Influence of permeability anisotropy on steam stimulation effect of fishbone wells

Permeability anisotropy has a significant impact on the effect of steam stimulation. The authors studied the fishbone wells performance, and analyzed the changing rules of the wellbore configuration parameters with different anisotropic levels by equivalently transforming the anisotropic reservoir to an isotropic one. The conclusion proposes that (a) the configuration parameters display different changing rules under different anisotropic levels and (b) the stronger the permeability anisotropy, the better the steam stimulation effect of fishbone wells, among which the steam stimulation get the optimum effect as the strike directions of fishbone wells are perpendicular to the maximum principal permeability direction.