Title
Unstable well behaviour in gas well liquid loading
Author
Belfroid, S.P.C.
van Wijhe, A.
Publication year
2017
Abstract
Liquid loading is the mechanism that is associated with increased liquid hold-up and liquid back flow at lower gas flow rates in gas production wells. In laboratory, most liquid loading experiments are performed at fixed gas and liquid rates (mass flow controlled). In the field, the well behavior is a coupled well-reservoir system in which the reservoir results in a pressure or mass flow controlled inflow, depending on the reservoir characteristics. In this paper results are presented which have been performed with a pressure controlled vessel attached to a vertical pipe. The pressure drop between the vessel was varied to represent reservoir characteristics from tight to prolific. The goal of the experiments was to evaluate the relation and the time 'trajectory' between the minimum in the pressure drop curve and the actual flooding point. From these experiments it was concluded that the stability is determined by the overall pressure drop curve. That is the pressure drop from vessel to separator and not the tubing pressure drop curve. This stability point can be at a higher or lower velocity than the actual loading/flooding point and therefore, loading is not the cause of the production decrease. That also means stable production is possible below the flooding point in slugging conditions. In future, the distinction between stable flow and loading/flooding must be made more strict.
Subject
2015 Fluid & Solid Mechanics
HTFD - Heat Transfer & Fluid Dynamics
TS - Technical Sciences
Oil and Gas
Energy
Energy / Geological Survey Netherlands
Arctic engineering
Drops
Floods
Flow of gases
Liquids
Mass transfer
Offshore gas well production
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TNO identifier
781882
Publisher
American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME)
Source
ASME 2017 36th International Conference on Ocean, Offshore and Arctic Engineering, OMAE 2017, 25-30 June 2017, Trondheim, Norway
Article number
OMAE2017-62508
Document type
conference paper