Performance Evaluation Of Non-Conventional Wells In Hassi-Messaoud Field, Algeria

Abstract Recent developments in drilling field technology allow drilling advanced wells in Algeria oil field. In the past fourteen years several horizontal and multilateral wells have been drilled in Hassi-Messaoud field. In the other hand, the interest in re-entry of existing wells keeps growing. The first goal of such wells is to improve the primary production through increasing the reservoir exposure and accelerating the recovery. The most important aspects to consider regarding the application of non-conventional wells are the potential cost benefits and potential risks in utilizing the technology. Difficulties exist in predicting the performance of these wells arrangements. Many of the performance prediction difficulties are being addressed through different projects. Also, these wells can provide means to produce more oil at an economic cost. Applications to actual field cases are provided to illustrate the potential of horizontal and multilateral wells and of their synergy with EOR methods. This study presents the simulation and the assessment of non-conventional wells in Hassi-Messaoud field, and discusses the factors affecting the productivity of such wells, it confirms the production regime of the reservoir with recovery of 60% by water injection, and illustrates the effectiveness of multi-lateral wells in anisotropic formations, also drilling and production performances for re-entries, short radii and long radii are evaluated. The success in oil rate using long radii can each 93.8% better than re-entries with 80.4% where Long radii wells exhibit a much better behavior than re-entries In addition, Borehole stability represents a real issue in HMD where the instability may slow down the drilling progress, reduce well rate, and in the worst case it may cause the loss of the whole well, therefore planning non conventional wells should take into account this aspect in addition to reservoir heterogeneity.