Barrier impacts on water cut and critical rate of horizontal wells in bottom water-drive reservoirs have been recognized but not investigated quantitatively. Considering the existence of impermeable barriers in oil formations, this paper developed a horizontal well flow model and obtained mathematical equations for the critical rate when water cresting forms in bottom-water reservoirs. The result shows that the barrier increases the critical rate and delays water breakthrough. Further study of the barrier size and location shows that increases in the barrier size and the distance between the barrier and oil-water contact lead to higher critical rates. The critical rate gradually approaches a constant as the barrier size increases. The case study shows the method presented here can be used to predict the critical rate in a bottom-water reservoir and applied to investigate the water cresting behavior of horizontal wells.
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