Al-Kabbawi, Firas
Project Title
Modelling the performance of infill-drilled horizontal wells in recovering passed oil in mature oil and gas fields
Abstract
Significant amounts of hydrocarbon are known being left unrecovered in mature oil and gas fields which have first been developed in the 1960s to 1980s. If these remaining resources could be recovered, they can help alleviate shortage of world energy supply and consequently address many related issues.
There is an international effort underway to redevelop mature fields. The success of mature field redevelopment relies heavily on infill drilling technology which enables the access previously bypassed hydrocarbon. However, there is a lack of modelling techniques for predicting the performance of horizontal wells efficiently without resorting to complicated full-scale reservoir modelling. The efficiency is a key element to the success of any redevelopment project that is more than likely to be under investment.
In this project, the PhD candidate will expand his analytical horizontal well models and develop new semi-analytical models for this purpose. The models will be validated against numerical models and applied to a field in the North Sea. Suitable training in subject field and transfer skills will be provided to the candidate.
Supervisors
Dr. Jingsheng Ma
Contact
Email: faa6@hw.ac.uk