Advanced Artificial Lift Methods

Advanced Artificial Lift Methods PE 571

Introduction

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 Advanced Artificial Lift Methods

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Pressure Drop in a Production System

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 Advanced Artificial Lift Methods

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Single Phase Liquid IPR and OPR

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 Advanced Artificial Lift Methods

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Single Phase Liquid IPR and OPR

The flowrate value at which a specific well flows for a set of operational

conditions using only the energy stored in the compressed reservoir fluids is

called natural equilibrium flowrate

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 Advanced Artificial Lift Methods

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Single Phase Liquid IPR and OPR

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 Advanced Artificial Lift Methods

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Single Phase Liquid IPR and OPR

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 Advanced Artificial Lift Methods

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Single Phase Liquid IPR and OPR

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 Advanced Artificial Lift Methods

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Single Phase Liquid IPR and OPR

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 Advanced Artificial Lift Methods

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Darcys Law - IPR

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 Advanced Artificial Lift Methods

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Darcys Law - IPR

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IPR Vogel and Fetkovich

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 Advanced Artificial Lift Methods

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IPR Vogel and Fetkovich

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Future IPR

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 Advanced Artificial Lift Methods

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OPR

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OPR

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OPR

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IPR vs. OPR

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Stability
Stable equilibrium: small disturbance around the equilibrium point, the system

will move back to the equilibrium condition.

Unstable equilibrium: If the disturbance is large enough, the system will move

towards another equilibrium point or loose the equilibrium permanently

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Stability

Fluctuations on the Pwh,

qsystem < qsteady state

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 Advanced Artificial Lift Methods

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Stability

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 Advanced Artificial Lift Methods

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Stability

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 Advanced Artificial Lift Methods

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Stability

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 Advanced Artificial Lift Methods

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Stability

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 Advanced Artificial Lift Methods

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Stability

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 Advanced Artificial Lift Methods

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Stability

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 Advanced Artificial Lift Methods

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Stability

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 Advanced Artificial Lift Methods

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Stability

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 Advanced Artificial Lift Methods

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Stability

Several techniques might be used when the system reaches to the unstable

point such as:

If the well has an artificial lift installed it can be put into production to help

the well overcome the unstable point. After that if the artificial lift is not

required we can leave the well under natural flow.

If the well does not have an artificial lift installed, we can do several things:

Agitation, swab, gas injection, nitrogen injection

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Stability Tubing Heading

High reservoir pressure

Small PI

Big tubing string

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 Advanced Artificial Lift Methods

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Stability Tubing Heading

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 Advanced Artificial Lift Methods

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Stability Tubing Heading

If the fluctuations are small then the well will produce a steady state flowrate.

If the fluctuations are large, the production in this well will cycle with time. This is
called the tubing heading.

Tubing heading is characterized by pulsating well head pressure (EX: caused by

slug flow) and constant casing pressure. It occurs mostly in wells fitted with a
packer during the final stage of life. During this period, liquid is lifted through a
portion of the tubing and then falls back resulting a cycle flow.

Under these conditions, the production test data from this well are very difficult to
match the IPR and OPR simulations.

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 Advanced Artificial Lift Methods

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Stability Tubing Heading
Very high PI

Big tubing string

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 Advanced Artificial Lift Methods

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Stability

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Stability Casing Heading

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