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Abstract
Liquid production can be a serious problem in gas condensate
wells nearing the end of their production life. As the pressure in
the drainage area is depleted, the gas velocity in the production
tubing falls below the critical rate resulting in inadequate energy
to lift all the condensate out of the wellbore. The condensate
migrates down the tubing and collects at the bottom of the completion increasing the bottom hole flowing pressure and, in
many cases, killing the well. A similar liquid loading problem
can be also encountered in low productivity gas condensate
wells.
This paper investigates the behaviour of gas condensate wells
in a deep basin fractured sandstone reservoir in Alberta.
Regardless of the initial well productivity, sooner or later,
declining reservoir pressures and/or poor productivity cause
wells to liquid load. The first and the cheapest solution is to produce these wells intermittently. Although such wells continue to
flow, the liquid fallback still tends to increase the average flowing bottom hole pressure, thus reducing the production rate. The
paper discusses the process of selecting the best candidates
among such wells for the next level of intervention, which is the
installation of plunger lift systems. As a result, 19 wells were
equipped with plunger lifts and a significant production increase
has been observed. The project has been a technical and economic success so far and is now being extended to the rest of the
field.
Introduction
The presence of a liquid phase during gas production has long
been recognized as detrimental to well flow. In gas condensate
reservoirs, as the gas in the reservoir travels towards the wellbore,
it encounters decreasing pressures and as a result, a liquid hydrocarbon phase (condensate) is formed below the dew point
pressure(1). Furthermore, as the gas travels to the surface, the pressure and temperature decreases causing more liquid to drop out of
the gas phase.
As long as the gas flow rate is sufficiently high to maintain
annular mist flow, these liquids are lifted out of the well.
However, when the tubing velocity becomes too small to maintain
steady flow conditions, liquid accumulation in the well becomes a
problem. The problem can be attributed to a low gas production
rate due to low bottom hole pressure in a mature reservoir and/or
low gas relative permeability for given conditions(1). The flow
regime in the wellbore switches from annular mist flow to churning or slug flow and the liquid lifting capacity of the gas decreases
dramatically. The flow rate for this switch is called the critical
flow rate(2, 3).
Below the critical flow rate, liquids tend to migrate down the
tubing and start to collect at the bottom. For a while, the well will
be able to unload small slugs on its own. The well will eventually
stop flowing continuously and the fluid is produced in small
heads with spikes of gas. If no remedial measures are taken, the
problem will worsen as the liquids continue to accumulate in the
tubing and the production rate continually decreases(4, 5). Finally,
at a certain fluid level, the liquid accumulation can load up and
kill the well due to the backpressure exerted on the formation
and the reduced gas relative permeability in the vicinity of the
perforations(1, 6).
Various technologies are available to deal with liquid loading
in gas wells(7). They include sucker rod pump, additional compression, plunger lift, siphon string, gas lift, intermittent production, and velocity strings. Correct selection of the artificial lift
method is important to the long-term profitability of a given well.
A poor choice can reduce production and increase operating costs.
For low rate gas reservoirs, the capital investment and operating
cost associated with the solution must be minimal. For instance,
sucker rod pumps are too costly to install in these reservoirs
unless they are very shallow.
PEER REVIEWED PAPER (REVIEW AND PUBLICATION PROCESS CAN BE FOUND ON OUR WEB SITE)
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pressure drop across the plunger and the liquid. The plunger then
moves upwards, pushing all of the liquids in the tubing before it.
Upon the arrival of the plunger at the surface, the tubing string
is completely free of liquids. At this point, the formation encounters the least resistance to flow. Depending on the productivity of
the well, high flow rates can be maintained for some incremental
time by leaving the flow line open. This period is called the afterflow. The well is shut in when loading is evidenced again, allowing the plunger to fall and the cycle is repeated.
80
60
40
20
0
0
20
40
60
80
100
Well Performances
1,000
100
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
Months
1,000
1,200
1,000
800
600
400
200
0
0
200000
400000
600000
800000
1000000
1200000 1400000
100
10
10
20
500
450
400
350
300
250
200
150
100
50
0
40
50
60
30
Months
Results
Plunger lifts were installed in one well in 1997, two wells in
1999, two wells in 2000, and fourteen wells in 2001. There were
three additional wells in 2002, but their performance history with
the plunger lift has been brief and, hence, are not included in the
performance analysis here. Reserves additions attributed to the
plunger lift for the pre-2001 wells are shown in Table 1, and for
year-2001 wells in Table 2.
Incremental reserves are 231.4 E6m3 (8.171 bcf) for the wells
shown in Table 1 and 176.4 E6m3 (6.229 bcf) for the wells shown
in Table 2. If one includes the associated liquids with these incremental reserves, then the cost of adding reserves were 0.126 $/m3
oil equivalent (0.02 $/boe) and 0.315 $/m3 oil equivalent (0.05
$/boe) for the wells shown in Tables 1 and 2, respectively. The
wells paid out the investment in plunger lifts in two to four
months. Therefore, the project is considered to be a technical and
economic success. Currently, Husky Oil Operations Limited have
an active work plan to extend the plunger lifts installations to the
rest of the field where it is warranted.
TABLE 2: Plunger lift installations during 2001.
Well
Reserves
(bcf)
Prior P/L
0.827
4.003
1.920
0.915
0.736
0.223
0.378
1.202
0.596
0.991
0.503
0.790
1.071
0.736
1.237
5.310
2.696
1.502
2.115
0.299
0.396
1.879
0.703
1.150
0.968
0.823
1.177
0.864
0.410
1.307
0.776
0.586
1.379
0.076
0.018
0.677
0.107
0.159
0.466
0.033
0.107
0.128
49.6%
32.6%
40.4%
64.1%
187.5%
34.1%
04.7%
56.3%
18.0%
16.0%
92.6%
04.2%
10.0%
17.3%
14.890
21.118
6.229
44.8%
Well
Reserves
(bcf)
Prior P/L
2
3
4
5
6
0.262
0.363
1.904
0.809
0.271
0.772
0.573
7.760
0.475
2.710
0.509
0.210
5.857
-0.334
2.439
194.1%
57.8%
307.6%
-41.2%
899.8%
1
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
Total
3.609
12.290
8.171
306.0%
Total
43
REFERENCES
1. COS,KUNER, G., Performance Prediction in Gas Condensate
Reservoirs; Distinguished Author Series, Journal of Canadian
Petroleum Technology, Vol. 38, No. 8, pp. 32-36, August 1999.
2. TURNER, R.G., HUBBARD, M.G., and DUKLER, A.E., Analysis
and Prediction of Minimum Flow Rate for the Continuous Removal
of Liquids From Gas Wells; Journal of Petroleum Technology, pp.
1475-1482, November 1969.
3. COLEMAN, S.B., CLAY, H.B., MCCURDY, D.G., and NORRIS,
H.L., A New Look at Predicting Gas Well Load Up; Journal of
Petroleum Technology, pp. 329-333, March 1991.
4. BEAUREGARD, E. and FERGUSON, P.L., Introduction to Plunger
Lift: Applications, Advantages, and Limitations; presented at the
Southwestern Petroleum Short Course, Department of Petroleum
Engineering, Texas Tech. University, Lubbock, TX, April 23 24,
1981.
5. FERGUSON, P.L. and BEUREGARD, E., Will Plunger Lift Work
in My Well?; presented at the Southwestern Petroleum Short
Course, Department of Petroleum Engineering, Texas Tech.
University, Lubbock, TX, April 27 28, 1983.
6. YAMAMOTO, H. and CHRISTIANSEN, R.L., Enhancing Liquid
Lift From Low Pressure Gas Reservoirs; paper SPE 55625, presented at the SPE Rocky Mountain Regional Meeting, Gillette, WY, May
15 18, 1999.
7. CLEGG, J.D., BUCARAM, S.M., and HEIN, N.W.,
Recommendations and Comparisons for Selecting Artificial Lift
Methods; Journal of Petroleum Technology, pp. 1128-1131, pp.
1163-1167, December 1993.
8. WIGGINS, M.L., NGUYEN, S.H., and GASBARRI, S., Optimizing
Plunger Lift Operations in Oil and Gas Wells; paper SPE 52119,
presented at the SPE Mid-Continent Operations Symposium,
Oklahoma City, OK, March 28 31, 1999.
9. AVERY, D.J and EVANS, R.D., Design Optimization of Plunger
Lift Systems; paper SPE 17585, presented at the SPE International
Meeting on Petroleum Engineering, Tianjin, China, November 1 4,
1988.
10. NEVES, T.R. and BRIMHALL, R.M., Elimination of Liquid
Loading in Low Productivity Gas Wells; paper SPE 18833, presented at the SPE Production Operations Symposium, Oklahoma City,
OK, March 13 14, 1989.
11. FERGUSON, P.L. and BEAUREGARD, E., Extending Economic
Limits and Reducing Lifting Costs: Plungers Prove to be Long-Term
Solutions; presented at the Southwestern Petroleum Short Course,
Department of Petroleum Engineering, Texas Tech. University,
Lubbock, TX, April 20 21, 1988.
12. COS,KUNER, G., Microvisual Study of Multiphase Gas Condensate
Flow in Porous Media; Transport in Porous Media, Vol. 28, pp. 118, 1997.
44
Authors Biographies
Gkhan Cos, kuner is an engineering
specialist with Husky Oil Operations
Limited. He is involved in projects ranging
from gas storage to offshore field
delineation and development. Prior to
joining Husky Oil, he worked for Agip as a
reservoir engineering advisor; Scientific
Software Intercomp as a senior consulting
associate; and, at Imperial Oil, Shell
Canada, and the Petroleum Recovery
Institute in various research capacities. He
holds a B.Sc. degree from the Middle East Technical University,
Turkey, and M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of
Alberta, Canada, all in petroleum engineering.
Taryn Strocen (Bogdan) is an
Exploitation Engineer at Husky Energy in
Calgary, Alberta. She graduated with a
Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical
engineering from the University of
Saskatchewan in 2001. Taryn is also a
member of APEGGA.