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Semester January 2015, Credit hour 3

Duration 14 weeks Lecture + 2 Weeks Study & Exam
Lecture 30 hours + Lab/Tutorial 24 hours
Instructor
Dr. Mohammed Mahbubur Rahman

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2.
3.

Beggs H.(2003), Production Optimization Using NODAL Analysis, Second Edition, OGCI
Economides M. et al. (1994), Petroleum Production Systems, Prentice-Hall Inc.
Michael Golan and Curtis H. Whitson (1991), Well Performance, 2nd Edition, Prentice-Hall

Course Content

Reservoir Performance

Well Performance Equations, Darcys Law

Factors affecting productivity index
IPR for oil and gas wells
Back pressure equations
Well Completion effects

Flow in Pipes and Restrictions

Energy equation, single and multi-phase flows

Fluid Property calculations

Well flow correlations:

Hagedorn and Brown

Poettmann and Carpenter
Duns and Ros
Orkiszewski
Aziz, Govier and Fogarasi

Total System Analysis

Tubing and Flow line size selection

System analysis for wells with restrictions
Evaluating Completion effects
Nodal analysis of injection wells
Effect of depletion
Relating performance to time
Analyzing multiwell systems

Artificial Lift Design

Continuous Flow Gas lift

Electrical Submersible Pump (ESP) selection
Sucker rod / beam pumping
Hydraulic pumping

Pipe flow correlations

Pressure drop through restrictions

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Course Learning Outcome

At the end of the course, students should be able to:
1. Apply fundamentals of production optimization using
commercial software.
2. Analyze the performance of the petroleum production
system.
3. Understand the interaction of the reservoir system and
its effect on the overall production system.
4. Design optimum petroleum production systems.

Let us look at the simplified production system

Major segments of the
production system
Reservoir (Inflow
Performance Relationship)
Wellbore (Completions,
Tubing etc)
Surface Facilities (Flow
lines, Separator, Pipelines
etc)

Any one of these can

adversely affect our target to
maximize oil rate

The 1st component is the Reservoir. So lets begin with the Reservoir >>>

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Lecture Outline
Reservoir Performance
Reservoir flow equations

Darcy equation for different fluid types and flow patterns

Reservoir well system performance

Productivity Index

The Reservoir
Most important component in the production system
Relationship between flowrate and pressure drop in the reservoir can be very

complex
Flow is through porous medium, so its formulation is very different from
other fluid flow problem, such as flow through pipes, channels, etc.
Therefore, flow in the reservoir is handled differently than flow in the wellbore
Parameters involved:

Rock properties (k, , ct, etc.)

Fluid properties (PVT, , etc)
Flow regime (Transient, Stabilized, etc)
Fluid saturation (Sw, So, Sg)
Formation damage/improvement (+s, -s)
Drive mechanism (WDI, DDI, etc)

So lets begin with the flow in the Reservoir >>>

We will learn about flow in the wellbore later in the course.

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Fluid Flow though Porous Medium (Reservoir Flow)

Depending on time dependency, flow in the reservoir can be
Transient flow(pressure, flow rate etc., varying with time)
Stabilized Flow (pressure, flow rate etc., NOT varying with time, or
varying at a fixed rate)

Pseudo-Steady State (varying at a fixed rate)- requires NO-FLOW boundary

Steady State (not varying) requires CONSTANT PRESSURE boundary, such as
large aquifer support
Both type of flows are also called Boundary Dominated flow

Transient flow is more relevant for Pressure Transient Analysis (Well

Testing)
Stabilized flow is more relevant for Production Engineering

Therefore, we proceed with the Stabilized flow in the Reservoir >>>

Stabilized flow in the Reservoir:

Linear Flow: Liquids
Basic equation to describe stabilized In the simplest form:

flow in reservoir is the Darcy

= =
Equation.

q = flow rate
Can be written in different forms such
as differential form, Integral form
v = fluid velocity
A = area open to flow
Can be modified for different flow
= viscosity of the fluid
pattern (linear, radial, spherical, etc.)
dp/dx = pressure gradient
Can be modified for different fluids
(incompressible, slightly
compressible, compressible)
It is the differential form of Darcy equation
There is NO variable to represent TIME- (Steady State)
Valid only for LAMINAR flow
Valid for incompressible/slightly compressible fluids (water, oil etc)
NOT valid for GAS, or for TURBULENT flow

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Stabilized flow in the Reservoir:

Linear Flow: Gas
For compressible fluid (gas), the

equation can take the form:

Due to the nature of pressure

dependency of gas, the pressure terms

in the equation are usually expressed
in 3 different forms:

P = pressure, psia
T = Temperature, oR
= viscosity, cp
L = length, ft
K = permeability, md
A = area open to flow, ft2
qsc = flow rate, SCF/D

Average pressure
Pressure quared
Pseudo-pressure

This is the pressure squared form

Notice the new terms: z, T

Stabilized flow in the Reservoir:

Radial Flow: Oil

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Stabilized flow in the Reservoir:

Radial Flow: Oil

Fluid converging radially into the well

Area open to flow is not constsnt
Area is given by: A = 2rh
Darcy equation for radial flow, slightly compressible
fluid (oil):

0.00708 ( )

ln( )

qo =

Stabilized flow in the Reservoir:

Radial Flow: Gas
For compressible fluid (gas), and steady state flow, the equation can take the form:
2
2
=

ln( )

It is the pressure squared form

Let psc = 14.7 psia & Tsc = 520 oR, and pseudo-steady state flow
=

2 2 )
703 106 (

ln(0.472 )

notice
in addition to the conversion factor, the multiplier 0.472 in the ln argument
for Gas, flow rate qsc is always reported/calculated/expressed in terms of standard
condition
, are evaluated at average pressure, i.e., at T and p = ( + )

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Stabilized flow in the Reservoir:

Radial Flow: Pressure Profile
The behavior of the pressure in the reservoir as a function of radius can

be analyzed by plotting pressure vs radius.

Assuming a fixed average reservoir pressure, pR at r = 0.472 re and
solving for pressure:

Stabilized flow in the Reservoir:

Radial Flow: Pressure Profile
Figure shows that large increase in
pressure gradient near the wellbore
as the fluid velocity increases
Approx. one half of the pressure
drawdown occurs within 15ft radius
from the well.

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Stabilized flow in the Reservoir:

Radial Flow: Pressure Profile
From the previous equation, a plot of
p- vs- ln(r) will result in a straight line
of constant slope m, where

Notice the change of m with

change in q
Larger q results in steeper slope,
assuming other variables remain the
same

Flow in the Reservoir: Recap

So far we concentrated on stabilized flow only
Become familiar with the equations for:
Steady state & pseudo-steady state flow
Linear & radial flow patterns
Liquids and gas

Pressure profile in the reservoir as a function of radial distance from the

wellbore
But, how good is the reservoir? How much can be extracted from it with a given
well? Where is the reservoir energy being spent??
To answer these questions, we need to learn about the performance indicator of
the reservoir & well system>>>

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Productivity Index
Strong indicator of performance of the reservoir-well system
Defined by:
Higher values of J indicate good performance, where more oil is produced per

unit draw down

Alternate definition:
Notice the impact of each variable.
Which one would you/can you change to increase J? What factors affect J?

Productivity Index...
Solving for pwf in terms of qo reveals that
a plot of pwf vs qo on a Cartesian
coordinates results in a straight line
having a slope of -1/J and an intercept of
pR at qo= 0.

J can be obtained from production test or

calculated from equation
This line is known as the Inflow
Performance Relation (IPR) line
Later we will see IPR curves, not straight
lines

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Sample exercise

Calculate:
The Productivity Index, J

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Lecture Summary
The reservoir is the 1st and foremost component in the production system
Fluid flow in the reservoir is described by Darcy equation, which applies for

laminar flow, and stabilized (steady and pseudo-steady) conditions

Darcy equation is expressed for linear and radial flow
It can be modified for compressible fluids such as gas
Productivity Index is the most important indicator for reservoir-well
performance
From PI, we can derive the IPR
For production operations, and production optimization, obtaining the IPR,
and studying the behavior of IPR, comprise the main part from the reservoir
side.

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