Towards temperature transient analysis in horizontal wells

Temperature modeling and analysis of horizontal wells has become increasingly important due to the extensive deployment of downhole temperature monitoring devices. Such sensors allow continuous monitoring of zonal production with a sufficiently high resolution. Published descriptions of the necessary analysis tools have concentrated on well temperature models and convective heat transfer in porous media. They rarely describe transient, reservoir temperature changes during conventional production. Here, fluid expansion effects are superimposed on heat conduction to the surrounding layers coupled to a transient inflow regime. This paper will discuss why these already available solutions to related problems cannot be employed directly. It will propose a comprehensive model of the reservoir temperature around a horizontal, liquid production well. The above task is treated as a multidimensional, heat transfer problem. Both an asymptotic, early time, solution in real space and an accurate, integral solution can be derived. The asymptotic, analytical solution has been tested against a scientific, simulation softwares. The applicability and practical importance of the solution will be discussed. It forms the basis of a Temperature Transient Analysis tool for horizontal, oil producing wells where both the flow properties of the reservoir fluid and the inflow distribution are to be evaluated.