Systems and methods for positioning horizontal wells within boundaries

摘要

Systems and methods for positioning horizontal wells within a limited-pre-defined boundary. The systems and methods include an automated process for creating jointed target pairs or horizontal laterals to be utilized for planning horizontal wells in order to position the horizontal laterals within limited pre-defined boundary(ies).

主权项

1. A method for determining subsurface target locations within a predetermined boundary, which comprises:
selecting a reference well within the predetermined boundary; computing an azimuth and an offset distance based on a point at a total depth for the reference well; creating a line that is perpendicular to the azimuth and passes through a center location of the predetermined boundary; creating a point on the line at a maximum distance from the center location within the predetermined boundary; creating a series of points along the line beginning at the offset distance from the point on the line and passing through the center location until reaching twice the maximum distance, each point in the series of points being separated from another point in the series of points by a well spacing distance; and computing a list of heel/toe pairs for each point in the series of points using a computer processor and adding the list for each point in the series of points to a collection of lists comprising heel/toe pairs as each list is computed, the collection of lists representing the target locations within the predetermined boundary.