Maiya Medetbekova: In this project the radial water jet drilling (RJD) technology will be studied for a sustainable and efficient productivity enhancement in low productive wells.
This project is part of the EU project “SURE - Novel Productivity Enhancement Concept for a Sustainable Utilization of a Geothermal Resource”. Also it is an integrated part of the advanced water flooding programme at DHRTC, where feasibility and efficiency of RJD technique as well stimulation candidate will be studied.
Radial jet drilling uses the power of a focused fluid jet, which is capable of drilling multiple laterals of about 100 m length out of the main well. This enables stimulating the well with full control on the operational parameters like initial direction of the lateral, length, fluid pressure etc.
The main purpose of the project is to study the sustainability and efficient productivity enhancement of RJDs in low productive wells in chalk reservoirs. To maintain an increase in production rate after jetting, it is important to study and evaluate how rock properties and deformation behaviour will change under varying confining stress, pore pressure and temperature conditions. The two key questions will be addressed in this research:
- What is the maximum productivity increase?
- How sustainable is the productivity increase from an RJD stimulated well?
The PhD project will be involving three phases: laboratory experiment, which will be conducted at GEO; stability analysis; and reservoir integration. Chalk samples will be studied in triaxial tests on changes of hydro-mechanical properties after jetting with RJD and outcomes from these tests will be used to optimize and validate numerical models. Improved performance of well after drilling with RJD, critically depends on the effectiveness and stability of RJD laterals connecting the flow paths to the reservoir. For this, predictive and efficient numerical model needs to be developed that capable to capture RJD rock-fluid interactions: i) including natural heterogeneities in the rock (i.e. pre-existing cracks, layering, and permeability pockets, etc; ii) integrate thermal, flow, mechanical, and chemical (THMC) aspects; iii) incorporate damage mechanics to evaluate progressive deterioration of rocks surrounding the laterals under loading reservoir conditions.
PhD project title: Production performance of radial water-jet drilled wells: a modelling and laboratory study
Effective start/end date 01/10/2016 → 30/09/2019
Supervisors:
Hamid M. Nick, DHRTC
Helle Foged Christensen, GEO
Saeed Salimzadeh, DHRTC