A Fully Coupled Numerical Simulation Model for Bottom-Water Gas Reservoirs Integrating Horizontal Wellbore, ICD Screens, and Zonal Water Control: Development, Validation, and Optimization Strategies

Yongsheng An, Zhongwen Sun (), Yiran Kang and Guangning Yang
Additional contact information
Yongsheng An: MOE Key Laboratory of Petroleum Engineering, China University of Petroleum, Beijing 102249, China
Zhongwen Sun: MOE Key Laboratory of Petroleum Engineering, China University of Petroleum, Beijing 102249, China
Yiran Kang: MOE Key Laboratory of Petroleum Engineering, China University of Petroleum, Beijing 102249, China
Guangning Yang: MOE Key Laboratory of Petroleum Engineering, China University of Petroleum, Beijing 102249, China

Energies, 2025, vol. 18, issue 14, 1-20

Abstract: To address the challenges of water coning and early water breakthrough commonly encountered during the development of bottom-water gas reservoirs, this study establishes a fully coupled numerical simulation model integrating a horizontal wellbore, inflow control device (ICD) screens, and a zonal water control system. A novel “dual inflow performance index” method is introduced for the first time, enabling separate calculation of the pressure drops induced by gas and water phases flowing through the ICDs, thereby improving the accuracy of pressure simulations throughout the production lifecycle. The model divides the entire production system into four physically distinct subsystems, the bottom-water gas reservoir, ICD screens, production compartments, and the horizontal wellbore, which are dynamically coupled through transient interflow exchange. Based on geological parameters from the SPE10 dataset, the model simulates realistic production scenarios. The results show that the proposed model accurately captures the time-dependent increase in ICD pressure drop as fluid properties evolve during production. Moreover, the zonal water control method outperforms the single ICD-based control strategy in water control performance, achieving a 23% reduction in cumulative water production. Additionally, the water control intensity of the ICD screens increases nonlinearly with the reduction in the number of openings. In highly heterogeneous reservoirs with significant permeability contrast, effective suppression of water coning can only be achieved by setting a minimal number of openings in the high-permeability compartments, resulting in up to a 15% reduction in cumulative water production. The timing of production compartment shutdown exerts a significant influence on water control performance. The optimal strategy is to first identify the water breakthrough point through unconstrained production simulation as production with all eight ICD screen openings fully open and then shut down the high-permeability production compartment around this critical time. This approach can suppress cumulative water production by up to 27%. Overall, the proposed model offers a practical and robust tool for optimizing completion design and water control strategies in complex bottom-water gas reservoirs.

Keywords: bottom-water gas reservoir; ICD screen; zonal water control; dual inflow performance index; numerical simulation; water coning control (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/18/14/3607/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/18/14/3607/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:18:y:2025:i:14:p:3607-:d:1697405

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().