Enhancing Reservoir Modeling via the Black Oil Model for Horizontal Wells: South Rumaila Oilfield, Iraq

Dhyaa H. Haddad, Sameera Hamd-Allah and Mohamed Reda ()
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Dhyaa H. Haddad: Petroleum Engineering Department, Al-Farqadein University College, Basrah 61014, Iraq
Sameera Hamd-Allah: Department of Petroleum Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Baghdad, Baghdad 10071, Iraq
Mohamed Reda: Geology Department, Faculty of Science, Al-Azhar University, Nasr City, Cairo 11884, Egypt

Resources, 2025, vol. 14, issue 7, 1-18

Abstract: Horizontal wells have revolutionized hydrocarbon production by enhancing recovery efficiency and reducing environmental impact. This paper presents an enhanced Black Oil Model simulator, written in Visual Basic, for three-dimensional two-phase (oil and water) flow through porous media. Unlike most existing tools, this simulator is customized for horizontal well modeling and calibrated using extensive historical data from the South Rumaila Oilfield, Iraq. The simulator first achieves a strong match with historical pressure data (1954–2004) using vertical wells, with an average deviation of less than 5% from observed pressures, and is then applied to forecast the performance of hypothetical horizontal wells (2008–2011). The results validate the simulator’s reliability in estimating bottom-hole pressure (e.g., ±3% accuracy for HRU1 well) and water–oil ratios (e.g., WOR reduction of 15% when increasing horizontal well length from 1000 m to 2000 m). Notably, the simulator demonstrated that doubling the horizontal well length reduced WOR by 15% while increasing bottom-hole pressure by only 2%, highlighting the efficiency of longer wells in mitigating water encroachment. This work contributes to improved reservoir management by enabling efficient well placement strategies and optimizing extraction planning, thereby promoting both economic and resource-efficient hydrocarbon recovery.

Keywords: black oil model; horizontal wells; reservoir simulation; bottom-hole pressure; water–oil ratio; extraction efficiency (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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