Sensitivity Analysis of Temperature Distribution along Horizontal Wells in Gas Reservoir

The application of distributed temperature sensors(DTS) to monitor producing zones ofhorizontal well through a real-time measurement of a temperature profile is becoming increasinglypopular. The information from DTS can potentially be transformed to obtain the permeability alongto the wellbore and well completion method and so on. The relationship between these parametersand the real-time temperature distribution along the wellbore is very important. Based onmass-,momentum-,and energy-balance equations, this paper established a model to predict thetemperature along the horizontal wellbore. The models presented in this paper account for heatconvective, fluid expansion, heat conduction, and viscous dissipative heating. Wellbore temperaturecurves are plotted by computer iterative calculation. In addition, this paper revealed the relationshipbetween wellbore temperature distribution and different characteristics, such as permeability alongto the wellbore and well completion method. The analysis results show that permeability differenceand different well completion methods may lead to different downhole temperature distribution atthe same time step, different production rate, different wellbore temperature as well as the change offriction factor in the wellbore. From the temperature distribution and temperature derivative curvesin different cases, we could easily derive the permeability distribution along wellbore and thelocation of the perforated intervals and the fractures.