Abstract Horizontal wells are getting more and more widely used in oil and gas fields development due to plenty of its merits. However, there are examples when horizontal well drilling did not justify hopes. It is shown in this paper, that layered and anisotropic structure of the reservoir may lead to decrease of initial oil flow rates of horizontal wells and final oil recovery factors (ORF) reduction too. It is proved that pseudohorizontal wells may incorporate advantages of vertical and horizontal wells. As a result, these wells may be more efficient in comparison with both horizontal and vertical wells.