume approximation for dynamic model should be created. The automatic creation of the well connections during dynamic simulation based on specified well trajectory and completion intervals is proposed. The connection factor is suggested to be calculated based on length of completion intersection with the block, trajectory direction and rock properties during the run time. To calculate pressure drop on well track intervals between connections and the well track intervals between top completion and tubing head the well-known correlations are utilized. The correlations are used for the current fluid composition in the wellbore in each connection using information for well trajectory, roughness and diameter.

Such an approach makes it possible to get rid of the use of the tabulated bottomhole pressure (BHP) as a function of tubing head pressure for a number of phase compositions. Such traditional use of phase compositions gives a non-physical response in compositional models, where the component composition of the product varies significantly throughout the life of the field. Usage of real coordinates (x, y, z) for setting well trajectory and perforation intervals, instead of the traditional grid block numbers (i, j, k), allows to calculate layer intersection, connection factors and pressure distribution along wellbore with arbitrary changes in the dynamic model grid, for example, when introducing local grid refinement or dynamic grid and rock properties variation used to describe hydraulic fracturing.

The proposed method is successfully used for modeling of a multilateral well design in dynamic simulation. The results of such dynamic simulation are consistent with the real samples from reservoir.