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Smart Wells and Techniques for Reservoir Monitoring 251

smart well. They reported that up to 25% oil-recovery factor could be added
by full field implementation of smart wells. The demonstrated economic
value generated by smart wells includes the following.
• Saudi Aramco: A maximum reservoir contact project using multilateral
wells in South Shaybah Field. The project features a multibranch well
with a total of 12km of drilled holes using five segments controlled with
ICVs. The well produced 12,000 b/d when compared with a traditional
horizontal well of 1km producing 3000 b/d.
• Statoil: A subsea water alternating gas (WAG) project using 10 wells to
inject gas and water, alternating mode, in the Snorre B Field. The water
and gas breakthrough were delayed by 6months, on average, per pro-
ducer well, keeping production plateau for longer time than expected
without smart wells. The ICVs were installed to control water injection;
whereas gas injection was controlled by time.
• Kuwait Oil Company (KOC): Onshore stacked multilateral wells with
an ICV per branch and 20 internal control devices (ICD) in the Minagish
Field. The well had 5000ft lateral section for each branch using an ICV
port per lateral. The water cut was reduced from 75% to 25% in a mature
water-flooded reservoir.
The main components of a smart well (Fig. 7.2) can be generalized as
follows:
• Down-hole flow-control devices: this category can be grouped as a series
of valves such as ICVs, which are remote-controlled mechanism with
variable orifice size, and ICDs, which are preset mechanisms with fixed
orifices.
• Down-hole sensors: electronic or mechanical devices that send signals to
the transmitters.
• Transmitters: electronic devices that send different signals to the
controllers.
• Isolation packers.

Fig. 7.2 Main components of a generic smart well, packer to isolate section, sensors,
and interval control valve (ICV).