When oil is discovered in a number of separate reservoirs, it is common for the individual reservoirs to be too small to justify an individual well to develop them.
While the concept of using a single well to develop multiple reservoirs is not new, technical and fiscal problems often arise. These problems include the following:
Different reservoir pressures might cause cross flow during production shutdowns
Different reservoir permeabilities mean that one reservoir will dominate production
Good oilfield practice (and in some countries, the law) requires that production be allocated to the specific reservoir
SmartWell® Solution
Remotely-controlled downhole valves allow selective production
SmartWell® technology can help overcome these problems. For example:
Downhole sleeves or chokes can shut in intervals to prevent cross flow and to ensure that all intervals flow
Maximum drawdown can be applied to the lowest permeability reservoir by choking back production from the more permeable intervals
Pressure and temperature measurements allow coarse allocation of production to zones
