High Velocity Flow in and Around Long Perforation Tunnels

In oil industries, wells are mostly cased and perforated rather than completing the producing formation as open-hole. This study concentrates on the steady-state flow behaviour of a single-phase fluid in and around perforated completion tunnels (up to 50 inches long) including inertial effects (Non-Darcy flow). It is shown that the pressure drop inside long perforated tunnels under high flow velocity conditions is negligible compared to that around the perforated region within the porous medium. The results also indicate that the impact of perforation parameters varies with increasing fluid velocity but approaches an asymptotic value at very high flow velocity. The perforation length is the most important parameter whereas perforation radius, rock and fluid properties have little impact on the perforation performance. © 2009 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.