Multilateral wells with smart completions controlled by different flow-control technologies offer great operational flexibility, with each lateral able to be operated and optimized independently. Understanding the contribution of each lateral in the complexity of the system was a major objective of this study. In order to optimize the system and predict results under different operational conditions, a multilateral-well-modeling methodology was developed. This methodology covers two main factors affecting multilateral productivity—a flow-dependent gas/oil ratio (GOR) and interference between the laterals.
Wells Overview
The study was based on multilateral wells complete with inflow control valves (ICVs). As a general description, the wells are completed with three to seven laterals and each lateral is isolated by packers and controlled by an ICV, as shown in Fig.
