Study on foamy oil development effect in horizontal wells based on a novel inflow performance relationship model and a five-component model

In this paper, a novel inflow performance relationship (IPR) model and a five-component simulation model are presented for the evaluation of the foamy oil development effect in horizontal wells. First, considering the production characteristics of foamy oil including single-phase flow, foamy oil phase flow, and two-phase flow, a novel IPR model is proposed for predicting the primary production of foamy oil. Then, the five-component model is proposed to simulate the development of foamy oil. Finally, sensitivity analysis and evaluation of the development effect are conducted. The results show that (1) the novel IPR model is in good agreement with the field data, which can be used for predicting the primary production of foamy oil. (2) The five-component model is better than the four component model for simulating the foamy oil. (3) Permeability and reservoir thickness play a key role in the recovery rate of foamy oil. (4) The recovery rate of single-phase flow, foamy oil stage, and two-phase flow stage is 1.69%, 4.59%, and 4.12%, respectively. This paper provides the engineers a novel insight into the production of foamy oil in horizontal wells and also provides an optimization method of productivity evaluation for the oil field.