The Ultimate Production Guide

Petroleum Production Engineering Amirkabir University of Technology
Fundamentals of The Petroleum Production Engineering
By: Dr. Yousef Rafiei

Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran, 1396
113
Table of Contents 151
445
Chapters Slide Numbers 537
1 Course Overview 2 605-end
2 Petroleum Production System: Reservoir 31
3 Reservoir Drive Mechanism 69
4 Reservoir Deliverability 113
5 Inflow Performance Relationship 151
6 Well Reservoir Completion 233
7 Well Upper Completion 263
8 Well Completion Equipments 287
9 Perforation 315
10 Sand Control Completion 395
11 Well Performance 445
12 Nodal Analysis 537
13 Choke Performance 605
15 Surface Facilities 625
16 Near Wellbore Condition: Skin Effect 691
17 Well Production Enhancement 743
Appendix A: More Examples 815
By: Dr. Yousef Rafiei 1

An Overview on Production Engineering Course
Yousef Rafiei
Outline
 Introduction to Petroleum industry
 E&P project phasing
 E&P project main tasks
 What does production engineering do?
 Course story
4 Course Overview

Oil & gas industry
 The petroleum industry includes the global

processes of exploration, extraction,
refining, transporting, and marketing
petroleum products.
 Divided into 2 major sectors:

1. Upstream (Exploration & Production)
2. Downstream (Processing & Marketing)
5 Course Overview
Oil & gas industry
 The Upstream (E&P) sector includes:

1. Searching for potential underground or
underwater crude oil and natural gas fields
2. Bringing the crude oil and/or raw natural
gas to the surface
 The downstream sector commonly

refers to:
 The refining of petroleum crude oil and the
processing and purifying of raw natural gas
 The marketing and distribution of products
derived from crude oil and natural gas
6 Course Overview

Outline
 Course story
7 Course Overview
E&P Projects: Gaining access
 The first step an oil company will

undertake in hydrocarbon exploration
and production is to decide what
regions of the world are of interest.
 This will involve evaluating the

technical, political, economic, social
and environmental aspects of regions
under consideration.
8 Course Overview

E&P Projects: Gaining access
 Some 90% of the world’s oil and gas

reserves are owned and operated by
National Oil Companies (NOCs), such
as NIOC, Saudi Aramco (Saudi Arabia).
 The invitation to participate may be publicly

announced, in the form of a licensing
round.
 Alternatively an arrangement for

participation may be privately agreed with
the NOC.
9 Course Overview
E&P Projects: Exploration
 Hydrocarbon exploration (or oil and gas

exploration) is the search by petroleum
geologists & geophysicists for hydrocarbon
deposits beneath the Earth's surface, such as oil
and natural gas.
 The objective of any exploration venture is to

find new volumes of hydrocarbons at a low
cost and in a short period of time.
 Once an area has been selected for exploration,

the usual sequence of technical activities starts
with the definition of a basin.
10 Course Overview

 The mapping of gravity anomalies

and magnetic anomalies will be the
first two methods applied.
 Next, a coarse two-dimensional

(2D) seismic grid, covering a wide
area, will be acquired in order to
define leads , areas which show for
instance a structure which potentially
contains an accumulation
11 Course Overview
 Eventually, only the drilling of an

exploration well will prove the
validity of the concept.
 A ‘wildcat’ well is drilled in a region

with no prior well control.
 Wells either result in discoveries of oil

and gas, or they find the objective zone
to be water-bearing in which case they
are termed ‘dry’.
12 Course Overview

E&P Project: Appraisal
 Appraisal activity, if performed,

is the step in the field life cycle
between the discovery of a
hydrocarbon accumulation and
its development.
 The role of appraisal is to

provide cost-effective
information with which the
subsequent decision can be
made.
13 Course Overview
E&P Project: Appraisal
 The objective of performing appraisal

activities on discovered accumulations
is to:
 Reduce the uncertainty in the
description of the hydrocarbon
reservoir.
 And to provide information with
which to make a decision on the next
action.
 The next action may be, for example:

 To undertake more appraisal,
 To commence development, to stop
activities or
 To sell the discovery.
14 Course Overview

E&P Project: Development
 Based on the results of the feasibility

study , and assuming that at least one
option is economically viable, a field
development plan (FDP) can now be
formulated and subsequently executed.
 The FDP’s prime purpose is to serve as a

 Conceptual project specification for
subsurface and surface facilities,
 And the operational and maintenance
philosophy required to support a
proposal for the required investments.
15 Course Overview
E&P Project: Production
 The production phase commences with

the first commercial quantities of
hydrocarbons (first oil) flowing
through the wellhead.
 Development planning and

production are usually based on:
 The expected production profile
 Which depends strongly on the mechanism
providing the driving force in the
reservoir.
 The production profile will determine the

facilities required and the number
and phasing of wells to be drilled.
16 Course Overview

E&P Project: Production profile
1. Build-up
period: During
this period newly
drilled producers
are progressively
brought on
stream.
17 Course Overview
2. Plateau period:
Production facilities
are running at full
capacity, and a
constant
production rate
is maintained.
This period is
typically 2–5 years
for an oil field, but
longer for a gas
field.
18 Course Overview

3. Decline period:
During this final
(and usually
longest) period,
all producers will
exhibit declining
production.
19 Course Overview
E&P Project: Decommissioning
 The economic lifetime

of a project normally
terminates once its net
cash flow turns
permanently negative, at
which moment the field is
decommissioned.
 Ultimately, all
economically
recoverable reserves
will be depleted and the
field will be
decommissioned.
20 Course Overview

E&P Project: Decommissioning
 Much thought is now

going into
decommissioning
planning to devise
procedures which
will minimize the
environmental
effects without
incurring
excessive cost.
21 Course Overview
Outline
 Course story
22 Course Overview

Exploration & Production: tasks

 Exploration of new
reservoirs
 Reservoir evaluation
 Oil or gas well drilling
 Production system design
23 Course Overview
Outline
 Course story
24 Course Overview

What does Production engineer do?
 Petroleum production engineers design and select

equipment to extract and treat oil and gas well fluids
 Petroleum production engineers' responsibilities include:
1. Evaluating performance of each production

component
2. Designing interface between reservoir and surface to
deliver oil to the surface
3. Selecting proper technique for enhancing well
production and solve production challenges
4. Selecting equipment for surface to treat the
produced fluid
25 Course Overview
Outline
 An overview of the Petroleum industry
 Course story
26 Course Overview

Course story
 Introduction to production system (PS):
 Reservoir
 Well
 Surface facilities
 Evaluating of the performance of the PS elements

 Reservoir deliverability
 Well & tubing performance
 Production system performance
 Challenges of oil and gas production
 Enhancement of petroleum production

 Artificial lift
 Well stimulation
27 Course Overview
References
 M. Economides, “Petroleum Production System”.
 B. Guo , A. Ghalambor, “Petroleum Production Engineering”.
 J. Bellarby, “Well Completion Design”.
 T. Allen, “Production Operations”, Volume 1&2
 D. Perrin, “ Well Completion & Servicing”.
 T. Ahmed, “Reservoir Engineering Handbook”.

28 Course Overview

‫مراجع فارسي‬
‫ صادق قاسمي‬،‫تكنولوژي چاه در صنايع نفت و گاز‬ 
‫ دكتر احسان خامه چي‬،‫مباني مهندسي توليد از چاه هاي نفت و گاز‬ 
‫ سيد حسن حجي آبادي‬،‫مهندسي بهره برداري مخازن هيدرو كربوري‬ 
‫ محمدرضا عادل زاده‬،‫مهندسي بهره برداري پيشرفته‬ 
29 Course Overview
Marking scheme of the course

 Quiz: 2/20
 Home work: 2/20
 Course project : 2/20
 Mid term exam: 4/20
 Final exam: 10/20
30 Course Overview

Petroleum Production System

Reservoir
Yousef Rafiei
 Petroleum production engineers design and select equipment

to extract and treat oil and gas well fluids
 Petroleum production engineers' responsibilities include:
1. Evaluating performance of each production component

2. Designing interface between reservoir and surface to deliver
oil to the surface
3. Selecting proper technique for enhancing well production
and solve production challenges
4. Selecting best equipment for surface to treat the produced
fluid
5. Have a great understanding of future challenges and
difficulties of production
32 Petroleum Production System: Reservoir

Course story

 Reservoir
 Well
 Evaluating of the performance of the PS elements


 Artificial lift
Outline
 Production system
 Reservoir
 Reservoir important properties
 Reservoir classification based on initial reservoir

condition

Production system
 Reservoir
 Supplies crude oil to the wellbore
 Well
 Provides a path for the produced fluid
to flow from bottom hole to the
surface and helps to control
production rate
 Used to remove water or gas from
oil and transport it to sales points
Outline
 Reservoir

condition

Reservoir
 Reservoir is a porous and permeable

underground formation.
 It contains an individual bank of hydrocarbons.
 Confined by impermeable rock or water

barriers.
 The reservoir is the source of fluids for the

production system.
 It also furnishes the primary energy for the

production system.
Reservoir
 Whether a reservoir is an anticline, a fault

block, or a channel sand not only dictates
the amount of hydrocarbon present
but also greatly controls well
performance by:
1. Rock characteristic and fluid types

2. Reservoir pressure and its change
3. Interface between fluid and its change
4. Number of levels to be produced
5. Reservoir storage, Production profile and
number of wells required

Reservoir
 The success of oil and gas

field development is largely
determined by the reservoir:
its size, complexity,
productivity and the type &
quantity of fluids it
contains.
 To optimise a development
plan, the characteristics of
the reservoir must be well
defined.
Outline
 Reservoir

condition

Reservoir important properties: Porosity
 All of petroleum engineering deals with the

exploitation of fluids residing within porous
media.
 Porosity, simply defined as the ratio of the
pore volume, Vp, to the bulk
volume, Vb:
 It is an indicator of the amount of fluid in

place.
 Porosity values vary from over 0.3 to less
than 0.1.
Reservoir important properties: Porosity
 The porosity of the reservoir can be measured

based on laboratory techniques using
reservoir cores or with field measurements
including logs and well tests.
 Porosity is one of the very first

measurements obtained in any exploration
scheme, and a desirable value is essential for
the continuation of any further activities
toward the potential exploitation of a reservoir.
 In the absence of substantial porosity there

is no need to proceed with an attempt to
exploit a reservoir.

Reservoir important properties: Height
 Often known as “reservoir thickness” or “pay

thickness,” the reservoir height describes the thickness of
a porous medium in hydraulic communication contained
between two layers. These layers are usually considered
impermeable.
 Well logging techniques have been developed to identify

likely reservoirs and quantify their vertical extent.
 For example, measuring the spontaneous potential (SP)

and knowing that sandstones have a distinctly different
response than shales (a likely lithology to contain a layer),
one can estimate the thickness of a formation.
Reservoir important properties: Height
 Figure is a well log showing clearly the

deflection of the spontaneous potential of
a sandstone reservoir and the clearly different
response of the adjoining shale layers.
 This deflection corresponds to the thickness of

a potentially hydrocarbon-bearing, porous
medium.
 The presence of satisfactory net reservoir

height is an additional imperative in any
exploration activity.

Reservoir important properties: Saturation
 Oil and/or gas are never alone in “saturating”

the available pore space.
 Water is always present. Certain rocks are “oil-

wet,” implying that oil molecules cling to the
rock surface.
 More frequently, rocks are “water-wet.” which

may change, usually with detrimental
consequences, as a result of injection of fluids,
drilling, stimulation, or other activity, and in the
presence of surface-acting chemicals.
 If the water is present but does not flow, the corresponding

water saturation is known as “connate” or “interstitial.”
 Saturations larger than this value would result in free

flow of water along with hydrocarbons.
 An attractive hydrocarbon saturation is the third critical

variable (along with porosity and reservoir height) to be
determined before a well is tested or completed.
 A classic method, currently performed in a variety of ways, is

the measurement of the formation electrical resistivity.

 Knowing that formation brines are good

conductors of electricity (i.e., they have poor
resistivity) and hydrocarbons are the
opposite, a measurement of this electrical
property in a porous formation of sufficient
height can detect the presence of hydrocarbons.
 With proper calibration, not just the presence

but also the hydrocarbon saturation (i.e.,
fraction of the pore space occupied by
hydrocarbons) can be estimated.
 Figure also contains a resistivity log. The previously

described SP log along with the resistivity log,
showing a high resistivity within the same zone,
are good indicators that the identified porous
medium is likely saturated with hydrocarbons.
 The combination of porosity, reservoir net

thickness, and saturations is essential in deciding
whether a prospect is attractive or not.
 These variables can allow the estimation of

hydrocarbons near the well.

Outline
 Reservoir

condition
Reservoir classification
• Reservoir can be classified based on initial reservoir
condition
 Oil reservoir
If the reservoir temperature T is
less than the critical temperature
Tc of the reservoir fluid
 Gas reservoir
In general, if the reservoir
temperature is above the critical
temperature of the hydrocarbon
system

 Reservoir can be classified based on initial reservoir
condition
 Black Oil
 Black oils are a common
category of reservoir fluids.
 They contain a lower fraction
of volatile components.
 It require a much larger
pressure drop below the
bubble point before significant
volumes of gas are released from
solution.
condition
 Volatile Oil
 A volatile oil contains a relatively
large fraction of lighter and
intermediate components
which vaporise easily.
 With a small drop in pressure
below the bubble point, the
relative amount of liquid to gas
in the two-phase mixture drops
rapidly, as shown in the phase
diagram

condition
 Wet Gas
 A ‘wet gas’ does not drop
out liquids in the reservoir
(i.e. no condensate will drop
out as the pressure reduces
in the reservoir).
 The dew point will be
crossed in the tubing and
condensate will form in the
completion.
condition
 Dry Gas
 A ‘dry gas’, for example, will
not drop out any liquids either
in the reservoir or in the
completion

condition
 Gas condensate
 If the reservoir temperature T
lies between the critical
temperature Tc and
cricondentherm Tct of the
reservoir fluid, the reservoir is
classified as a retrograde gas
condensate reservoir.
 It condenses out of the raw
gas in the reservoir if the
pressure is reduced to below
the dew point temperature of
the raw gas.
Oil reservoir
 Under-saturated oil reservoir

 An oil that is at a pressure above its
bubble-point pressure is called an
‘‘under-saturated oil’’
 It can dissolve more gas at the given
temperature
 Single (liquid)-phase flow prevails
in an under-saturated oil reservoir
 Saturated oil reservoir
 An oil that is at its bubble-point
pressure is called a ‘‘saturated oil’’
 It can dissolve no more gas at the
given temperature
 Two-phase (liquid oil and free
gas) flow exists in a saturated oil
reservoir

Formation water
 Formation water exists naturally

in the rock all along, before drilling.
 Connate water is fossil water

that was out of contact with the
atmosphere during most part of
the geologic age at least.
 It is water associated with the oil

and gas reservoir and has some
outstanding chemical
characteristics.
Formation water
 Data gathering in the water column

should not be overlooked at the
appraisal stage of the field life.
 Assessing the size and flow

properties of the aquifer is essential in
predicting the pressure support
which may be provided.
 Sampling of the formation water is

necessary to assess the salinity of the
water.

Formation water
 Formation Water properties

may be determined using
charts due to fewer changes
of these properties of formation
water with pressure and
temperature than that of crude
oil.
 Thus, the chemical

properties of formation water
become more important.
Formation water
 Pressure–depth relationships
is a linear function of the
density of the fluid.
 Since water is the one fluid

which is always associated with
a petroleum reservoir, an
understanding of what
controls formation water
density is required.

Formation water
 Additionally, reservoir engineers

need to know the fluid
properties of the formation
water to predict its expansion
and movement, which can
contribute significantly to the
drive mechanism in a
reservoir, especially if the
volume of water surrounding
the hydrocarbon accumulation
is large.
Formation water: Chemical composition
 Field water contains various

soluble inorganic and organic
compounds.
 Main elements include K, Na, Ca,

Mg, and Cl.
 In addition, CO3 , HCO3 , and

SO4 exist in field water.
 Generally, the concentrations of

ions in field water are as follows:

Formation water: Chemical composition
 Ca may form scale of CaCO3 or

CaSO4.
 Ba and Sr may also form scale of

sulfate, such as the scale in tubing
.
 A high Cl content means high

corrosiveness.
 Scale prevention and corrosion

prevention of completion tubing
string should be considered.
Formation water viscosity
 This parameter is important in the

prediction of aquifer response to
pressure drops in the reservoir.
 As for liquids in general, water

viscosity reduces with
increasing temperature.
 Water viscosity is in the order of

0.5–1.0 cp, and is usually lower
than that of oil.

Formation water pH
 The solubilities of
carbonate and ironic
compounds depend
substantially on the pH value.
 The pH value of most field

water is between 4 and 9.
Formation water pH
 A high pH value leads to a

strong tendency of scaling.
 A low pH value leads to a

weak tendency of sealing, but
leads to high corrosiveness.

Formation water salinity
 Total salinity can be calculated

using the summation of cationic
and anionic concentrations.
 Water with high salinity has high

corrosiveness and serious
damage to casing.
 Salt precipitation in the tubing

during production often plugs up
the tubing.

Reservoir Drive Mechanism
Yousef Rafiei
Outline
 Hydrocarbon recovery
 Reservoir drive mechanism
 Solution gas drive
 Gas cap drive
 Water drive
 Other drive mechanism
70 Reservoir Drive Mechanism

Reservoir recovery
 Recovery of hydrocarbons
from an oil reservoir is
commonly recognized to
occur in several recovery
stages. These are:
1. Primary recovery
2. Secondary recovery
3. Tertiary recovery
(Enhanced Oil Recovery,
EOR)
4. Infill recovery
Reservoir recovery
 Primary recovery This is the
recovery of hydrocarbons from
the reservoir using the natural
energy of the reservoir as a
drive.
 The expansion of the

reservoir fluids, which is a
function of their volume and
compressibility, act as a
source of drive energy which
can act to support primary
production from the reservoir.
 One additional contribution to

drive energy is by pore
compaction.

Reservoir recovery
 Secondary recovery This
is recovery aided or driven
by the injection of water
or gas from the surface.
 Secondary recovery would

imply adding some
energy to the reservoir
by injecting fluids such as
water or gas, to help to
support the reservoir
pressure and displace
reservoir fluid toward
producers as production
takes place.
Reservoir recovery
 Tertiary recovery
(EOR) There are a range
of techniques broadly
labelled ‘Enhanced Oil
Recovery’ that are
applied to reservoirs in
order to improve
reservoir fluid movement
inside reservoir.

Reservoir recovery
 Infill recovery Is carried
out when recovery from
the previous three
phases have been
completed.
 It involves drilling
cheap production
holes between
existing boreholes to
ensure that the whole
reservoir has been
fully depleted of its oil.
Outline
 Gas cap drive
 Water drive

Reservoir drive mechanism

 The reservoir drive mechanism supplies the energy that moves the hydrocarbon located
in a reservoir container toward the wellbore.
 The overall performance of oil reservoirs is largely determined by the nature of the
energy, i.e., driving mechanism, available for moving the oil to the wellbore.
 The fluids present in the reservoir, their compressibility's, and the reservoir
pressure all determine the amount of energy.
 There are three important drive mechanisms:
1. Solution gas drive

2. Gas cap drive
3. Water or aquifer drive
Outline
 Summary
 Gas cap drive
 Water drive

Solution gas drive (depletion drive)

 The principal source of energy is a
result of gas liberation from the
crude oil and the subsequent
expansion of the solution gas as
the reservoir pressure is reduced.
 As pressure falls below the

bubble-point pressure, gas
bubbles are liberated within the
microscopic pore spaces.
 These bubbles expand and force

the crude oil out of the pore
space as shown conceptually in
Figure below.
Solution gas drive

 Once the bubble point is reached,
solution gas starts to become
liberated from the oil.
 Once the liberated gas has

overcome critical gas saturation in
the pores, below which it is immobile in
the reservoir, it can either:
1. Migrate to the crest of the reservoir

under the influence of buoyancy forces
2. Move toward the producing wells

under the influence of the
hydrodynamic forces caused by the low
pressure created at the producing well

Solution gas drive

 In order to make use of the
high compressibility of the gas,
it is preferable that the gas
forms a secondary gas cap
and contributes to the drive
energy.
 This can be encouraged by:
1. Reducing the pressure sink at

the producing wells (which means
less production per well) and
2. By locating the producing

wells away from the crest of
the field
Solution gas drive: Well location

 Example of well location:
1. In a steeply dipping
field, wells would be
located down-dip.
2. In a field with low dip,

the wells must be
perforated as low as
possible to keep away
from a secondary gas cap.

Solution gas drive: Pressure profile

 Once production starts the
reservoir pressure drops
very quickly, especially
above the bubble point, since
the compressibility of the
system is low.
 This reservoir pressure

behaviour is attributed to
the fact that no extraneous
fluids or gas cap are
available to provide a
replacement of the gas and
oil withdrawals.
Solution gas drive: Production profile

 Since the pressure declines
rapidly therefore , the
producing wells rapidly
lose the potential to flow
to surface.
 As a result , not only is the

plateau period short, but
the decline is rapid.
 Oil production by depletion

drive is usually the least
efficient recovery method.

Solution gas drive: GOR profile

 The producing GOR starts
at the initial solution (Rsi),
decreases until the critical
gas saturation is reached.
 And then increases rapidly

as the liberated gas is
produced into the wells.
Solution gas drive: GOR profile

 The secondary gas cap
expands with time, as
more gas is liberated, and
therefore moves closer to
the producing wells,
Increasing the likelihood
of gas being pulled in from
the secondary gas cap.
 The producing GOR may

decline in later years as
the remaining volume of gas
in the reservoir diminishes.

Solution gas drive: Recovery factor

 The typical RF is in the range
5–30%, depending on:
 Absolute reservoir pressure
 The solution initial GOR of the

crude
 Reservoir dip
Solution gas drive: Recovery factor

 More recovery achieved by
 High dip reservoir (allowing
segregation of the secondary
gas cap and the oil),
 With a high Rsi
 Light crude
 High initial reservoir
pressure

Solution gas drive: Water production

 Water cut remains
small ,there is little
support by the
underlying aquifer.
Solution gas drive: Abandonment

 Abandonment
conditions are caused
by:
 High producing GORs
 lack of reservoir
pressure to sustain
production

Solution gas drive: RF improvement

 This rather low RF may
be boosted by
implementing
secondary recovery
techniques, particularly
water injection, or gas
injection.
 With the aim of

maintaining reservoir
pressure and prolonging
both plateau and
decline periods.
Outline
 Gas cap drive
 Water drive

Gas cap drive

 The initial condition required
for gas cap drive is an initial
gas cap.
 The high compressibility of

the gas provides drive energy
for production, and the larger
the gas cap, the more
energy is available.
 If the gas in the gas cap is

taken out of the reservoir
early in the production process,
the reservoir pressure will
decrease rapidly.
Gas cap drive: Well location

 Well location:
 The well positioning follows

the same reasoning as for
solution gas drive.
 The objective being to locate

the producing wells and their
perforations as far away
from the gas cap (which
will expand with time) as
possible.

Gas cap drive: Pressure profile

 The typical production profile
for gas cap drive shows a
much slower decline in
reservoir pressure, due to the
energy provided by the
highly compressible gas
cap.
 Pressure tends to be
maintained at a higher
level than in a depletion-
drive reservoir.
 The degree of pressure

maintenance depends upon
the volume of gas in the
gas cap compared to the
oil volume.
Gas cap drive: Production and oil recovery

 Better pressure
maintenance Resulted
better production profile
with more prolonged
plateau and a slower
decline.
 Oil recovery by gas-cap

expansion is actually a frontal
drive displacing
mechanism that, therefore,
yields a considerably larger
recovery efficiency than that
of depletion-drive reservoirs.
 Typical RFs for gas cap drive

are in the range 20–50%,
influenced by the field dip
and the gas cap size.

Gas cap drive: GOR profile

 The gas-oil ratio rises
continuously in the wells.
 As the expanding gas cap

reaches the producing
intervals of the wells, the
gas-oil ratio from the
affected wells will increase to
high values.
Gas cap drive: Water production

 There is negligible aquifer
movement, and water cut
remains low.

Gas cap drive: Abandonment condition

 Abandonment conditions
are caused by very high
producing GORs, or lack of
reservoir pressure to
maintain production.
 Can be postponed by reducing

the production from high
GOR wells, or by
recompleting these wells to
produce further away from
the gas cap.
 Natural gas cap drive may be

supplemented by reinjection
of produced gas, with the
possible addition of make-up gas
from an external source.
Outline
 Summary
 Gas cap drive
 Water drive

Water drive
 Natural water drive occurs when
the underlying aquifer is both
large (typically greater than ten
times the oil volume).
 And the water is able to flow into

the oil column that is it has a
communication path and
sufficient permeability.
 Once production from the oil

column creates a pressure drop the
aquifer responds by expanding, and
water moves into the oil
column to replace the voidage
created by production.
Water drive
 The water drive is the result
of water moving into the
pore spaces originally
occupied by oil, replacing the
oil and displacing it to the
producing wells.
 Since the water

compressibility is low, the
volume of water must be
large to make this process
effective, hence the need for
the large connected aquifer.

Water drive
 Well location:
 Production well should have maximum distance from aquifer in

order to delay water breakthrough as much as possible.
Water drive: Pressure profile

 The reservoir pressure
decline is usually very
gradual.
 The reason for the small

decline in reservoir pressure
is that oil and gas
withdrawals from the
reservoir are replaced
almost volume for
volume by water
encroaching into the oil
zone.

Water drive: Production and oil recovery

 The aquifer maintain the
reservoir pressure close
to the initial pressure,
providing a long plateau
period and slow decline of
oil production.
Water drive: Production and oil recovery
 The RF is in the range 30–

70%, depending on:
1. The strength of the natural
aquifer
2. The efficiency with which
the injected water sweeps
the oil

Water drive: GOR profile

 The producing GOR may
remain approximately at the
solution GOR if the
reservoir pressure is
maintained above the
bubble point.
 There is normally little

change in the producing
gas-oil ratio during the life of
the reservoir.
 This is especially true if the

reservoir does not have an
initial free gas cap.
Water drive: Water production

 The outstanding feature of
the production profile is the
large increase in water
cut over the life of the field,
which is usually the main
reason for abandonment.
 Water cut may exceed 90%

in the final part of the field
life, which is usually the
main reason for
abandonment.

Water drive: Water production

 This is important to the
process engineers, who need
to design a facility capable
of handling large water
throughputs in later field life.
 As water cut increases, so oil

production typically declines;
a constant gross liquids
(oil plus water) production
may be maintained.
Outline
 Summary
 Gas cap drive
 Water drive

Other drive mechanism

 The Gravity-Drainage-Drive Mechanism
 Gravity drainage, or gravity segregation, is

the tendency of oil, gas, and water to segregate
in a reservoir during production due to their
differing densities.
 As a secondary drive mechanism, gravity

drainage occurs only in combination with
one or more of the primary oil reservoir drive
mechanisms.
 In a solution gas drive reservoir perforated

down dip, gravity drainage can cause released
solution gas to migrate upward and oil to flow
downward, conserving reservoir energy and
increasing recovery to near that of a water
drive.
Other drive mechanism

 Combination drive
 Most oil reservoirs produce under

the influence of two or more
reservoir drive mechanisms,
referred to collectively as a
combination drive.
 A common example is an oil

reservoir with an initial gas cap
and an active water drive.

Reservoir Deliverability
Yousef Rafiei
Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran,1396
Outline
 Productivity index
 Reservoir fluid flow regimes

 Transient
 Steady-state
 Pseudo-steady state
114 Reservoir Deliverability

Reservoir performance
 Tubing performance
Pwh  The amount of oil can be produced
from a well with a certain completion
configuration and given pressure
difference between bottom of the well
and wellhead.
Q  P  Pwf  Pwh
 Well Inflow performance
 Is the oil or gas production rate
achievable from reservoir at a given
pressure difference between reservoir
and bottom of the well.
Pwf Q  P  Pr  Pwf Pr
 Reservoir deliverability is defined as the oil
or gas production rate achievable from reservoir
at a given bottom-hole pressure.
 Reservoir deliverability determines types of

completion and artificial lift methods to be
used.
Pwf Pr

depends on several factors
including the following:
 Reservoir pressure
 Pay zone thickness and
permeability
 Reservoir boundary type
and distance
Pwf Pr
depends on several factors
including the following:
 Wellbore radius
 Reservoir fluid properties
 Near-wellbore condition
 Reservoir relative
permeability
Pwf Pr

Reservoir performance evaluation

 An analytical relation between bottom-hole
pressure and production rate can be
formulated for a given flow regime.
Q  P
Q  Reservoir rock and fluid preperties
 And it can be written as
q  J ( Pr  Pwf )
Pwf Pr
Outline

 Transient
 Steady-state

Reservoir performance: Productivity index

 A commonly used measure
of the ability of the
associated reservoir
drainage volume of a given
well to produce is the
productivity index (PI).
 Defined by the symbol J, the

productivity index is the ratio
of the total liquid flow rate
to the pressure drawdown.
q
J
 The PI is usually stated as the ( Pr  Pwf )
volume delivered per psi of
drawdown at the sand-face
(bbl/d/psi).
Reservoir performance: Productivity index

 Productivity index has
different values in
different reservoir
flow regimes.
 The productivity index is

generally measured during
a production test on J
q
the well. ( Pr  Pwf )

Outline

 Transient
 Steady-state
Reservoir flow regimes

 When a vertical well is open to
produce oil at production rate q, it
creates a pressure funnel of radius r
around the wellbore.
 The flow stream lines in the cylindrical

region form a horizontal radial flow
pattern.
 Distance of the pressure wave from

the reservoir boundary and the type
of reservoir boundary determines
the reservoir flow regime.

Reservoir flow regimes

 There are basically three types
of flow regimes that must be
recognized in order to describe
the fluid flow behaviour and
reservoir pressure
distribution as a function of
time.
 There are three flow regimes:

1. Transient flow
2. Pseudo steady-state flow
3. Steady-state flow
Outline

 Transient
 Steady-state

Transient flow
 ‘‘Transient flow’’ is defined as a flow regime where/when the
radius of pressure wave propagation from wellbore has
not reached any boundaries of the reservoir.
 During transient flow, the developing pressure funnel is

small relative to the reservoir size.
 Therefore, the reservoir acts like an infinitively large

reservoir from transient pressure analysis point of view.
Transient flow
 At transient flow the rate of change of pressure with respect
to time at any position in the reservoir is not zero or constant.
 This definition suggests that the pressure derivative with respect to

time is essentially a function of both position i and time t, thus
P
 f (i, t )
t

Transient flow
 Radius of investigation is the
distance a pressure transient has
moved into a formation following a
rate change in a well.
 This distance is related to

formation rock and fluid
properties and time .
=
948
Transient flow: Flow equation

 A constant-rate solution expressed in the following
equation is frequently used in production engineering:

Transient flow : Flow equation

 Because oil production wells are normally operated at constant bottom-
hole pressure by adjusting wellhead pressure, a constant bottom-hole
pressure solution is more desirable for well inflow performance analysis.
 With an appropriate inner boundary condition arrangement, Earlougher

(1977) developed a constant bottom-hole pressure solution
ℎ( −
=
162.6 log + log − 3.23 + 0.87
Transient flow : Flow equation

 Above equation indicates that oil rate decreases with flow time.
 This is because the radius of the pressure funnel, over which the
pressure drawdown (pi - pwf ) acts, increases with time, that is, the
overall pressure gradient in the reservoir drops with time.
ℎ( −
=
162.6 log + log − 3.23 + 0.87

Outline

 Transient
 Steady-state
Steady-state flow
 ‘‘Steady-state flow’’ is defined as a flow regime where the pressure at any point in the
reservoir remains constant over time.
 This flow condition prevails when the pressure funnel has propagated to a constant
pressure boundary.
 In reservoirs, the steady-state flow condition can only occur when the reservoir is completely
recharged and supported by strong aquifer or pressure maintenance operations.

Steady-state flow
 It means that in steady-state condition that the rate of
change of pressure P with respect to time t at any
location is zero.
P
0
t
Steady-state flow : Flow equation

 Assuming single-phase flow, the following theoretical
relation can be derived from Darcy’s law for an oil
reservoir under the steady-state flow condition due to a
circular constant pressure boundary at distance re
from wellbore:
ℎ( −
=
141.2 ln +

Outline

 Transient
 Steady-state
Pseudo-steady state flow

 ‘‘Pseudo–steady-state’’ flow is defined as a flow regime where the pressure at any
point in the reservoir declines at the same constant rate over time.
 This flow condition prevails after the pressure funnel has propagated to all no-flow
boundaries.
 A no-flow boundary can be a sealing fault or boundaries of drainage areas of

production wells.
 Pseudo steady-state flow is commonly referred to as semi steady-state flow and

quasi steady-state flow.

Pseudo-steady state flow

 In this flow regimes pressure at different locations in the reservoir is
declining linearly as a function of time, i.e., at a constant declining
rate.
 Mathematically, this definition states that the rate of change of pressure

with respect to time at every position is constant:
P
 Constant
t
Pseudo-steady state flow : Flow equation

 Assuming single-phase flow, the following theoretical relation
can be derived from Darcy’s law for an oil reservoir under
pseudo–steady-state flow condition due to a circular no-
flow boundary at distance re from wellbore
ko h( Pr  Pwf )
qo 
 r  1 
141.2 o Bo  ln  e    S 
  rw  2 
 The flow time required for the pressure funnel to reach the
circular boundary can be expressed as:


 Because the pe is not known at any given time, the following
expression using the average reservoir pressure is more
useful:
ko h( Pr  Pwf )
qo 
 r  3 
141.2 o Bo ln  e    S 
  rw  4 
 If the no-flow boundaries delineate a drainage area of

noncircular shape, the following equation should be used for
analysis of pseudo–steady-state flow:
ko h( Pr  Pwf ) A : drainage area, ft2
q γ =1.78 Euler’s constant
1  4A  
141.2 o Bo  ln  2 
 S CA : drainage area shape
 2  C
 Aw r  factor

Example 1
 Used the following reservoir and well variable to determine
the production profile for one year. Assuming transient
flow with Pwf = 3500 psi.
 k = 8.2 md
 h = 53 ft
 Pi = 5651 psi
 Pb = 1323 psi
 Ct = 2.8×106 psi-1
 µ = 1.7 cp
 B = 1.1 rbb/stb
 Ø = 0.19
 rw = 0.328 ft
 re = 2980 ft
 S=0
Example 1: Solution
ko h( Pr  Pwf )
q
 k 
162.6 o Bo log t  log  3.23  0.87 S 
  c r
o t w
2

8.2  53  (5651  3500)
q
 8.2 
162.6 1.7 1.1  log t  log  3.23
 (0.19)(1.7)(1.29 105 )(0.328) 2 
3074

log t  4.03
t  2 months  q  428 STB / d

t  12 months  q  386 STB / d

Example 2
 A- Used the following reservoir and well variable to determine
the production rate. Assuming S-S flow with Pwf = 4500 psi.
 B- Introduce two strategy to increase the rate by 50%.
 k = 8.2 md
 h = 53 ft
 Pi = 5651 psi
 Pb = 1323 psi
 Ct = 2.8×106 psi-1
 µ = 1.7 cp
 B = 1.1 rbb/stb
 Ø = 0.19
 rw = 0.328 ft
 re = 2980 ft
 S = 10
Example 2: Solution
 A) Production rate at 4500 bottom-hole pressure:
ko h( Pr  Pwf ) 8.2  53  (5651  4500)
qo  = =100 STB/d
 r     2980  
141.2 o Bo ln  e   S  141.2  1.7 1.1 ln    10 
r
  w    0.328  
 B-1) The first strategy to increase production rate is

increasing draw down:
q2 ( Pr  Pwf ) 2
  1.5  ( Pr  Pwf ) 2  1.5  ( Pr  Pwf )1
q1 ( Pr  Pwf )1
(5651  Pwf ) 2  1.5  (5651  4500)1  Pwf 2  3925 psi

Example 2: Solution
 B-2) The second way to increase production rate is to
remove skin for example by acidizing.
  re  
 ln    S 
q2   rw  1   re   1   re  
  1.5  ln    S    ln    S 
q1   re     rw  2 1.5   rw  1
ln    S 
  rw  2
  2980     2980  
ln  0.328   S   ln  0.328   10  S 2  3.6
   2    1
Example 3
 Used the following reservoir and well variable to determine the production rate. Assuming
P-S-S flow with Pwf = 3500 psi and average reservoir pressure of 5651 psi.
 Determine production for two wells, one in the centre of a square and the second one in
the centre of the upright quadrant of a square drainage shape.
 k = 8.2 md
 h = 53 ft
 Pr¯ = 5651 psi
 Pb = 1323 psi
 Ct = 2.8×106 psi-1
 µ = 1.7 cp
 B = 1.1 rbb/stb
 Ø = 0.19
 rw = 0.328 ft
 re = 2980 ft
 S=0
 A = 640 Acre

Example 3: Solution
 First we have to
determine the
corresponding shape
factor for each of the
wells.
1. The first well shape

factor is 30.9
2. The second well shape

factor is 4.5
Example 3: Solution
 And finally the production rate from each well will be:
ko h( Pr  Pwf ) 8.2  53  (5651  4500)

qo  = =423 STB/d
1  4A    1  4  640  43560  
141.2o Bo  ln  2 
 S 141.2 1.7 1.1  ln  2 
 2  C
 Aw r   2  1.78  30.9  (0.328 )  
ko h( Pr  Pwf ) 8.2  53  (5651  4500)

qo  = =379 STB/d
1  4A    1  4  640  43560  
141.2o Bo  ln  2 
 S 141.2 1.7 1.1  ln  2 
 2   C A rw    2  1.78  4.5  (0.328 )  

Well Inflow Performance

Inflow performance Relationship (IPR)
Yousef Rafiei
Outline
 Inflow performance relationships (IPR)
 Single phase IPR

 Transient
 Pseudo steady state
 Steady state
 Two phase IPR

 Vogel
 Wiggins
 Standing
 Fetkovich
 Klins-Clark
 Gas well IPR
 Horizontal well IPR
152 Inflow Performance Relationship

Inflow performance relationship (IPR)

 Mathematical equation
developed for determining well
production rate at a given q
bottom-hole flowing pressure for q  J ( Pr  Pwf )  Pwf  Pr 
different flow regimes. J
 Using these equations, plot of

Pwf versus production rate, q,
can be defined:
 This graphical representation

of the relationship that exists
between the oil flow rate and
bottom-hole flowing
pressure is called the Inflow
Performance Relationship
and referred to as IPR.

 When pwf equals average
reservoir pressure, the
flow rate is zero due to
the absence of any pressure
drawdown.
 Maximum rate of flow

occurs when pwf is zero.
This maximum rate is called
absolute open flow and
referred to as AOF.
 The slope of the straight

line equals the reciprocal AOF  J  Pr
of the productivity
index. 1
Slope 
J


 Productivity index is
important parameter in
determining IPR curve for
a given reservoir.
 It represents the effect of

reservoir fluid and rock
properties on the
reservoir performance.

ko h( P r  Pwf )
 In case of pseudo-steady qo 
 r  
state condition for 141.2o Bo  ln  e   0.75  S 
r
example According to the   w 
Darcy law, productivity  J
ko h
index will be:  r  
141.2 o Bo ln  e   0.75  S 
  wr 

 Therefore productivity index can be written based on relative
permeability values as:
kh  kro 
J  
 r    o Bo 
141.2  ln  e   0.75  S 
  rw  
 This Equation reveals that the variables affecting the

productivity index are essentially those that are pressure
dependent:
1. Oil viscosity μo
2. Oil formation volume factor Bo
3. Relative permeability to oil kro


 Figure schematically illustrates the
behaviour of those variables as a
function of pressure. kro
 It shows the overall effect of Bo

changing the pressure on the term
(kro/μoBo).
μo
 Above the bubble-point
pressure pb, the relative oil
permeability kro equals unity (kro =
1) and the term (kro/μoBo) is almost
constant.  k  kh
J  A   ro  , A=
  o Bo    re  
141.2  ln    0.75  S 
 As the pressure declines below   rw  
pb, the gas is released from solution,
which can cause a large decrease It is necessary to determine IPR
in both kro and (kro/μoBo). curves for single phase and
two phase flow separately.
Outline

 Transient
 Steady state
 Two phase IPR

 Vogel
 Wiggins
 Standing
 Fetkovich
 Klins-Clark
 Gas well IPR

Single phase flow IPR curves

 Some of reservoir inflow models are
derived on the basis of the assumption
of single-phase liquid flow for
different flow regimes.
 This assumption is valid for under-

saturated oil reservoirs, or
reservoir portions where the pressure
is above the bubble-point pressure.
 The IPR curve for a single (liquid)-

phase reservoir is simply a straight
line drawn from the reservoir
pressure to the bubble-point
pressure.

 These equations define the productivity index (J*) for flowing bottom-
hole pressures above the bubble-point pressure as follows
q ko h
J*  
1. Transient flow: ( Pr  Pwf )  k 
162.6 o Bo log t  log  3.23  0.87 S 
 o ct rw2 
1. Steady-state flow: J* 
q

ko h
( Pr  Pwf )  r  
141.2 o Bo ln  e   S 
  rw  
2. Pseudo-steady state flow: J* 

q

ko h
( Pr  Pwf ) 1  4A  
141.2 o Bo  ln  2 
 S
 2   C Arw  

Example 1
 Construct IPR of a vertical well in an oil reservoir. Consider
 (1) transient flow at 1 month,
 (2) steady-state flow, and
 (3) pseudo–steady-state flow.
 The following data are given:

Example 1: Solution
 For transient flow, calculated points are
Example 1: Solution
 For steady state flow:

Example 1 : Solution
 For pseudo-steady state flow
Example 2
 Use the following reservoir and well variables to construct IPR
curve for 1, 6 and 24 months. Assuming transient flow.
 k = 8.2 md
 h = 53 ft
 Pi = 5651 psi
 Pb = 1323 psi
 Ct = 2.8×106 psi-1
 µ = 1.7 cp
 B = 1.1 rbb/stb
 Ø = 0.19
 rw = 0.328 ft
 re = 2980 ft
 S = 10

Example 2: Solution
ko h ( Pr  Pwf )
q
 k 
162.6 o Bo log t  log  3.23  0.87 S 
 o ct rw2 
8.2  53  (5651  Pwf )

q
 8.2 
162.6  1.7 1.1  log t  log  3.23
 (0.19)(1.7)(1.29 105 )(0.328) 2 
1.43  (5651  Pwf )

log t  4.03
q
 (5651  Pwf )   log t  4.03
1.43
 q
 Pwf  5651    log t  4.03
1.43 
Example 3
curve assuming S-S flow for skin values of 0, 5, 10 and 50.
 k = 8.2 md
 h = 53 ft
 Pi = 5651 psi
 Pb = 1323 psi
 Ct = 2.8×106 psi-1
 µ = 1.7 cp
 B = 1.1 rbb/stb
 Ø = 0.19
 rw = 0.328 ft
 re = 2980 ft

Example 3: Solution
ko h( Pr  Pwf )
qo 
 r  
141.2o Bo  ln  e   S 
  rw  
 r  
141.2 o Bo qo ln  e   S 
 Pr  Pwf    rw  
ko h
 r  
141.2 o Bo qo ln  e   S 
  rw  
 Pwf  Pr 
ko h
 Pwf  5651  8.58( S  q0 )
Example 4
curve assuming P-S flow for average reservoir pressures of
5651, 5000, 4500, 4000, 3500 psi.
 k = 8.2 md
 h = 53 ft
 Pb = 1323 psi
 Ct = 2.8×106 psi-1
 µ = 1.7 cp
 B = 1.1 rbb/stb
 Ø = 0.19
 rw = 0.328 ft
 re = 2980 ft
 S=0

Example 4: Solution
ko h( Pr  Pwf )
qo 
 r  3 
141.2o Bo  ln  e    S 
  rw  4 
 r  3 
141.2qo o Bo  ln  e    S 
 Pr  Pwf    rw  4 
ko h
 r  3 
141.2qo o Bo  ln  e    S 
  rw  4 
 Pwf  Pr 
ko h
 Pwf  Pr  5q
Outline

 Transient
 Steady state
 Two phase IPR

 Vogel
 Wiggins
 Standing
 Fetkovich
 Klins-Clark
 Gas well IPR

Two phase IPR curve

 The linear IPR model presented is valid for
pressure values as low as bubble-point
pressure.
 Below the bubble-point pressure, the

solution gas escapes from the oil and
become free gas.
 The free gas occupies some portion of

pore space, which reduces flow of oil.
kro
 This effect is quantified by the reduced
relative permeability. Bo
 Also, oil viscosity increases as its solution μo

gas content drops.
Two phase IPR curve

 The combination of the relative
permeability effect and the
viscosity effect results in lower
oil production rate at a given
bottom-hole pressure.
 This makes the IPR curve

deviating from the linear trend
below bubble-point pressure.
 The lower the pressure, the

larger the deviation.

Two phase IPR curve

 Only empirical equations are available for
modelling IPR of two-phase reservoirs.
 There are several empirical methods that are

designed to predict the non-linearity
behaviour of the IPR.
 The following empirical methods that are

designed to generate the current and future
inflow performance relationships:
 Vogel’s method
 Wiggins’ method
 Standing’s method
 Fetkovich’s method
 The Klins-Clark method
Outline

 Transient
 Steady state
 Two phase IPR

 Vogel
 Wiggins
 Standing
 Fetkovich
 Klins-Clark
 Gas well IPR

Vogel equation
 Vogel (1968) used a computer model to generate IPRs for
several hypothetical saturated oil reservoirs that are
producing under a wide range of conditions.
 Vogel normalized the calculated IPRs and expressed the

relationships in a dimensionless form.
 He normalized the IPRs by introducing the following

dimensionless parameters:
Pwf
Dimensionless Pressure =
Pr
qo
Dimensionless Rate =
qo max
Vogel equation
 Vogel plotted the dimensionless IPR curves for all the reservoir cases
and arrived at the following relationship between the above dimensionless
parameters:
2
qo P  P  J * Pr
 1  0.2  wf   0.8  wf  and qmax 
qo max  Pr   Pr  1.8
 Vogel’s method can be extended to account for water production by

replacing the dimensionless rate with " ” where “ql = qo + qw”.
 This has proved to be valid for wells producing at water cuts as high as
97%.

Example 5
 Construct IPR of a vertical well in a saturated oil
reservoir using Vogel’s equation. The following data are
given:
Example 5: Solution
2
qo  P   P 
 1  0.2  wf   0.8  wf 
618  5651   5651 

Example 6
 A well is producing from a saturated reservoir with an
average reservoir pressure of 2,500 psig.
 Stabilized production test data indicated that the
stabilized rate and wellbore pressure are 350 STB/day
and 2,000 psig, respectively.
 Calculate:
 Oil flow rate at Pwf = 1850 psig.
 Calculate oil flow rate assuming constant J.
 Construct the IPR by using Vogel’s method and the
constant productivity index approach.
Example 6: Solution
 First we need to determine the absolute open flow:
q1 350
qo max  2
 qo max  2
=1067.1 STB/d
P  P   2000   2000 
1  0.2  wf 1   0.8  wf 1  1  0.2    0.8  
P
 r   Pr   2500   2500 
 Using Vogel’s equation for determining production rate

at given Pwf:
2 2
qo  Pwf   Pwf  qo  1850   1850 
 1  0.2    0.8     1  0.2    0.8   = 441.7 STB/d
qo max P
 r   Pr  1067.1  2500   2500 

Example 6
 Assuming constant J we can write:
q1 350
q  J ( Pr  Pwf )  J   0.7 STB/d/psi
( Pr  Pwf 1 ) (2500  2000)
 Therefore:
q  J ( Pr  Pwf )  0.7(2500  1850)  455 STB/d
Example 6: Solution
3000
Vogel IPR
2500
Straight IPR
2000
Pwf qo (Vogel) qo (Straight)
2500 0 0
Pwf
1500
2200 218 210
1500 631 700
1000 845 1050 1000
500 990 1400
0 1067 1750 500
0
0 500 1000 1500 2000
Production rate (STB/d)

Vogel equation for under-saturated reservoir

 If the reservoir pressure is
above the bubble-point
pressure and the flowing
bottom-hole pressure is
below the bubble point
pressure, a Generalized
Vogel IPR model can be
formulated.
 This can be done by

combining the straight-line
IPR model for single-
phase flow with Vogel’s IPR
model for two-phase flow.

 According to the linear IPR model,
the flow rate at bubble-point
pressure is:
qb  J * ( Pr  Pb )


 Based on Vogel’s IPR model, the
additional flow rate caused by a
pressure below the bubble-point
pressure is expressed as:
2
qo  Pwf   Pwf  J * Pb
 1  0.2    0.8   and qv 
qv  Pb   Pb  1.8

 Thus, the flow rate at a given bottom-
hole pressure that is below the bubble-
point pressure is expressed as:
  Pwf   Pwf  
2
q  qb  qv 1  0.2    0.8   
  Pb   Pb  


 So the final equation will be:
J * Pb   Pwf  
2
P 
q  J * ( Pr  Pb )  1  0.2  wf   0.8   
1.8   Pb   Pb  

Example 7
 An oil well is producing from an under-saturated
reservoir that is characterized by a bubble-point pressure
of 2,130 psig.
 The current average reservoir pressure is 3,000 psig.

Available flow test data show that the well produced 250
STB/day at a stabilized Pwf of 2500 psig.
 Construct the IPR data.

Example 7: Solution
 The bottom-hole flowing pressure is above bubble point.
Therefore the straight line productivity index will be:
q1 250
q  J * ( Pr  Pwf )  J*    0.5 STB/d/psi
( Pr  Pwf 1 ) (3000  2500)
 The second important parameter is Absolute open flow for

the curved section:
J * Pb 0.5  2130
qv   qv  =591.6 STB/d
1.8 1.8
Example 7: Solution
 The final equation will be:
J * Pb  P     P  
2 2
P   P 
q  J * ( Pr  Pb )  1  0.2  wf   0.8  wf    q  0.5(3000  2130)  591.6 1  0.2  wf   0.8  wf  
1.8   Pb   Pb    2130   2130  
 
  Pwf   Pwf  
2
q  435  591.6 1  0.2    0.8   

  2130   2130  

Example 8
 An oil well is producing from an under-saturated
reservoir that is characterized by a bubble-point pressure
of 2,130 psig.
 The current average reservoir pressure is 3,000 psig.

Available flow test data show that the well produced
630.7 STB/day at a stabilized Pwf of 1700 psig.
 Construct the IPR data.
Example 8: Solution
 The bottom-hole flowing pressure is below the
bubble point. Therefore the straight line productivity
index will be:
J * Pb   Pwf  
2
P 
q  J * ( Pr  Pb )  1  0.2  wf   0.8   
1.8   Pb   Pb  

q1
 J* 
P  P  P  
2
( Pr  Pb )  b 1  0.2  wf   0.8  wf  
1.8   Pb   Pb  

630.7

2130   1700  
2
 1700 
(3000  2130)  1  0.2    0.8   
1.8   2130   2130  
 0.5 STB/d/psi

Example 8: Solution
 Production rate at bubble point pressure will be:
qb  J * ( Pr  Pb )  0.5(3000  2130)  435 STB/d/psi
 The absolute open flow for the curved section is:
J * Pb 0.5  2130
qv   qv  =591.6 STB/d
1.8 1.8

 P   Pwf  
2
  Pwf   Pwf  
2
q  qb  qv 1  0.2  wf   0.8     q  435  591.6 1  0.2    0.8   

  Pb   Pb     2130   2130  
Example 8: Solution
3500
3000
2500
qo Pwf
0 3000 2000
Pwf
100 2800
200 2600 1500
435 2130
1000
709 1500
867 1000 500
973 500
1027 0 0
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200

Example 9
 Construct IPR of a vertical well in an under-saturated oil
reservoir using the generalized Vogel equation. The
following data are given:
Example 9: solution
  Pwf   Pwf  
2
q  522  328 1  0.2    0.8   

  3000   3000  

Outline

 Transient
 Steady state
 Two phase IPR

 Vogel
 Wiggins
 Standing
 Fetkovich
 Klins-Clark
 Gas well IPR
Wiggin’s method
 Wiggins (1993) used four sets of relative
permeability and fluid property data as the basic
input for a computer model to develop equations to
predict inflow performance.
 The generated relationships are limited by the assumption

that the reservoir initially exists at its bubble-point
pressure.
 Wiggins proposed generalized correlations that are

suitable for predicting the IPR during multi-phase flow.

Wiggin’s method
 His proposed expressions are similar to that of Vogel’s
and are expressed for oil and water phases as:
2
qo P   Pwf 
 1  0.52  wf   0.48  
qo max  Pr   Pr 
2
qw P  P 
 1  0.72  wf   0.28  wf 
qw max  Pr   Pr 
Example 10
 Use the given data in example 6, construct IPR by
Wigging's method and compare it with Vogel.
 A well is producing from a saturated reservoir with an

average reservoir pressure of 2,500 psig.
 Stabilized production test data indicated that the

stabilized rate and wellbore pressure are 350 STB/day
and 2,000 psig, respectively.

Example 10: Solution

 The absolute open flow will be:
2
qo  Pwf   Pwf  qo
 1  0.52    0.48    qo max = 2
qo max  Pr   Pr  P  P 
1  0.52  wf   0.48  wf 
 Pr   Pr 
350
 qo max = 2
=1264 STB/d
 2000   2000 
1  0.52    0.48  
 2500   2500 
2 2
qo P   Pwf  qo  P   P 
 1  0.52  wf   0.48     1  0.52  wf   0.48  wf 
qo max  Pr   Pr  1264  2500   2500 

Pwf qo (Vogel) qo (Wigging)
2500 0 0
2200 218 218
1500 631 651
1000 845 904
500 990 1108
0 1067 1264
3000
2500 Vogel IPR
2000
Pwf
1500
1000
500
0
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400

Outline

 Transient
 Steady state
 Two phase IPR

 Vogel
 Wiggins
 Standing
 Fetkovich
 Klins-Clark
 Gas well IPR
Standing method
 Standing (1970) essentially extended the application of
Vogel’s to predict future inflow performance relationship
of a well as a function of reservoir pressure. He noted that
Vogel’s equation can be rearranged as:
qo   Pwf     Pwf  
 1     1  0.8  
qo max   Pr     Pr  
 Then he proposed the following equation to determine future

IPR curve:
 kro 
 2
  
P   Pwf   o Bo  f
*
J f Prf
qo  1  0.2  wf   0.8    in which J *f  J *p 
1.8   Prf   kro 
    Prf    
 o Bo  p

Example 11
 A well is producing from a saturated oil reservoir that exists at its
saturation pressure of 4,000 psig.
 The well is flowing at a stabilized rate of 600 STB/day and a Pwf of 3,200
psig.
 Material balance calculations provide the following current and future

predictions for oil saturation and PVT properties.

 The absolute open flow will be:
qo   Pwf     Pwf   qo
 1     1  0.8    qmax 
qmax   Pr     Pr     Pwf     Pwf  
1     1  0.8  
  Pr     Pr  
600
 qmax  =1829 STB/d
  3200     3200  
1     1  0.8   
  4000     4000  
 The current PI is:
qmax  1829 
J p*  1.8   1.8    0.823 STB/d
Pr  4000 


 The future PI is:
 kro   1 
   
 o Bo  f  2.4 1.2  f 0.3472
J J 
*
f
*
p  0.823   0.823   0.618 STB/d
 k ro   0.66  0.2609
   
 o Bo  p  2.2 1.15  p
 And finally:
J f * Prf  
2
0.618  3000   Pwf  
2
P   Pwf   Pwf 
qo  1  0.2  wf   0.8     1  0.2    0.8   
1.8  P 
  rf   Prf  
1.8
  3000   3000  
3500
3000
2500
qo Pwf 2000
0 3000
Pwf
527 2000 1500

721 1500
870 1000 1000
973 500
500
1030 0
0
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200

Outline

 Transient
 Steady state
 Two phase IPR

 Vogel
 Wiggins
 Standing
 Fetkovich
 Klins-Clark
 Gas well IPR
Fetkovich method
 Fetkovich analysed forty Isochronal well tests from a variety of
reservoirs (Fetkovich, 1973) Isochronal well tests are those involving
multiple, equal time steps at different rates.
 He concluded that both saturated wells can be treated in the same

manner as gas wells.
 The performance of all of the tests followed the relationship:
qo  C  Pr2  Pwf2 
n
 where “C” is the performance coefficient and “n” is a curve fitting exponent.

Fetkovich method
 By plotting − versus flow rate on a log–log chart, a
straight line is produced with a slope of “1/n”.
 “C” can be calculated from the intercept of the line where

− = .
C can also be calculated

using any point on the
linear plot once n has
been determined to give:
qo
C
P 
n
r
2
 Pwf2
Example 12
 Construct IPR of a well in a saturated oil reservoir using
both Vogel’s equation and Fetkovich’s equation.
 The following data are given:
 Reservoir pressure, P = 3,000 psia

 Tested flowing bottom-hole pressure, Pwf,1 = 2,000 psia
 Tested production rate at Pwf,1, q1,1 = 500 stb/d
 Tested flowing bottom-hole pressure, Pwf, 2 =1,000 psia
 Tested production rate at Pwf,2, ql,2 = 800 stb=day

Example 12: Solution (Vogel)

 The AOF is:
q1 500
qmax  2
 qmax  2
=978 STB/d
P  P   2000   2000 
1  0.2  wf 1   0.8  wf 1  1  0.2    0.8  
 Pr   Pr   3000   3000 
 Therefore:
2 2
qo P  P  qo  P   P 
 1  0.2  wf   0.8  wf    1  0.2  wf   0.8  wf 
qmax  Pr   Pr  978  2500   2500 
Example 12: Solution (Fetkovich)

 The exponent can be calculated by:
q   500 
log  1  log  
n  q2    800  1
 P  Pwf 1 
2 2
 3000  2000 2 
2
log  r2  log  
 Pr  Pwf2 2   3000  1000 
2 2
 
 And the performance coefficient will be:

q1 500
C   0.0001 STB/d.psi 2 n
P   3000  2000 2 
n 1.0
r
2
P 2
wf 1
2
 And finally:
qo  C  Pr2  Pwf2  qo  0.0001 Pr2  Pwf2 
n
1.0



Pwf qo (Vogel) qo (Fetkovich)
0 978 900
500 924 875
1000 826 800
1500 685 675
2000 500 500
2500 272 275
3000 0 0
3500
Vogel IPR
3000
Fetkovich IPR
2500
2000
Pwf
1500
1000
500
0
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200
Outline

 Transient
 Steady state
 Two phase IPR

 Vogel
 Wiggins
 Standing
 Fetkovich
 Klins-Clark
 Gas well IPR

Klins-Clark method
 Klins and Clark (1993) proposed an inflow expression
similar in form to that of Vogel’s.
 To improve the predictive capability of Vogel’s equation, the

authors introduced a new exponent “d” to Vogel’s
expression.
 The authors proposed the following relationships:

d
qo  Pwf   Pwf 
 1  0.295    0.705  
qmax  Pr   Pr 
 P 
d= 0.28  0.72    (1.24  0.001Pb )
  Pb 
Outline

 Transient
 Steady state
 Two phase IPR

 Vogel
 Wiggins
 Standing
 Fetkovic
 Klins-clark
 Gas well IPR

Gas well IPR

 Based on the analysis for flow data obtained from a large
member of gas wells, Rawlins and Schellhardt (1936)
postulated that the relationship between the gas flow rate and
qg  C  Pr2  Pwf2 
n
pressure can be expressed as:
Where:
qg = gas flow rate, Mscf/day

Pr = average reservoir pressure, psi
n = exponent
C = performance coefficient,
Mscf/day/psi2
Gas well IPR

qg  C  Pr2  Pwf2 
n
• The exponent “n” is intended to

account for the additional pressure
drop caused by the high-velocity gas
flow, i.e., turbulence.
• Depending on the flowing conditions,

the exponent “n” may vary from 1.0
for completely laminar flow to
0.5 for fully turbulent flow.

Gas well IPR

qg  C  Pr2  Pwf2 
n
• The performance coefficient C in

Equation is included to account for:
1. Reservoir rock properties

2. Fluid properties
3. Reservoir flow geometry
Gas well IPR

qg  C  Pr2  Pwf2 
n
• Above Equation is commonly called

the deliverability or back-
pressure equation.
• If the coefficients of the equation

(i.e., n and C) can be determined, the
gas flow rate qg at any bottom-hole
flow pressure pwf can be calculated
and the IPR curve constructed.

Gas well IPR: C and n determination

 Taking the logarithm of both sides
of Equation gives: log q g  log C  n log  Pr2  Pwf2 
 It suggests that a plot of qg versus
− on log-log scales should
yield a straight line having a slope
of n.
 In the natural gas industry the

plot is traditionally reversed by
plotting versus qg on the
logarithmic scales to produce a
straight line with a slope of (1/n).
 This plot as shown schematically

in Figure is commonly referred as
the deliverability graph or the
back-pressure plot.
Gas well IPR: C and n determination

 The deliverability exponent n can be determined from any
two points, i.e., (qg1, ∆p21) and (qg2, ∆p22), according to the
flowing expression:
q 
log  g1 
q 
n  g 2   log q g1  log qg 2
 Pr2  Pwf2 1  log P12  log P22
log  2
 P  P 2 
 r wf 2 
 Given “n” , any point on the straight line can be used to

compute the performance coefficient “C” from:
qq
C
P 
n
r
2
 Pwf2

Example 13
 A gas well was tested using a three-point conventional
deliverability test. Data recorded during the test are given
below:
 Generate the current IPR.

 First the following table is determined:
Pwf (psi) P2wf (psi×103) P2r-P2wf (psi×103) qq (Mscf/d)
1952 3810 0 0
1700 2890 920 2624.6
1500 2250 1560 4154.7
1300 1690 2120 5425.1


 The exponent n can be determined as:
log qg1  log qg 2 log(4154)  log(2624)

n   0.87
log P  log P
1
2
2
2
log(1560 103 )  log(920  103 )
 And C will be:

qq 2624
C   0.0169 Mscf/d
P  9208.7
n
r
2
 Pwf2

qg  0.0169  3,810, 000  Pwf2 

0.87
10000
9000
8000
7000
6000
Pwf (psi)
5000
4000
3000
2000
1000
0
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500
Gas rate (Mscf/d)

Outline

 Transient
 Steady state
 Two phase IPR

 Vogel
 Wiggins
 Standing
 Fetkovic
 Klins-Clark
 Gas well IPR
Horizontal well IPR

 Joshi (1991) presented the following expression for
estimating the productivity index of a horizontal well in
isotropic reservoirs:
Lkh
Jh 
  B2 L   h  
141.2  ln( R)    ln  
  h   2rw  
2
L
a  a2   
2
R
L
 
2
0.5
 4 
 L  2r 
a     0.5  0.25   ch  
 2   L  

kh
B
kv

Production & Injection Well Completion

Reservoir Completion
Yousef Rafiei

 Petroleum production engineers design and select
equipment to extract and treat oil and gas wells
fluids to satisfy a number of objectives including:
1. Provision of optimum production/injection performance.
2. Ensure safety.
3. Maximise the integrity and reliability of the completion

over the envisaged life of the completed well.
4. Minimise the total costs per unit volume of fluid

produced or injected, i.e. minimise the costs of initial
completion, maintaining production and remedial
measures.
234 Well Reservoir Completion

Course story
 Reservoir
 Well
 Evaluating of the performance of the PS

elements

 Artificial lift
Production System
 Reservoir
Surface facilities
 Well
Well
236 Reservoir Well Reservoir Completion

Course story
 Reservoir
 Production profile has strong

impact on completion and surface
facilities design.
1. Fluid capacity of the reservoir

2. Fluid type of the reservoir
3. Hydrocarbon recovery mechanism
from reservoir
4. Determination of reservoir
deliverability
Course story
 Well
 How to make a drilled production or injection well

ready for optimum and secure operation is the main
concern?
1. Definition of well and well completion

2. Different completion types
3. Main completion equipments
4. Advanced completion
5. Perforation operation
6. Sand control completion
7. Determination of well performance

Outline
 Definition of production or injection well
 Well completion
 Reservoir completion
 Open hole
 Slotted liner
 Cased hole
 Sand control
Well
 A well is a boring into the Earth
that is designed to bring
petroleum oil hydrocarbons to
the surface.
 Provides a path for the

produced fluid to flow from
bottom hole to the surface and
helps to control production
rate.

Well
 The role of the production
engineer is to take a well that
has been drilled and convert it
into a safe and efficient
production or injection
conduit.
 This can be performed by design

and implementation of well
completion.
Outline
 Well completion
 Open hole
 Slotted liner
 Cased hole
 Sand control

Well completion
 “Completing a well” means:
 Installing equipment in the well
 In order to allow a safe and controlled
flow of petroleum from the well up to the
surface.
 This principally involves:

1. Preparing the bottom of the hole to
the required specifications
2. Running in the production tubing and
its associated down hole tools
3. As well as perforating and stimulating
as required
Well completion
 The interface or conduit for production or
injection between the reservoir and the
surface is the completion.
 Completions are often divided into:

1. The reservoir completion (the connection
between the reservoir and the well) and
2. The upper completion (conduit from reservoir
completion to surface facilities).

Outline
 Well completion
 Open hole
 Slotted liner
 Cased hole
 Sand control
Open-hole (bare foot)

 The simplest approach to bottom hole completion
would be to leave the entire drilled reservoir
section open after drilling.
 Such completions are sometimes referred to as

“barefoot” completions and the technique is widely
applied.
 Open hole completions should only be applied in

consolidated formations as the borehole may
become unstable once a drawdown in applied to induce
the well to flow.


 Main advantages:
 The barefoot completion is simple and easy to implement.
 Since no equipment requires to be installed there are savings

in both costs and time.
 Whole reservoir section is open to flow without any

restriction.

 Main disadvantages:
 It often provides no real selective control over fluid

production or injection.
 It is therefore not recommended for production or injection

wells where distinctive variations in layer permeability will
detrimentally control the sweep efficiency on zones under
waterflood or gas injection.
 Further, if water/gas breakthrough or migration into the

wellbore occurs it is difficult to isolate unless the entry is at
the base of the well where isolation with a cement plug may be
successful.


 The possibility of interzonal cross flow or zonal back

pressure dictating multizone depletion cannot be corrected
with this type of completion.
 This lack of zonal control for production or injection is a

major limitation on the application of this technique
 In addition any weak intervals present might collapse and

either block production or produce solids to surface.

 Currently open-hole completions are applied in a
range of environments:
 Low cost / multi well developments

 Deep wells, consolidated with depletion drive
 Naturally fractured reservoirs
 Some horizontal and multi lateral wells

Outline
 Well completion
 Open hole
 Slotted liner
 Cased hole
 Sand control
Predrilled or slotted liner

 In this technique, once the drilling through completed
reservoir section has been completed, a wire-
wrapped screen or steel pipe which has slots or
alternative sand control screen, is installed.
 The principal purpose of the screen or liner is to

prevent any produced sand from migrating with
the produced fluids, into the production flow string.


 It is still easy to install.
 it is a low cost technique since the cost of a screen to

cover the reservoir interval is much less than the cost of a
casing string run to surface plus the cost of cementing and
perforating.
 It is still an open-hole completion in that whatever is

drilled is open to production.
 It can control sand production over a limited range of

conditions.
 The liner however will stop the hole from totally collapsing
and aid in getting intervention or logging tools down.

 The success of the completion in controlling sand

production is dependent upon the screen or slot sizes
and the sand particle sizes.
 The screen will only become 100% effective if it totally

restrains sand production which requires that the slot
size be equal to the size of the smallest particles.


 However, in some cases the slots may quickly become

plugged and impede flow resulting in a loss in
productivity.
 It is however usually impossible to make the slots small

enough to stop individual grains of sand from being
produced.
 This technique also suffers from the same inability for

zonal control of production or injection as exists in
the open-hole completion.

 The technique is applicative as an alternative to the
open-hole completion in situations where the
reservoir rock consists of relatively large,
homogenous and unconsolidated sand grains.
 This system is sometimes used in inclined/high angle

angles to:
 Prevent major borehole collapse
 Facilitate the passage of logging tools

Outline
 Well completion
 Open hole
 Slotted liner
 Cased hole
 Sand control
Cased hole completion

 The final choice is to install either a casing string which
extends back to surface or a liner which extends back
into the shoe of the previous casing string.
 Which would then be cemented in place by the

displacement of cement slurry into the annular space
between the outside wall of the casing and the borehole
wall.
 Subsequently, to provide flow paths for fluid to enter

the wellbore from the formation, or vice versa, the
casing and cement sheath will be perforated at selected
locations using explosive charges contained in a
perforating gun.


 It provide us with the ability to:
 Control the depletion of individual zones
 Isolate the inflow of undesirable produced fluids
 Control the injection of fluids into different zones

 This type of completion involves considerably greater costs and

time than the previous options.
 The cost of a full length of casing from the surface to the base of the
well can be considerable.
 To which must be added the cost of perforating, cementing and the

additional time necessary to complete the borehole in this way.
 The use of a liner helps to reduce the required length of tubular and
hence the overall costs.


 For the completion to be effective, a successful primary

cement job must provide zonal isolation behind the casing.
 The absence or failure of the cement can lead to either
 Fluid migration behind the casing to surface
 Fluid migration into another zone or into perorations from which it was
assumed to be isolated
 If required the perforations can subsequently be closed off by a cement

squeeze operation

 The ability to have selective control over the fluid flow
from or in to the different reservoir layers made this
completion type being the most widely applied
bottom hole completion technique in situations where
enhanced reservoir management capabilities are
required.


Well Upper Completion
Yousef Rafiei
Outline
 Well completion
 Open hole
 Slotted liner
 Cased hole
 Sand control
 Well upper completion

 Tubing less
 Tubing with no packer
 Tubing with packer
 Dual packer completion
264 Well Upper Completion

Well completion
 The interface or conduit for production or
injection between the reservoir and the
surface is the completion.
 Completions are often divided into:

1. The reservoir completion (the connection
between the reservoir and the well) and
2. The upper completion (conduit from reservoir
completion to surface facilities).
Reservoir completion types

Outline
 Well completion
 Open hole
 Slotted liner
 Cased hole
 Sand control

 Tubing less
Tubing-less completion
 In this option, once the well has been drilled and the bottom
hole completion technique implemented, the well is induced
to flow under drawdown and fluid is produced up the
inside of the casing.
 To be effective, this approach is only applicable for high

rate wells.

 The simplest method consists of producing straight up the casing

with no tubing.
 It is cheap.
 It has a large flow area.
Tubingless completion
 Firstly, the production casing may be of such a diameter that the

flow area is so large that the:
 Fluid superficial velocities are low
 Not enough for phase separation and slippage to occur, resulting

in unstable flow and increased flowing pressure loss in the
casing.

 Man disadvantages:
 Secondly, the fluid is in direct contact with the casing and this
could result in any of the following:
 Casing corrosion, if H2S or CO2 are present in produced fluids
 Casing erosion, if sand is being produced
 Potential burst on the casing at the wellhead if the well changed

from oil to gas production. (Note: This should have originally been
considered in the design of casing for burst but subsequent
corrosion or wear may have reduced burst capacity)
 Man disadvantages:
 And third, in the case of well killing, the killing fluid may
penetrate in to the formation and causing irreversible formation
damage.

Outline
 Well completion
 Open hole
 Slotted liner
 Cased hole
 Sand control

 Tubing less
Tubing completion without packer

 For highly productive wells where a large cross
sectional area for flow is desirable, an alternative to the
tubing-less casing flow would be to:
 Install a production tubing
 And then allow flow to occur up the tubing and the tubing-
casing annulus.


 This type of completion has the very important advantage of

providing a circulation capability deep in the well.
 In which reservoir fluids can be displaced to surface by

tubing while injected kill fluid of the required density injected
through casing tubing annulus to provide hydraulic
overbalance on the reservoir.
 This capability to U-tube fluid between the annulus and the

tubing removes the necessity for reinjection into the
reservoir and would not require the high pressures
associated with squeeze operations.

 In situations where annular flow in a casing-string completion

would result in excessive phase slippage with consequent
increased flowing pressure loss and potential instability, the
consideration could be given to merely closing the annulus at
surface and preventing flow.
 It is therefore very useful in low-pressure gas wells where the

flow area can be switched to overcome liquid loading
problems.


 However, in reservoirs where the flowing bottom hole pressure is

at or below the bubble point, gas as it flows from the formation
to the annulus will migrate upwards under buoyancy forces and
some gas will accumulate in the annulus.
 This will result in an increase in the casing head pressure at

surface.
 Gas build up in the annulus will continue until the gas fills the
annulus and it will off-load as a gas slug into the base of the
tubing and be produced.
 This production instability will be cyclical and is referred to as

annulus heading.

 In this type of completion the casing is exposed continuously to

produced fluid with the possibilities of erosion or corrosion.
 This, coupled with the potential for annular heading, suggests that
unless annular flow is required then the annulus should not be
left open to production, despite its simple design.

Outline
 Well completion
 Open hole
 Slotted liner
 Cased hole
 Sand control

 Tubing less
Tubing completion with packer

 For cases where a large cross sectional area for
flow is not necessary, then an open annulus can
cause complications as discussed in previous
method.
 Therefore, in the majority of cases where tubing flow

will take place, the annulus is normally isolated by
the installation of a packer.


 The packer has a rubber element which when
compressed or inflated will expand to fill the
annulus between the tubing and the casing.
 The packer is normally located as close to the top of

the reservoir as possible to minimise the trapped
annular volume beneath the packer and hence the
volume of gas which could accumulate there.

 Casing has no contact with produced fluid.
 So erosion and corrosion of casing can be avoided.
 In low rate wells can reduce the effect of slippage

between phases.


 Therefore in the event that the tubing develops a leak

(e.g. through corrosion), the casing can withstand the
pressure.
 Annulus pressure will be detected, the well shut-in and

the tubing replaced.
 Replacing tubing is a much easier operation than

replacing casing.
 Such a completion is very common offshore, where the

consequences of a leak are more severe due to the
proximity of people to the well
Outline
 Well completion
 Open hole
 Slotted liner
 Cased hole
 Sand control

 Tubing less

Dual completion tubing

 This option is used multiple
layered reservoirs.
 Flow from the two intervals is

separately produced,
controlled and measured
 Therefore any problems with

incompatible fluids are
avoided.
 These completions can be very

useful if the reservoir intervals
are very different in
productivity, pressure or
fluids.


Completion Equipments
Yousef Rafiei
Outline
 Completion main equipments
 Christmas tree
 Well head
 Production tubing
 Packer
 Sub-surface safety valve
 Side pocket mandrel
288 Well Completion Equipments

Course story
 Well
 How to make a drilled production or injection

well ready for optimum and secure operation
is the main concern?

Well completion main components

 Xmas tree
 Wellhead
 Down-hole safety valve
 Packer

Outline
 Christmas tree
 Well head
 Packer
Christmas tree
 The purpose of the Xmas
tree is to provide valve
control of the fluids
produced from or injected
into the well.
 The Xmas tree is normally

flanged up to the wellhead
system after running the
production tubing.

Christmas tree
 It can be seen that it comprises
2 wing valve outlets, normally
one for production and the
other for injection, e.g. well
killing.
 Additionally, the third outlet

provides vertical access into the
tubing for coiled tubing tools.
 The lower valve is the master

valve and it controls all
hydraulic and mechanical access
to the well.
Outline
 Christmas tree
 Well head
 Packer

Wellhead
 The wellhead provides the
basis for the mechanical
construction of the well at
surface or the sea-bed.
 The wellhead provides the

facility for suspending the
casing strings and production
tubing in the well.
Wellhead
 It can be employed for:
1. Suspension of all individual

casings and tubulars,
concentrically in the well
2. Ability to install a surface

closure/flow control device
on top of the well namely:
 A blow out preventer stack whilst
drilling
 A Xmas tree for production or
injection

Wellhead
 It can be employed for:
3. Hydraulic access to the

annuls between casing and
formation to allow cement
placement and between the
production casing and tubing
for well circulation
Wellhead
 Wellhead includes:
 Casing head
 Tubing head
 A casing head is a mechanical

assembly used for hanging a casing
string.
 Like casing head, tubing head is

supporting the tubing.

Wellhead
 Casing hanger and tubing
hanger are placed inside casing
head and tubing head respectively.
 Casing or tubing are threaded

on to casing and tubing hanger.
Outline
 Christmas tree
 Well head
 Packer

Tubing
 Production tubing is the main conduit for
transporting hydrocarbons from the reservoir
to surface (or injection material the other way).
 It runs from the tubing hanger at the top of the

wellhead down to a point generally just above
the top of the production zone.
Tubing
 Production tubing is run into the drilled well
after the casing is run and cemented in place.
 Production tubing protects wellbore casing

from wear, tear, corrosion, and deposition of by-
products, such as sand, paraffins, and asphaltenes.

Outline
 Christmas tree
 Well head
 Packer
Packer
 A production packer is a standard
component of the completion used to
provide a seal between the outside
of the production tubing and the
inside of the casing, liner, or wellbore
wall.
 It is generally placed close to the foot

of the tubing, shortly above the
production zone.
 This is to stop reservoir fluids from

flowing up the full length of the casing
and damaging it.

Packer
 It will help to:
1. To improve flow stability and

production control
2. Isolate the annulus to protect casing

corrosion and erosion
3. Isolate different production zones

for zonal isolation (e.g. downhole flow
control wells).
Packer types
 Primary use:
 Production packers are those that
remain in the well during well
production.
 Service packers are used temporarily

during well service activities such as
cement squeezing, acidizing, fracturing
and well testing.

Packer types
 Retrievability:
 Retrievable:
 can be easily retrieved after installation. The
packer can be run as an integral part of the
tubing string
 Permanent:
 cannot be easily retrieved. It is usually
run and set separately
Packer types
 Setting mechanism:
 Mechanical: rotation of tubing
 Compression and tension: tubing
weight
 Hydraulic: hydraulic pressure inside
tubing
 Electrical: electric wireline
 Packer bore:
 Single, dual or triple packer

Outline
 Christmas tree
 Well head
 Packer
Sub-surface safety valve

 A downhole safety valve refers
to a component on an oil and
gas well, which acts as a failsafe
to prevent the uncontrolled
release of reservoir fluids in
the event of a worst-case-
scenario surface disaster.
 For example, if there was a

major incident on a platform
and the tree was badly damaged,
the control line would break and
the well would automatically
shut-in.

Sub-surface safety valve

 By isolating the reservoir
section, losses and associated
well control and formation
damage issues are prevented.
 These valves can be positioned

in the reservoir completion,
below a dedicated packer, or
in the tubing.
Outline
 Christmas tree
 Well head
 Packer

Side Pocket Mandrel (SPM)

 This component contains an off-
centre pocket with ports into the
annulus.
 Using wire-line or coiled tubing, a

valve can be installed in the completion
string which allows fluid flow between
tubing and annulus:
 a) Gas Lift Valves

 This type of valve when landed in the SPM
responds to the pressure of gas injected
into the annulus, or tubing pressure at the
valve depth, to open the valve and allow
gas injection into the tubing.
Side Pocket Mandrel (SPM)

 Using wire-line or coiled tubing, a valve can
be installed in the completion string which
allows fluid flow between tubing and
annulus:
 b) Chemical Injection Valves

 These valves allow the injection of chemicals
such as corrosion inhibitors. The valve is
again opened by annular pressure.
 c) Circulation
 To allow circulation of kill fluids or the
placement of a lower density fluid cushion, a
valve can be installed which can be sheared
by pressure allowing communication. The
port can then only be reclosed by replacing
the shear valve by wireline or coiled tubing.

Well Completion Operation

Perforation
Yousef Rafiei
Course story
 Well


316 Perforation

Outline
 Perforation
 History of perforation techniques
 Shaped charge perforation
 Mechanics of explosion
 “Jet” and “Slug” formation
 Geometry of perforation tunnel
317 Perforation
Outline
 Shaped charge performance
 Shaped charge arrangements
 Over and under balanced perforation
 Perforation gun deployment
 Expendability of perforation gun
318 Perforation

Well completion
 “Completing a well” means:
 Installing equipment in the well
 In order to allow a safe and controlled
flow of petroleum from the well up to the
surface.
 This principally involves:

1. Preparing the bottom of the hole to
the required specifications
2. Running in the production tubing
and its associated down hole tools
3. As well as perforating and stimulating
as required
319 Perforation
Perforation
 In the majority of completions, once
the reservoir has been drilled,
production casing or a liner is run into
the well and cemented in place.
 To provide the communication

path between the reservoir and the
wellbore, it will be necessary to
produce holes through the wall of
the casing, the cement sheath
and penetrate into the formation.
 This is accomplished by a technique

called perforating.
320 Perforation

Perforation
 Perforating is a process
used to establish a flow
path between the near
reservoir and the
wellbore.
 It normally involves
initiating a hole from
the wellbore through
the casing and any
cement sheath into the
producing zone.
321 Perforation
Perforation
 Perforations provide the
only communication
between the reservoir and
wellbore.
 It is necessary to carefully
design and execute the
perforating operation to
provide the required degree
of reservoir depletion
control and maximise
well
productivity/injectivity.
322 Perforation

Outline
 Perforation
323 Perforation
History of perforation techniques

 Before 1930;
 Mechanical perforating:
 Prior to the early 1930's, casing could

be perforated in place by mechanical
perforators.
 In 1902, one invention relied upon a

scissors-like expanding mechanism
to drive and then retract to create
“perforating holes” through the casing.
324 Perforation


 1930 to 1940;
 Bullet perforating:
 Bullet perforating
equipment was developed in
the early1930's and has been
in continuous and widespread
use since that time.
 The major problem with

this method were that the
bullet remained in the
perforation tunnel,
penetration was not very
good, and some casings could
not be perforated effectively.
325 Perforation

 1940 to now ;
 Shaped charges or jet perforation:
 The principle of the shaped charge was developed

during World War II for armour piercing
shells used in bazookas to destroy tanks.
 After World War II the shaped-charge, principle was

adapted to oil well work, and the resulting practice
is now commonly referred to as jet perforating.
 This new technology allowed the oil producers to

have some control over the perforating
design (penetration and entry hole size) to
optimize productivity.
326 Perforation

Outline
 Perforation
327 Perforation
Shaped charge perforation

 The shaped charge or “jet” perforator uses a small amount of high explosive and a
carefully shaped case and liner to create a focused pressure punch that is highly
effective in piercing steel, cement, and rock.
 A series of explosive charges are lowered into the well either on an electric
conductor wire-line cable, or on tubing or drill string.
 When the charges are located at the required depth, they are detonated to
produce a series of perforations through the wall of the casing and the cement
sheath.
328 Perforation

Shaped charge: Components

 The basic shaped charge
consists of:
1. A charge case or container
2. A conical metallic liner
3. A primer explosive charge
4. The main explosive charge
329 Perforation
Shaped charge: Explosive material

 The main explosive charge
should be:
 Extremely powerful in terms of

the energy released per unit
weight of explosive.
 Reacts very quickly.
 In fact, once the main charge is

detonated the process is
completed after only 100 - 300
µ seconds.
330 Perforation

Shaped charge: Explosive material

 This fast reaction time is of
importance in that it:
 Concentrates the
detonation energy of the
exploding charge to a very
limited target area.
 Excludes any thermal effects.
331 Perforation
Shaped charge: Explosive container

 The main explosive is contained
within a charge container.
 The container can be

manufactured as either a metal
or a ceramic which will be
shattered during the explosion.
332 Perforation

Shaped charge: Explosive container

 Charge container would assist in
containing and directing the
force of the explosion to a
certain target area.
 The perforation diameter and

length depends on the:
 Diameter of the exit area for the

explosion from the charge case.
 Its distance from the target area.
333 Perforation
Shaped charge: Conical liner

 To concentrate the
impact of the explosive
force on the target the
charge case is normally
designed with a conical
liner.
 This conical liner assists in

concentrating the explosive
force of the charge so that it
provides maximum
penetration of the target
over a limited area.
334 Perforation

Shaped charge: Conical liner

 It can be seen that if a flat end is used for the shaped charge, the force of the
explosion is spread over a wide area of the target with very limited
penetration.
 If a conical cavity is introduced, the force of the explosion provides much

greater penetration of the target.
 However, if the conical cavity is lined with a metallic liner, the penetration is
substantially increased.
335 Perforation
Outline
 Perforation
336 Perforation

Mechanics of the explosion

 The detonation is actuated
from surface by
1. Electrical current
2. Mechanical
3. Hydraulic
337 Perforation

First, the primer charge is detonated and this in
turn fires the main charge.
338 Perforation


On detonation of the main charge, a
detonation wave is produced which moves
from the apex of the charge container at a
speed estimated to be 20,000 ft/sec.
339 Perforation

This explosive detonation wave exerts
pressures of up to 8 to 10 x 106 psi against the
liner.
340 Perforation


As the explosion front of the charge
reaches the liner, it will start the process
of forming the jet.
341 Perforation
Outline
 Perforation
342 Perforation

Formation of “Jet”
 The material of the liner
on the outside flows
towards the centre of
the cone to form a jet of
fluidised material.
 The material of the cone

initially in contact
with the explosive
charge, collapses
inwards towards the
central axis of the cone,
to produce a slug or tail
of fluidised material.
343 Perforation
Creation of perforation tunnel

 The jet leaving the charge has a
velocity of the order of 20,000 ft/sec
and has an impact pressure on the
casing of 10 x 106 psi.
 Under such high impact pressures, the

casing material, becomes plastic
and moves away from the impact of
the jet.
344 Perforation

Creation of perforation tunnel

 The material in the formation will
be compacted and moved back
into the formation ahead of the jet
as the tunnel is created through the
casing and cement sheath into the
formation.
 The whole process takes place almost

instantaneously and since no
thermal effects take place.
345 Perforation
Effect of “Slug”
 The jet, whilst it is being created over an interval of a few microseconds
starts to extend and move away from the charge.
 However, the slug material will lag behind the jet and in fact plays no
real purpose in creating the perforation.
346 Perforation

Effect of “Slug”
 The material of the slug will follow the jet into the perforation where,
due to its mass, it will be deposited, thus giving rise to plugging of the
perforation.
347 Perforation
Elimination of Slug
 One approach to eliminate
the slug has been to create a
bi-metallic liner system.
 Where the inside surface of

the cone which will produce
the jet is composed of
copper.
 Whilst that on the outside is

a metal, such as zinc, which
will readily vaporise during
the explosion.
348 Perforation

Perforation tunnel: Crushed zone

 The zone immediately
adjacent to the
perforation tunnel will
consist of:
 A layer of compacted and

crushed formation grains
 It possess permeability
substantially lower than
the original reservoir
permeability.
349 Perforation

 These layers referred to
as the crushed zone will
extend to a radial depth
of the order of 1/2 inch
around the perforation
tunnel wall.
 The permeability has

been estimated to be of
the order of 20% of the
original permeability.
350 Perforation


 It is affected by:
1. Size of perforation charge

2. Casing wall thickness
and strength
3. Cement sheath
thickness and strength
4. Grain composition, size
and shape of the formation
rock
351 Perforation
Outline
 Perforation
352 Perforation

Perforation tunnel geometry

 The physical performance of a shaped charge is normally
gauged from a number of characteristics:
 (1) Penetration length

 (2) Perforation diameter
 (3) Perforation hole volume
 To increase penetration length: Reduce α; Increase a, d, Dv

 To increase penetration diameter: Reduce b; Increase α, d
 To increase penetration volume: Reduce b; Increase α, d,
353 Perforation
Outline
354 Perforation

Shaped charge performance

 The following parameters may
influence the physical
performance of the shaped
charge:
1. Gun Size/Explosive Charge

Size
 The size of the perforating gun will

dictate the maximum explosive
load which can be accommodated in
the charges.
 In general terms, both the

penetration and the diameter of
the entrance hole will increase as
the gun diameter and hence the
size of explosive charge also
increase.
355 Perforation

2. Well bore condition:
 Fluid density inside

wellbore:
 If the fluid in the wellbore
were very dense, then it
could reduce the jet
velocity and impair its
physical performance.
356 Perforation


 Pressure:
 Wellbore pressure will
reduce the jet velocity.
357 Perforation

 Temperature:
 The effect on flow
performance is much more
important. However,
elevated well temperatures
can lead to significant
degradation of the
charges with consequent
poor performance.
358 Perforation


3. Gun clearance (stand off):
 All perforating guns have a

diameter less than the casing
inside diameter it follows.
 The gun cannot be expected to

be centralised.
359 Perforation

3. Gun clearance (stand off):
 The gap between the gun outside

diameter and the inside diameter
of the casing is known as “gun
clearance”.
 High clearance will reduce the

perforation length and
diameter.
360 Perforation


4. Compressive Strength of Formation Rock
 It would seem logical for the compressive strength of the rock to have a large
effect on the physical performance of jet perforators.
 Although the effect is not clearly quantified, the perforation obtained is
inversely proportional to rock compressive strength as shown.
361 Perforation
Outline
362 Perforation

Shaped charge arrangement

 In the preparation of a perforation
gun:
 Number of charges are assembled

on a carrier
 Then upon detonation they will yield a

series of perforations into the
formation.
363 Perforation
Shaped charge arrangement

 The arrangement provides for:
 Variation in the number of shots to be

fired per unit interval, i.e. the shot
density
 The direction in which all, or individual,

charges will be shot, i.e. the shot
phasing.
364 Perforation

Shut density
 Defined as the number of shaped
charge assembled in carrier run per
unit length (shut per foot).
 The number of shots installed in a

perforating gun varies from low shot
density, e.g. less than 1 shot/ft, to
higher shot densities of up to 16
shots/ft.
365 Perforation
Shut density
 The lower shot densities are normally
adequate for production in reservoirs of
moderate to high productivity.
 The higher shot densities will provide

improved inflow performance in all
reservoirs but may only be significantly
beneficial in reservoirs with a low
vertical permeability.
366 Perforation

Shot angular phasing

 The orientation of perforations defined as the angular phasing can be:
 (a) 0 provide the minimum clearance for all perforations if the gun is positioned to fire
on the low side of the hole.
 (b) 45° to 90° phasing which provides the nearest approximation to radial flow.
 (c) 180° phasing in either of the two planar directions.
 (d) 120° phasing with all 3 shots firing at 120.
367 Perforation
Classification of perforating operation

 Several key feature classify
perforating operations including:
 Whether the gun will be run on wire-line

or be conveyed on tubing or a drill
string.
 Whether the pressure in the wellbore

at the time of perforating will be less than
reservoir pressure, i.e. an underbalanced
pressure condition, or be greater than
reservoir pressure, i.e. an overbalanced
condition.
 The extent to which the gun, the

charges or charge carrier will be retrieved
from the wellbore after perforating.
368 Perforation

Outline
369 Perforation
Over-balanced perforation
 Main features of overbalanced perforation:
 Hydrostatic pressure of fluid in well is bore greater than reservoir pressure.
 Provide control over well while performing completion.
 Perforation can be plugged with debris in well bore which reduce

perforation performance.
370 Perforation

Under-balanced perforation
 Main features of underbalanced perforation:
 Hydrostatic pressure of fluid in well bore is less than the reservoir

pressure.
 Well is "Live" after perforation and must be controlled.
 Perforation will be clean from surge into well bore.
371 Perforation
Under-balanced perforation: well clean up

 The explosive energy of a
perforation creates a hole by
outward pressure.
 This pressure crushes the cement

and rock.
 The cement and rock are not

destroyed in the process, but they,
along with parts of the perforation
assembly, end up inside the
perforation.
 They must be removed for the

perforation to be productive.
372 Perforation

Under-balanced perforation: well clean up

 Most of this debris will be
crushed/fractured rock, with
minor amounts of charge debris.
 Flowing the well after perforating

will create a drawdown on all the
perforations.
 This will flow some of the debris

from some of the perforations.
 The conventional approach to

avoiding plugged perforations is to
perforate under-balance.
373 Perforation
Outline
374 Perforation

Gun deployment
 The majority of wells are perforated
using wire-line conveyed guns.
 However, there are two alternative

approaches:
1. The guns can be lowered into the

cased wellbore prior to installation
of the production tubing. The guns
are referred to as casing guns.
2. Alternatively, after installing the

completion tubing, a gun can be
selected to be run down the inside of
the tubing. The guns in this case are
referred to as through tubing guns.
375 Perforation
Gun deployment
 Alternatively, the perforating
guns can be tubing conveyed
either on the end of the
completion string, coiled tubing,
or at the end of a drill pipe test
string.
376 Perforation

Wire-line conveyed casing gun

 The guns can be lowered into the cased
wellbore prior to installation of the production
tubing.
 Thus, guns are normally in the range of 3 3/8" to 5"

diameter.
 It has the following advantages:
 The gun diameter can allow for the use of fairly large
explosive loads in the shaped charges.
 Since the gun size is fairly large there will be reduced

standoff or clearance which increase the charge
performance.
377 Perforation

 Casing guns can normally provide perforations which are
larger in diameter and deeper than those obtained
with through tubing wire-line guns.
 Their size provides an opportunity to use not only

larger explosive charges but also higher shot
densities.
378 Perforation


 The main disadvantage is that this type of gun is most
frequently used prior to mechanical completion,
 Therefore it is necessary to exerts a bottom hole

pressure greater than the reservoir’s pressure.
 The use of such guns therefore is a compromise

between better charge performance and ultimate
reservoir performance.
379 Perforation
Wire-line conveyed tubing gun

 After installing the completion tubing, a gun can
be selected to be run down the inside of the
tubing.
 Through tubing guns are available in a range of

diameters from 1 3/8" to 3 ½”.
 The gun can be run in after the well is mechanically

complete.
 Therefore the well can be perforated under

underbalanced condition.
380 Perforation


 The real benefit of through tubing guns is their ability
to perforate under underbalanced conditions.
 The use of a drawdown:
 Prevents fluid inflow from the wellbore into the

perforation and
 Also serves to flush out material lodged within the
perforation tunnel or surrounding matrix.
381 Perforation

 Wire-line conveyed through tubing guns will obviously
be constrained in diameter, and consequently
charge size, by the smallest inside diameter in the
production tubing string.
 Hence smaller and shorter perforation tunnel.
382 Perforation

Tubing conveyed perforating gun

 As the name implies, tubing conveyed perforating, or TCP,
involves the assembly of a perforating gun on the end of
production tubing and its lowering and positioning in
the wellbore prior to detonation.
 After detonation, the gun will detach to drop into the

wellbore sump below the perforated interval.
 Like casing guns, the gun size and, accordingly, that

density and charge size can be quite large in TCP.
383 Perforation

 Given the size of the guns, it would be expected
that the charges would offer deep
penetration with large entrance hole size
and good flow efficiency.
 The principal advantages of TCP are that it can

offer the ability to perforate under
underbalanced condition.
 It therefore combines some of the advantages

of casing and through tubing guns.
384 Perforation


 In general, the costs of TCP are higher than
conventional wire-line perforating.
 The cost differential will decrease as the length

of interval to be perforated increases.
 Further, if the gun is to be dropped into the

sump the cost of drilling the additional
sump length must be considered.
385 Perforation
Outline
386 Perforation

Perforating gun expandability

 Perforating guns also vary according to the extent to
which they are expendable, and are classed as follows:
 Retrievable
 Semi-expendable
 Fully-expendable
387 Perforation
Retrievable perforating gun

 Retrievable or hollow carrier
guns are designed such that the
individual charges are fitted
to a carrying strip and then
connected to a primer or
detonating cord.
 The carrier strip with charges is

then inserted into a steel
carrier tube which is sealed
prior to running down-hole
on wire-line
388 Perforation

Retrievable perforating gun
Advantages Disadvantages
Robust and less liable to be Gun length is limited by
damaged during running in height availability for handling
charges protected from: (normally 60‘ max).
•Well fluid Weight of hollow carrier can

•Well temperature be significant.
•Well pressure
Large intervals to perforated
Fast running to the wellbore will require multiple runs.
Produce no debris
389 Perforation
Fully-expendable perforating gun

 Expendable perforating guns are designed such that the
gun will self-destruct on detonation.
 Such guns comprise a number of charges which are

essentially strung together, i.e. no carrier strip or tube
is used.
390 Perforation


 The charges are also designed such that the charge case or
container will fragment/disintegrate on detonation.
 The material used for fabrication of the charge case must be

fragile, e.g. ceramic or aluminium, but must offer a
reasonable degree of robustness to protect the charges
during handling operations.
391 Perforation
Flexible and thus can be run in Debris left in wellbore.
longer lengths (up to 200 ft per Components immersed in well
run). fluid.
Most economical in terms of both Pressure and temperature may

gun cost and time required. limit the use of certain charges.
The gun is not rigid nor durable

and may limit running in speeds or
tension to be pulled if gun becomes
stuck.
392 Perforation

Semi-expandable perforating gun

 Semi expendable perforating guns are designed to offer the advantages
of gun durability and robustness which exist with the hollow carrier and
the charge disintegration of fully expendable guns.
 The guns are designed such that the charges which are expendable are
mounted on a carrier strip for running into the wellbore.
393 Perforation
Semi-expandable perforating gun
Debris limited to crushed Rigid carrier strip constrains
charge cases. gun length as for hollow carrier
guns.
More economical than
hollow-carrier guns. Charges may suffer pressure
and temperature
limitations
since they are immersed in
well fluids.
394 Perforation

Sand Control Completion
Yousef Rafiei
Course story
 Well


396 Sand Control Completion

Outline
 Sand production
 Sand production types
 Sand production problems
 Sand control mechanism

 Reducing drag force
 Increasing rock strength
 Mechanical sand control
 Gravel pack design
Sand production
 Conventional well completions in soft
formations commonly produce
formation sand or fines with fluids.
 These formations are usually

geologically young and shallow, and
they have little or no natural
cementation.
 Sand production has also been

encountered at depths greater than
4,000m.

Sand production
 They allow “pieces” of the formation to
break away and enter the perforation or
wellbore.
 The oil or gas flow transports the failed rock

causing a variety of problems ranging from
erosion of the surface facilities, to well
integrity, and sand disposal.
 Sand production is unwanted because it can

plug wells, erode equipment, and reduce well
productivity.
 It also has no economic value.
Factors affecting sand production

 The production of
sand depends on
three main
components:
 The strength of the rock

and other intrinsic geo-
mechanical properties of the
rock
 Regional stresses imposed

on the perforation or
wellbore
 Local loads imposed on

wellbore due to the
perforating, fluid flow,
reduced pore pressures and
the presence of water


 Causes of sand
production are related
to:
 Drag forces of flowing

fluid which increase with
higher flow rates and
higher fluid viscosity.
 Reduction in
formation strength
often associated with
water production due to
dissolving of
cementing material.

 Causes of sand
production are related
to:
 Reduced relative
permeability to oil due
to increase water or gas
saturation which increase
pressure draw-down.
 Declining reservoir
pressure which increases
compaction forces and
may disturb cementation
between grains.

Outline
 Sand production

Types of sand production

 Produced sand from reservoir can be classified to:
 Fine production
 Clean up production
 Continuous solid production

Fine grain production

 Some times sand
production involves the
production of mobile,
very small, solids which
are not part of the
mechanical structure of
the formation.
 These clay or cementing

material "fines" are
much smaller than the
formation sand grains
since they can pass
through the pore
throats.
Fine grain production

 Attempting to stop
production of these “fines”
would drastically impair
the well’s production.
 Allowing them to pass into

the well with the
producing fluids prevents
them causing
permeability damage at
the interface of the gravel
pack and the formation.


 Fine production
Clean up or transient sand production

 This refers to (relatively
minor amounts) of sand
that are produced from a
new well during its first
few days of production.
 This form of sand

production is attributed to
the production of material
(partially) de-
consolidated by the
shock wave produced
during the perforating
process.


 The key point about
transient sand production
is that it is temporary i.e. it
reduces to a low level after
a certain period of time when
the well is kept on
production at a constant
rate.
 A new burst of sand

production is observed each
time the well's production
is increased.

 This is thought to be due to:
 Mobilisation of previously failed
sand that was not produced into
the well by the previous (lower)
production rate.
 Collapse of a stable arch around
the entrance to a perforation cavity.
 This arch remains stable as long

as flow rate and drawdown are
constant.
 If these are altered, the arch may

collapse and a new one forms
once flow stabilises again.


 In extreme cases, the
change in the perforation
shape may take place to
such an extent that the
individual perforations
merge together to form
a “cavity”.
 Such “cavity” formation

results in the casing
becoming partially
unsupported by the
formation, due to unequal
stresses on the casing
leading to casing failure.

 Fine production

Continuous sand production

 Continuous sand production
will happen when the
production rate is above
“Critical flow rate”.
 Critical flow rate is a rate

that above it the sand arch
around perforation tunnel will
collapse and will not reform
again.
Continuous sand production

 In this condition there will be a
continuous flow of solid
material crushed from
formation structure into the
well.
 The effects of sand on

production operations and
the potential safety,
financial and environmental
consequences will influence
whether sand production limits
are.

Outline
 Sand production

Problems of sand production

 Sand bridges forming in the
tubing, sand filling up the casing
so that the perforations are
covered and production from the
lower intervals is lost.
 Damage to the well’s integrity

e.g. casing/liner collapse due to loss
of lateral support in the areas
where a cavity has formed due to
sand production.

Problems of sand production

 Valves and other down-hole equipment
become stuck due to the presence of
solid particles preventing their
mechanism working properly.
 Erosion (sand blasting) of holes in the

surface pipe work leading to the
pollution associated with an oil or gas
spill and the consequent loss of well
control.
 The produced sand needs to be

removed from production equipment
and disposed of in an environmentally
acceptable manner.
Outline
 Sand production


Sand control mechanism

 Preventing creation of sand
particles:
 Reducing drag forces
 Increasing formation strength
(chemical techniques)
 Limiting sand production:

 Bridging sand mechanically
Outline
 Sand production


Reducing drag force

 This is often the cheapest
and most effective one.
 It could be considered
along any other method of
control.
 Drag forces are related to

flow rate per unit area.
Reducing drag force

1. Increasing flow area
 For a fixed fluid production
rate flow rate per unit area can
be reduced by:
 Providing clean, large
perforations in the producing
interval
 Increasing perforation density
 Increasing perforating interval
 Creating a conductive path
some distance into the reservoir
by means of fracturing

Reducing drag force

2. Restricting production
rate
 Decreasing the production
rate below critical flow rate
can avoid continuous sand
production.
Outline
 Sand production


Increasing formation strength

 Chemical Techniques
where chemical cement
such as resin increases the
strength of the formation
while retaining a
permeable pore structure.
 The chemical resin must:

 Wet and adhere to the
sand grains
 Leave the pore spaces
open so that the
permeability is retained.
Increasing formation strength

 Unlike mechanical forms of sand
exclusion, it leaves the wellbore
completely unobstructed without
imposing any restrictions.
 The typical target formation for

chemical consolidation are thin,
high permeability, clean (low
clay content) sands.
 This restriction on the

formation type to be treated and
the operational complexity
explains the lack of popularity of
chemical consolidation as sand
control technique.

Outline
 Sand production

Mechanical sand control

 This techniques is the most applied method.
 A mechanical barrier used to prevent

entrance of the produced solids from reservoir
to the well.
 They could be employed in open-hole and

cased-hole completion.
 Open-hole:
 Pre-slotted liner
 Wire wrapped screen
 Pre-packed screen with resin coated sand
 External gravel pack
 Cased-hole:
 Internal gravel pack

Pre-slotted liner
 This consists of steel pipe (tubing
or casing) where a series of parallel
slots have been cut through the
metal.
 The width of these slots is normally

made as small as mechanically
practical so that they will retain as
large a fraction of the formation
sand as possible.
Pre-slotted liner
 Sand grains can still form a stable
arch around the slot.
 Slotted pipe is mainly used as a low

price option to reinforce an open
borehole and to retain a coarse
grained formation.
 A narrower, laser cut slotted pipe

is now available but is expensive.

Wire wrapped screen

 This consists of a
triangular shaped wire
which is carefully rounded
around the screen so
that there is a constant
gap between successive
turns.
 It is held in place by spot

welding the wire to
vertical formers placed at
1cm intervals around the
internal diameter of the
screen.
Wire wrapped screen

 Wire wrapped screens
have the advantage over a
slotted liner that the gap
between the wires can
be made smaller and be
held to the target value
with a much greater
accuracy.
 Allowing the screen to

retain finer grained
formations than the
slotted liner.

Wire wrapped screen

 Wire wrapped screens also have a much
greater inflow area - making them
more suitable for higher productivity
wells with a greater inflow rate per unit
completion length.
 Wire wrapped screens have to be

handled carefully at the rig site – their
strength is much lower than slotted
pipe.
 Wire wrapped screens are suited for use

in higher productivity wells where it is
required to retain a medium grain
sized formation.
Pre-packed screen with resin coated sand

 Pre-packed screens are
constructed from two
concentric screens with a
layer of gravel placed in
between them .
 The gravel had been coated

with a layer of resin.
 The pore throats of the

consolidated gravel provide a
series of narrow openings
which provide the sand
exclusion and retain the
formation in place.

Pre-packed screen with resin coated sand

 The presence of the gravel
with its narrow pore throat
diameter provides a greater
flow restriction than the
wire wrapped screen alone.
 The greater complexity of the

pre-packed screen increases
the cost.
External gravel packs (Under-reamed)

 Under reamed, external gravel
pack involves enlarging (by typically
10 -15 cm) the gap between the
sandface and the screen using a
special drill bit an under reamer.
 The under reamer replaces the

drill bit at the bottom of the drill
string and consists of a series of
arms with cutters at the end which
expand so as to enlarge the hole
when the drill string is rotated.
 The enlarged liner borehole gap is

completely filled with gravel, a
process known as gravel packing.

Internal gravel pack

 The screen or liner is placed inside a cased hole for an
internal gravel pack with gravel being placed in the
screen / casing annulus and in the perforations.
Advantage and disadvantage of gravel packs

Outline
 Sand production

Gravel pack design

 Proper sizing of gravel packs and
its associated screen is a
critical element in successful
gravel pack design.
 The gravel pack should be small

enough to retain the sand
particles and also large enough
to allow fine clay particles
pass through it.
 The first step in determining the

gravel size is to measure
accurately formation size
distribution.

Gravel pack design: Sieve analysis

 A representative sample of the
formation sand is characterised by
first breaking down any
consolidated, multi-grain particles
into the individual sand grains.
 These are then passed through a

series of pre-weighed sieves.
 The weight of sand trapped on

each sieve recorded.
 The cumulative distribution is then

plotted using log linear graph.
Gravel pack sizing

 Saucier (1974) recommended that geometric mean
gravel size is 5 or 6 times the mean formation grain
size: D  (5or 6)  D
g 50 f 50
Dg 40  6  D f 40
 Based on this minimum and maximum gravel size will be:
Dg min  0.667 Dg 40
Dg max  1.5Dg 50
 The screen opening should be small enough to retain all

of the gravel.

Example 1
 Determine the gravel pack size for California sand stone:
Dg 50  (5or 6)  D f 50
Dg min  0.667 D f 50
Dg max  1.5D f 50
D f 50  0.0117in
Dg 50  0.059 or 0.070 in
Dg ,min  0.039 to 0.047 in
Dg ,max  0.088to0.105
ScreenSize : 0.039 in

Well Performance
Yousef Rafiei
Course story
 Well


446 Well Performance

Outline
 Well performance
 Tubing performance relationship
 Pressure drop calculation

 Single phase
 Multi-phase
 Pressure traverse
 Construction of tubing performance relationship
 More examples
Well performance
 The outflow pressure drop required to lift a fluid from
the perforations to the wellhead and then the Pwh
separator is an important factor which determines the
well production.
 Being able to accurately predict the pressure drops in

the tubing during flowing or injection conditions is a core
skill for any completion engineer.
 Associated bottom-hole flowing pressure to a given

wellhead pressure (pressure drop ) required to lift
reservoir fluids to the surface at a given rate is one of the
major factors affecting Well performance.
 Understanding wellbore flow performance is vitally

important to production engineers for designing oil well
equipment and optimizing well production
conditions.
448 Pwf
Well Performance

Outline

 Single phase
 Multi-phase
 More examples
Tubing performance relationship (TPR)

 For a given wellhead pressure, flowing bottom-hole pressure varies
with production rate.
 Plotting these two flowing parameters on a Cartesian coordinate will
give a curve called tubing performance relationship (TPR).
 It also is called Out flow performance relationship (OPR).
 The wellhead pressure is

fixed and for a given
production rate the
bottom-hole flowing
pressure, pwf, is calculated by
determining the pressure
drop by Pressure traverse
or Gradient curves.

Outline

 Single phase
 Multi-phase
 More examples
Pressure drop calculation: Single phase

 The total pressure drop from the sand-face to the surface
(typically the tree) comprises three components:
1. Hydrostatic pressure drop
2. Acceleration head
3. Frictional pressure drop
g  2 f f u 2 L
P  P2  P1  Z  u 2 
gc 2 gc gc D

Pressure drop calculation: Hydrostatic pressure drop

 Hydrostatic pressure drop is the pressure change due to the weight of the
column of fluid (hydrostatic head):
g g
P  P2  P1  Z   L sin 
gc gc
Pressure drop due to friction

 Friction pressure drop can be obtained from Fanning
equation:
2 f f u 2 L
Pf 
gc D
 ff is Fanning friction factor and for laminar flow it will be:
16 Du  1.48q 
ff  N Re  
N Re  D

Pressure drop calculation: Acceleration

 The pressure change due to change in fluid velocity.
 It will be zero for in-compressible fluid unless the cross

section are of the pipe is different between two positions.
 q 4q
PKE 
2 gc
u 2
2  u12  u
A
u
 D2
8 q 2  1 1 
PKE  2  4  4 
 gc  D2 D1 
Pressure drop due to friction

 In case of turbulent flow Fanning friction (ff ) can be
obtained from Moody friction factor chart or Chen
equation:

Pressure drop calculation in gas wells

 For vertical flow:
3
f f ( ZTq) 2 0.375 g Sin L
p  e p  2.685 10
2 s 2
(e s  1) s
Sin D
2 1 5
ZT
 For horizontal flow:
f f ZTq 2 L
p12  p22  1.007 104
D5
 Reynolds number:
 gq
N Re  20.09
D
Pressure drop calculation in gas wells

 To calculate the pressure drop in gas wells
compressibility of the fluid must be considered.
 In compressible fluid the fluid density and fluid
velocity vary along the pipe.
 Gas density:
MWp 28.97 g p
 
ZRT ZRT
 Gas velocity
qZ  T   psc 
u   
A  Tsc  p 

Outline

 Single phase
 Multi-phase
 More examples
Pressure drop calculation: Multi phase

 In addition to oil, almost all oil wells
produce a certain amount of water,
gas, and sometimes sand.
 The TPR equation for single-phase

flow is not valid for multiphase oil wells.
 Multiphase flow is much more

complicated than single-phase flow
because of the variation of flow regime (or
flow pattern).
 Fluid distribution changes greatly in

different flow regimes, which significantly
affects pressure gradient in the tubing.

Slip Condition
 The density difference causes dense
phase to slip down in an upward flow
(i.e., the lighter phase moves faster than
the denser phase).
 In most of the time the gas-phase

moves faster than the liquid-phase, the
cross-sectional area of the gas-phase
reduces while the cross-sectional area
of the liquid-phase increases.
 This results in liquid accumulation in

the pipe and thus the liquid volume to
gas volume is larger than the ratio of
liquid and gas input.
Hold up behaviour
 Because of this, the in situ volume

fraction of the denser phase will
be greater than the input volume
fraction of the denser phase.
 The denser phase is ‘‘held up’’ in

the pipe relative to the lighter
phase.

Hold up behaviour parameters

Liquid and Gas Holdup: is defined as the ratio of the volume of a
pipe segment occupied by liquid to the volume of the pipe segment.
The remainder of the pipe segment is of course occupied by gas, which is
referred to as void fraction:
Vl
Hl  ,   1  Hl
V
No-Slip Liquid and Gas Holdup (λl & λg): is defined as the ratio of
the volume of the liquid in a pipe segment divided by the volume of
the pipe segment which would exist if the gas and liquid travelled at the
same velocity (no-slippage). It can be calculated directly from the known
gas and liquid volumetric flow rates from :
ql
l  , g  1  l
ql  qg

Two-Phase Density: Calculation of the two-phase density requires
knowledge of the liquid holdup:
 m  l H l   g (1  H l )
Slip Velocity (us):

vs  v g  vL
Superficial Gas and Liquid Velocities (usg & usl):
qg ql
vsg  , vsl  where A is the pipe cross  sectional area
A A

Actual Gas and Liquid Velocities (vg & vL):

vsg Vsl
vg  , vL 
1  Hl Hl
Two-Phase Velocity (um):

vm  vsg  vsl
Two-Phase Viscosity: Calculation of the two-phase viscosity

requires knowledge of the liquid holdup.:
n  l l   g (1  l ) , s  lH   g(1 H )
l l
Flow Pattern Definitions and Classifications

 Another fundamental difference
between single-phase flow and gas-
liquid two-phase flow is the existence
of flow patterns or flow regimes in
two-phase flow.
 The term flow pattern refers to the

geometrical configuration of the
gas and the liquid phases in the
pipe.
 Indeed all the design variables of the

flow are strongly dependent on the
existing flow pattern.
 Determination of flow patterns is

a central problem in two-phase
flow analysis.

Horizontal and Near-Horizontal Flow

 The existing flow patterns in Horizontal
and Near-Horizontal flow
configurations can be classified as:
1. Stratified flow
 Stratified-Smooth
 Stratified-Wavy
2. Intermittent flow
 Slug flow
 Elongated-Bubble flow
3. Annular flow
 Annular
 Annular-Wavy
4. Dispersed-Bubble flow.
Stratified Flow (ST)

 This flow pattern occurs at relatively low gas and liquid flow rates.
 The two phases are separated by gravity, where the liquid-phase
flows at the bottom of the pipe and the gas phase on the top.
 The Stratified flow pattern is subdivided into
1. Stratified-Smooth (SS), where the gas liquid interface is smooth.
2. Stratified-Wavy (SW), occurring at relatively higher gas rates, at which stable

waves form at the interface.

Intermittent Flow (I)

 Intermittent flow is characterized by alternate flow of liquid and
gas.
 Plugs or slugs of liquid, which fill the entire pipe cross-sectional

area, are separated by gas pockets, which contain a stratified
liquid layer flowing along the bottom of the pipe.
 The Intermittent flow pattern is divided into Slug (SL) and

Elongated-Bubble (EB) patterns.
Annular Flow (A)

 Annular flow occurs at very high gas flow rates.
 The gas-phase flows in a core of high velocity,

which may contain entrained liquid droplets.
 The liquid flows as a thin film around the pipe wall.

Annular Flow (A)

 At the lowest gas flow rates, most of the liquid flows at the bottom of the pipe, while it produce
unstable waves are swept around the pipe periphery and wet the upper pipe wall occasionally.
 It is not Stratified-Wavy because liquid is swept around and wets the upper pipe wall with a
thin film.
 It is also not Slug flow because no liquid bridging of the pipe cross section is formed. Also, it is
not fully developed Annular flow, which requires a stable film around the pipe periphery.
 Based on the definitions and mechanisms of Slug and Annular flows, this regime is termed as Wavy-
Annular (WA) and classified as a subgroup of Annular flow.
Dispersed-Bubble Flow (DB)

 At very high liquid flow rates, the liquid-phase is the continuous phase, in which the gas-phase is
dispersed as discrete bubbles.
 At higher liquid rates, the gas bubbles are dispersed more uniformly in the entire cross-sectional
area of the pipe.
 In DB flow, as a result of high liquid flow rates, the two phases are moving at the same
velocity, and the flow is considered homogeneous no-slip.

Vertical and Sharply Inclined Flow.

 The “Flow regime” or “Flow pattern”
is a qualitative description of the
phase distribution.
 Different flow regimes significantly

affects the pressure gradient.
 The existing flow patterns are:
 Bubble flow
 Slug flow
 Churn flow
 Annular flow
 Dispersed-Bubble flow
Bubble Flow (B)

 In bubble flow the gas-phase is dispersed
into small discrete bubbles, moving upwards
in a zigzag motion, in a continuous liquid-phase.
 For vertical flow, the bubble distribution is

approximately homogeneous through the
pipe cross section.
 Bubble flow occurs at relatively low liquid

rates and is characterized by slippage
between the gas and the liquid phases, resulting
in large values of liquid holdup.

Slug Flow (SL)

 The Slug flow regime in vertical pipes is
symmetric around the pipe axis.
 Most of the gas-phase is located in a large

bullet shape gas pocket termed “Taylor
bubble” with a diameter almost equal to the pipe
diameter.
 The flow consists of successive Taylor bubbles

and liquid slugs, which bridge the pipe cross
section.
Churn (CH)
 This flow pattern is characterized by an
oscillatory motion of the liquid-phase.
 Churn flow is similar to slug flow but looks

much more chaotic with no clear
boundaries between the two phases.
 It occurs at higher gas flow rates, where the

liquid slugs bridging the pipe become shorter.

Annular Flow (A)

 As in the horizontal case, the flow is
characterized by a fast moving gas core with
entrained liquid droplets and a slow moving
liquid film flowing around the pipe wall.
 The flow is associated with a wavy interfacial

structure, which results in a high interfacial
shear stress.
 In vertical flow, the liquid film thickness

around the pipe wall is approximately uniform.
Dispersed-Bubble Flow (DB)

 Similar to the horizontal flow case, Dispersed-
Bubble flow in vertical and sharply inclined pipes
occurs at relatively high liquid flow rates.
 Under this condition the gas phase is dispersed as

discrete bubbles into the continuous liquid-
phase.
 For this flow pattern, the dominant liquid-phase

carries the gas bubbles, and no slippage takes
place between the phases.
 Hence, the flow is considered no-slip.

Multi-phase flow regimes (Duns & Ros 1963)

 The flow regime can be predicted with a flow regime map, a plot relating flow
regime to flow rate of each phase (liquid and gas velocity number), fluid properties
and pipe size.
l
N vl  1.968vsl 4

L
N vg  1.968vsl 4

Horizontal well flow regimes map

 Beggs and Brill (1973) define horizontal flow regime
map with Froude number versus input liquid content.
vm
N FR 
gD
vsl
l =
vm

Outline
 Summary
 Pressure drop calculation in multi-phase flow

 Flow regimes and Flow regimes maps
 Vertical well
 Horizontal and inclined well
 Multi-phase flow pressure drop correlations

 Vertical well
 Horizontal well
 Pressure traverse curves (PT)
 TPR construction by PT curves
 More examples
Pressure drop: Multi-phase flow

Which correlation ?
 The chosen software should have variety different correlations
such as Duns and Ros , Hagedorn and Brown and Beggs and
Brill.
 Create a short list of correlations based on the well type.
 If no actual flowing data is available from the field, all of the

correlations can be used from the short list and a prediction of the
range of likely outcomes made.
 One of the correlations close to the centre of the range can

then be used.
 If well performance data is available, then more analysis is justified

on the selection and possible tuning of the correlation.
Modified Hagedorn and Brown

 The heart of H-B is the correlation for determining
liquid holdup, that has been modified:
 Using no-slip holdup in case the obtained liquid holdup from

original equation less than the no-slip holdup.
 Using Griffith(1961) correlation in case when bubble flow exist.
 Hagedorn and Brown is a widely available and used

correlation, and often gives excellent predictions,
especially at low deviations and low to moderate gas
to liquid ratios.


 The form of the mechanical balance equation used in the H-B
correlation is:
 Which in terms of oil field unit it will be:
 The frictional pressure gradient is based on Fanning friction

factor using mixture Reynolds number

 They then found that the hold-up could be related to four
dimensionless parameters including functions based on
the superficial velocities.
0.25 0.25
    
 Liquid velocity number N Lv  usL  l   1.938 usl  l 
 g   
0.25 0.25
    
 Gas velocity number N gv  usg  l   1.938 u sg  l 
 g   
0.5 0.5
g  
 Pipe diameter number ND  D  l   120.872 D  l 
    
0.25 0.25
 g   1 
 Liquid viscosity number N L  l  3 
 0.15726 l  3 
  l    l 


 CNL is read from the following chart and the below
group is calculated:

yl
 Holdup factor 
is determined from the following chart:


 By determining  liquid holdup can be measured:
Bubble flow: Griffith correlation

 Bubble flow exist if: g  LB LB  0.13
 In this case the following equation is employed to

calculate pressure drop:
 In Griffith correlation different equation is used to

calculate liquid holdup:

Beggs and Brill

 The Beggs and Brill correlation is developed for tubing strings
in inclined wells and pipelines.
 This correlation resulted from experiments using air and

water as test fluids over a wide range of parameters given
below:
1. Gas flowrate 0 to 300 Mscfd
2. liquid flowrate 0 to 30 gal/min
3. Average system pressure 35 to 95 psia
4. Pipe diameter 1 and 1.5 in.
5. liquid holdup 0 to 0.870
6. Pressure gradient 0 to 0.8 psi/ft.
7. Inclination angle −90◦ to +90◦
Beggs and Brill

 This method uses the general
mechanical energy balance and the um2
average in-situ density to calculate the N FR 
pressure gradient. gD
usl
l =
um
 The Beggs and Brill correlation requires
that a flow pattern be determined. L1  316 l 0.302
L2  9.252  104 l 2.4684
 The flow regimes boundaries are defined as L3  0.10 l 1.4516
a functions of the following variables:
L4  0.5 l 6.738

Beggs and Brill

 The flow regimes can be identified as:
Segregated: l  0.01 and N FE  L1

or l  0.01 and N FE  L2
Transition: l  0.01 and L2  N FE  L3
Intermittent: 0.01  l  0.4 and L3  N FE  L1

or l  0.4 and L3  N FE  L4
Distributed: l  0.4 and N FE  L1

493 or l  0.4 and N FE  L4 Well Performance
Beggs and Brill

 In all flow regimes, except transition, liquid holdup
can be calculated from the following equation:
a lb
yl  yl 0 , yl 0  c
with constraint : yl 0  l
N FE
Flow Pattern a b c
Segregated 0.98 0.4846 0.0868
Intermittent 0.845 0.5351 0.0173
Distributed 1.065 0.5824 0.0609
 The holdup correcting factor (ψ), for the effect of

pipe inclination is given by:
  1  C sin(1.8 )  0.333sin 3 (1.8 ) 

Beggs and Brill

 In the previous equation C is:
C  (1  l ) ln  d le N vlf N FE
g
 , with restriction that C  0.
Flow Pattern d e f g
Segregated uphill 0.011 -3.768 3.539 -1.614
Intermittent uphill 2.96 0.305 -0.4473 0.0978
Distributed uphill No correction C=0,ψ=1
All patterns downhill 4.70 -0.3692 0.1244 -0.5056
 For the transition flow regime the liquid holdup is

calculated using both segregated and intermittent
equations:
L3  N Fr
yl  Ayl ( segrated )  Byl (int ermittent ) , A , B  1 A
L3  L2
Beggs and Brill

 Pressure gradient due to friction factor:
 dP  2 ftp  m um2
  
 dz  F gc D
 m  l l   g g
 fn is no-slip friction factor based on smooth pipe

(roughness equals 0) can be obtained Moody diagram,
using the following Reynolds number:
 m um D
N Re 
m
m  l l   g g

Beggs and Brill

 ftp is the two phase friction factor can be determined
by: S
ftp  f n e
 The parameter S can be calculated as follows:

l
x
yl2
ln x
S
 0.0523  3.182 ln x  0.8725 (ln x)2  0.01853 (ln x)4 
S  ln(2.2 x  1.2) if 1  x  1.2

Beggs and Brill

 Pressure gradient due to acceleration; Although the
acceleration term is very small except for high velocity
flow, it should be included for increased accuracy.
 dP   dP 
   
 dP   dz  H  dz  F
   
 dL  A 1  Ek
 dP  g
    m sin 
 dz  H g c
um usg  m
Where Ek 
gc P

Outline
 Summary

 Vertical well

 Vertical well
 Horizontal well

 More examples
Pressure traverse curves

 Gradient curves correlate pressure
drop as a function of tubing length.
 Gradient curves were originally

proposed by Gilbert (1954).
 Field experience lead Gilbert to

identify that the main factors in
controlling vertical multiphase flow
were tubing diameter, oil rate and
gas/liquid ratio.
 His curves were developed using field

data.
 However, later curves published by

other investigators are based on
laboratory experimental data and flow
maps.

Pressure traverse curves construction

1.Starting with the known inlet
pressure and flow rates.
2. Select a length increment, ΔL,

and estimate the pressure drop in
this increment, ΔP.
3. Calculate the average pressure

and, the average temperature in the
increment.
4. Determine the gas and liquid

properties (based on black-oil or
compositional model) at average
pressure and temperature conditions.
Pressure traverse curves construction

5. Calculate the pressure gradient,
dP/dz, in the increment at average
conditions of pressure, temperature, and
pipe inclination, using the appropriate
pressure gradient correlation.
6. Calculate the pressure drop in
the selected length increment, ΔP=ΔL(-
dP/dz).
7. Compare the estimated and
calculated values of ΔP. If they are not
sufficiently close, estimate a new value
and return to step 3.
8. Repeat the steps 2 to 7 for the next
pipe length increment.

Effect of tubing size on PT curves
Effect of fluid density on PT curves

Effect of GOR on PT curves
Outline
 Summary

 Vertical well

 Vertical well
 Horizontal well
 More examples

Pwf estimation by Pressure traverse curves

 Select the gradient curve appropriate for the Pwh Pwf
specified oil rate , tubing size, gas/liquid ratio
and water fraction.
 Find the point on the x axis at which the

pressure equals the wellhead pressure.
 Move vertically downwards to find the depth

on the appropriate gas/liquid ratio line that
corresponds to this wellhead pressure.
 Move downwards by a distance (H), equivalent

to the tubing length.
 Moving horizontally and then vertically, identify

the pressure on the same gas/liquid ratio line as
was used in (ii) corresponding to this new
depth (d1 + H). This is the required tubing
intake pressure (Pwf1).
TPR construction by pressure traverse curves

 The wellhead pressure is fixed and for a given production rate the bottom-hole
flowing pressure, pwf, is calculated by determining the pressure drop by
Pressure traverse or Gradient curves for different rates.
 For a given completion configuration and wellhead pressure traverse curves of
different flow rates will be employed to determine the associated Pwf

Outline
 Summary

 Vertical well

 Vertical well
 Horizontal well
 More examples
Example: Vertical two phase flow regime

 200 bbl/d water and 10000 ft3/day air flowing in 2 in
vertical pipe
 Water density 62.4 lbm/ft3
 Surface tension 74 dynes/cm
ql (200bbl / d )(5.615 ft 3 / bbl )(1d / 86400s )

usl    0.6 ft / s  0.18m / s
A 0.02182 ft 2
qg (10000 ft 3 / d )(1d / 86400s )

usg    5.3 ft / s  0.62m / s
A 0.02182 ft 2

Example: Vertical two phase flow regime
l
N vl  1.968usl 4  1.11

g
N vg  1.968usg 4  9.8

High velocity slug flow or churn flow
Example: Horizontal two phase flow regime

 2000 bbl/d oil and 1MM ft3/d of gas at pressure 800
psi
 And 175 F in 2 1/2 ID in pipe
 Liquid: density 49.92 lbm/ft3; viscosity 2 cp ;Interfacial
tension 30 dynes/cm
 Gas: density 2.6 lbm/ft3; viscosity 0.0131 cp ; Z=0.935

 D2
 Cross section area: A  3.81 ft 2
4
 Liquid and gas velocity:
ql (2000bbl / d )(5.615 ft 3 / bbl )(1d / 86400s )

usl    3.81 ft / s
A 0.0341 ft 2
qg (1000000 ft 3 / d )(1d / 86400 s)

usg    7.11 ft / s
A 0.0341 ft 2
um  ul  u g  3.81  7.11  10.92 ft / sec
um2
N FR  =
gD
10.92 2 ft / sec
=17.8
(32.17 ft / sec 2 )[(2.5 / 12) ft ]
u sl 3.81
l = = =0.35
um 10.92
Intermittent flow

Example: Hagedorn and Brown

 2000 bbl/d oil and 1MM Scf/d of gas at pressure 800
psi
 And 175 F in 2.259 ID in pipe
tension 30 dynes/cm
 Calculate pressure gradient at top of the tubing

 Liquid superficial velocity:
ql (2000bbl / d )(5.615 ft 3 / bbl )(1d / 86400s )

usl    4.67 ft / s
A 0.0278 ft 2
 Gas superficial velocity:
qZ  T   psc 
ug    
A  Tsc   p 
(1106 scf / d )  0.935  635  14.7  1d

ug      8.72 ft / s
0.0278 ft 2  520  800  86400 s


 Mixture velocity:
um  ul  u g  5.67  8.72  13.39 ft / sec
 Gas input fraction

usg 8.72
g =   0.65
um 13.39
 Bubble flow?
 u2   13.392 
LB  1.071  0.2218  m   1.071  0.2218    210 L B  0.13
D  2.259 /12 
LB  0.13 and g  0.65  0.13  LB
 Flow regime is not bubble flow.

 Holdup determination:
0.25 0.25
    
 Liquid velocity number N Lv  usL  l   1.938 usl  l   10.28
 g   
0.25 0.25
 Gas velocity number     
N gv  usg  l   1.938 usg  l   19.20
 g   
0.5 0.5
g  
 Pipe diameter number ND  D  l   120.872 D  l   29.35
    l 
0.25 0.25
 g   1 
 Liquid viscosity number N L  l  3 
 0.15726 l  3 
 0.926
  l    l 


 CNL is 0.0022:
CNL
yl
yl 
 0.46

0.1
N vl  p  CN L
 
N vg0.575  pa  N D
0.1 0.1
N vl  p  CN L 10.28  800  0.0022
0.575       2.1 104
N vg  pa  N D 19.20.575  14.7  29.35

  1  yl  0.46
l  1  g  1  0.65  0.35
yl  0.46  0.35  l
N vg N L0.38
N vg N L0.38 19.2(9.26  10 3 ) 0.38 N D2.14
  2.34  10 3
N D2.14 (29.35) 2.14

2.2 10 2 m
 Determination or Reynolds number: N Re 
Dlyl  g(1 yl )
m m  l m l   g m g  A( l usl   g usl )
28.97 g p (28.9)(0.709)(800 psi )

    2.6 lbm / ft 3
g
ZRT (935)(10.73 psi  ft 3 / lb  mol  o R )(365o R)
m m  A( l usl   g usl )
 (2.0278 ft 2 )[(49.9lbm / ft 3 )  (4.67 ft / s )  (2.6lbm / ft 3 )  (8.72 ft / s )](86400 s / d )
 61400lbm / d
2.2  102 m 2.2 10 2 (6.14  105 )

N Re    5.42 105
D l  g
yl (1 yl )
(2.259 / 12)(20.46 )(0.01310.54 )


 From moody diagram friction factor will be 0.0046
 Average density will be
  l yl   g (1  yl )  (0.46)  (49.9)  (0.54)  (2.6)  24.2lbm / ft 3
 And finally
dp 1  fm 2  1  (0.0046)(614000)2 
     24.4  
dz 144  (7.413 10 ) D  m  144 
10 5
(7.413 1010 )(2.259 / 12)5 (24.4) 
 0.198 psi / ft
Example: Beggs and Brill

 2000 bbl/d oil and 1MM Scf/d of gas at pressure 800
psi
 And 175 F in 2.259 ID in pipe
tension 30 dynes/cm
um  ul  u g  13.39 ft / sec
usg 8.72
l  1  g  0.35; g =   0.65
um 13.39


 Identification of flow regime:
um2
N FR  =29.6
gD
L1  316 l 0.302  230
L2  9.252 104 l 2.4684  0.0124
L3  0.10 l 1.4516  0.459
L4  0.5 l 6.738  590
0.01  l  0.4 and L3  N FE  L1

Intermittent flow

 Holdup calculation:
a lb
yl  yl 0 , yl 0  c
with constraint : yl 0  l
N FE
Flow Pattern a b c
Intermittent 0.845 0.5351 0.0173
0.5351
a lb 0.854(0.35)
yl 0  c
  0.454
N FE (29.6)0.0173


 Holdup calculation:
  1  C sin(1.8 )  0.333sin 3 (1.8 ) 
C  (1  l ) ln  d le N vlf N FE
g
 , with restriction that C  0.
Flow Pattern d e f g
Intermittent uphill 2.96 0.305 -0.4473 0.0978
C  (1  0.35) ln  2.96 (0.35)0.305 (10.28)0.4473 (29.6) 0.0978   0.0351
  1  C sin[1.8(90 )]  0.333sin 3[1.8(90 )]  1.01
yl  (0.454)((1.01)  0.459

 The average density will be:
  l yl   g (1  yl )
 (0.459)  (49.9)  (1  0.459)  (2.6)  24.29lbm / ft 3
 Hydrostatic pressure drop is:
 dp  g (24.29) sin 90
    sin    0.169 psi / ft
 H
dz g c 144


 In order to calculate the frictional pressure gradient ,
input mixture density and viscosity should be calculated:
 m  l l   g (1  l )  (0.35)(49.9)  (0.65)((2.6)  19.1lbm / ft 3

m  l l   g (1  l )  (0.35)(2)  (0.65)(2.6)  0.709cp
 The Reynolds number will be:
mum D (19.1)(13.39)(2.259 / 12)(1488)

N Re    101000
m 0.709

 According to Moody diagram no-slip friction factor (fn)will
be 0.0045.
l 0.35
x 2
  1.66 ftp  f n e S  0.0045 e0.379  0.0066
yl 0.4692
ln x
S
 0.0523  3.182 ln x  0.8725 (ln x) 2  0.01853 (ln x ) 4 
ln1.66
  0.379
 0.0523  3.182 ln1.66  0.8725 (ln1.66) 2  0.01853 (ln1.66)4 
 dP  2 ftp  m um2 2(0.0066)(19.1)(13.92) 2

     0.05 psi / ft
 dz  F gc D (32.17)(2.259 / 12)
 dP   dP   dP 
      0.169  0.05  0.219 psi / ft
 dz   dz  H  dz  F

Example: Pressure traverse

 For the data given below, calculate and plot pressure
traverse in the tubing string:
Tubing shoe depth: 9,700 ft
Tubing inner diameter: 1.995 in.
Oil gravity: 40 API
Oil viscosity: 5 cp
Production GLR: 75 scf/bbl
Gas-specific gravity: 0.7
Flowing tubing head pressure: 100 psia
Flowing tubing head temperature: 80 8F
Flowing temperature at tubing shoe: 180 F
Liquid production rate: 758 stb/day
Water cut: 10%
Interfacial tension: 30 dynes/cm
Specific gravity of water: 1.05
Example: Pressure traverse

Pressure (psia)
0 500 1,000 1,500 2,000 2,500 3,000 3,500

0
2,000
4,000
Depth (ft)
6,000
8,000
10,000
12,000

Example: Tubing selection

 A completion design is required for a well. Test results
gave the following data.
 There is a requirement to flow the well at 400bbl/d (all
oil).
 Find a suitable tubing size between 2 and 2.5 inches
tubing.

 First we need to determine the required bottom-hole
flowing pressure:
q
q  J ( Pr  Pwf )  Pwf  Pr 
J
400
Pwf  1800   1492 psi
1.3


 After that we have to
determine required Pwf to
have enough pressure drop
to produce 400 bbl/day by
different tubing sizes:
Pwf
 It will be 1560psi for 2 inch

tubing.

 The required Pwf for 2.5
inch tubing is 1480psi.
 Summary of the results:
 Therefore 2.5 inch tubing is

selected.

Nodal Analysis
Yousef Rafiei
Outline
 Production system delivery
 Flow in production system
 Nodal Analysis
 Application of Nodal Analysis
 Nodal Analysis work flow
 Stable and unstable condition
538 Nodal Analysis

Production System delivery

 It has been defined that the production
system consists of:
 Reservoir
Surface facilities  Well
 On of the main question in production

engineering is what will be the
production rate from a given production
Well system.
 In other words; what kind of production

completion and surface facilities should be
installed to achieve planed production
rate from the reservoir.
539 Reservoir Nodal Analysis
Production System delivery

 This presentation focuses on:
 Prediction of achievable fluid production
rates
Surface facilities  From reservoirs to the surface
 With specified production string
characteristics.
 Well deliverability is determined by the

combination of well inflow performance
Well and well outflow performance.
 Whereas the former describes the

deliverability of the reservoir, the latter
presents the flow through production
string.
540 Reservoir Nodal Analysis

Tubing performance relationship (TPR)

 For a given wellhead pressure, flowing bottom-hole pressure varies with
production rate.
 Plotting these two flowing parameters on a Cartesian coordinate will give a
curve called tubing performance relationship (TPR).
 It also is called outflow performance relationship.
541 Nodal Analysis

 Mathematical equation developed
for determining well production
rate from well associated q
drainage area at given bottom- q  J ( Pr  Pwf )  Pwf  Pr 
hole flowing pressure for
J
different flow regimes.
 Using these equations, plot of Pwf

versus production rate, q, can be
defined:
 This graphical representation of

the relationship that exists
between the oil flow rate and
bottom-hole flowing pressure is
called the inflow performance
relationship and referred to as
IPR.
542 Nodal Analysis

Outline
 Nodal Analysis
543 Nodal Analysis
Flow in Production System

Compresse
Porous Media
d Fluids in
the Perforations
Reservoir
Production String
Downhole Equipment
Restrictions
Surface Flowline
Final Surface Equipment
Destination
Restrictions
The hydrocarbon fluid flows from

the reservoir into the well, up
the tubing, along the
horizontal flow line and into
the oil storage tank.
544 Nodal Analysis

Flow in Production System

 During this process the fluid’s
pressure is reduced from the
reservoir pressure to
atmosphere pressure in a
series of pressure loss
processes :
1. Across the reservoir

2. Across the completion
(perforation/gravel pack etc.)
3. Across the tubing and any
restrictions
4. Across the sub surface safety
valve
5. Across the surface choke
6. Across flow line
545 Nodal Analysis
Pressure drop inside production system

These pressure losses can
be grouped into three
main components:
 Summarises the
total pressure
losses in the
reservoir and
completion
 Summarises the
total pressure
losses in the tubing
 Summarises the
total pressure
losses at the
surface
546 Nodal Analysis

Driving Force for Production
Reservoir Individual
Pr Pressure Components
Momentum
Mass and
Energy Energy
Energy
Difference Use
balance
Final
Pf Pressure Pc
547 Nodal Analysis
System Schematic
 The magnitude of
these individual Ps
pressure losses
depend on the: Pf
 Reservoir properties Pt P c

and pressure
 Fluid being produced

Pr
 The well design Pr
q
548 Nodal Analysis

System Schematic
 Production
Technologists/
Ps
Engineers need to:
 Understand the
Pf
interplay of these
various factors Pt P c
 So as to design
completions
 That maximise
Pr
profitability from the Pr
oil or gas production
q
549 Nodal Analysis
Path of produced fluids

 Figure schematically
represents the
pressure
distribution across
the production
system.
 It identifies the most

significant
components, flow
line, tubing and the
reservoir and
completion where
pressure losses
occur.
550 Nodal Analysis


 The following table was developed by Duns & Ross
(1963) to illustrate one possible distribution in a
conventional land oil field developed with vertical wells.
551 Nodal Analysis

 The corresponding figures for a field developed with horizontal
wells (much greater well productivity indices), subsea wells (long
flow lines, possibly over hilly terrain) and pipelines would have a
very different distribution.
 This is due to the flow occurring mainly in a horizontal direction

rather than vertical orientation associated with wells.
 The balance between the “Elevation terms” and the “Friction

terms” across the pipe change drastically as shown in Table.
552 Nodal Analysis

Pressure drop determination

 Single Phase Incompressible Flow:
S-1 S-2 S-3 C-n
P1 P2 P3 Pn
Individual section
Pc  Pc (q ) Analysis
553 Nodal Analysis
Pressure drop determination

 Multi-phase Flow:
P1 P2 P3
S-1 S-2 S-3 C-n
P1 P2 P3 Pn
Individual section
Pc (q, P ) Analysis
554 Nodal Analysis

Outline
 Nodal Analysis

555 Nodal Analysis
Nodal Analysis
 Fluid properties change with the location-
dependent pressure and temperature in
the oil and gas production system.
 To simulate the fluid flow in the system, it is

necessary to ‘‘break’’ the system into
discrete nodes that separate system
elements (equipment sections).
 Fluid properties at the elements are

evaluated locally.
 The system analysis for determination of

fluid production rate and pressure at a
specified node is called ‘‘Nodal analysis’’ in
petroleum engineering.
556 Nodal Analysis

Nodal Analysis
 The use of systems analysis to design a Pwh
hydrocarbon production system was first
suggested by Gilbert (1954).
 Systems analysis, which has been applied

to many types of systems of interacting
components, consists of :
qe
1. Selecting a point or node within the
producing system (well and surface facilities).
2. Equations for the relationship between

flow rate and pressure drop are then
developed for the well components both qe
upstream of the node (inflow) and
downstream (outflow).
Pwf
J Pr
557 Nodal Analysis
Nodal Analysis
 Nodal analysis is performed on the Pwh
principle of pressure continuity.
 The flow rate and pressure at the node

can be calculated since:
 Flow into the node equals flow out of the
node. qe
 Only one pressure can exist at the node.
 Further, at any time, the pressure at the

end points of the system {separator (Psep)
and reservoir pressure (PR )} are both
fixed. Thus: qe
 Pr + (Pressure loss upstream components) = Pnode
 Psep + (Pressure loss downstream components) = Pnode Pnode
J Pr
558 Nodal Analysis

Nodal Analysis
 A typical and traditional result of such
an analysis is shown in this Figure where
the pressure-rate relationship has been
plotted for both the inflow and outflow
at the node.
 The intersection of these two lines is the

(normally unique) operating point.
 This defines the pressure and rate at

the node.
 This approach forms the basis of all hand

and computerised flow calculation
procedures.
 It is frequently referred to as “nodal

analysis”(trademark of Schlumberger).
559 Nodal Analysis
Outline
 Nodal Analysis

560 Nodal Analysis

Nodal Analysis application

 NODAL analysis is one of the
most powerful tools in production
engineering.
 It can be used as an aid in both the

design and optimization of well
hydraulics and IPR modification.
 The figure shows one of the most

common uses of NODAL analysis.
 The well IPR is plotted with three

VLP curves (e.g., each corresponding
to a different tubing diameter).
561 Nodal Analysis
Nodal Analysis application

 Another use of NODAL analysis
as an engineering investigative
tool is shown in the Figure.
 Suppose that several

perforations are suspected of
being closed.
 A calculation allowing several

different scenarios of the
number of open perforations
and comparison with the actual
flow rate can provide a
convincing answer to the
problem.
562 Nodal Analysis

Outline
 Nodal Analysis

563 Nodal Analysis
Nodal Analysis workflow
System
Composed of
Pr Interacting
Ps
Components
 P q, P 
c
564 Nodal Analysis

Nodal Analysis work flow
Node
Outflow
Pr Inflow
Section
Section
Ps
 P q, P c
565 Nodal Analysis
i
Pr Inflow Pnode
Section
Inflow Pressure at the Node Represents the
Pressure That Inflow Section require to
Deliver the Flow Rate q at the Node
i
Pnode (q )  Pr   Pc (q, P)
IS
566 Nodal Analysis

o
Ps
Outflow
P node
Section
Outflow Pressure at the Node Represents

the Pressure That Outflow Section Requires
to Produce the Flow Rate q Up to Separator
o
Pnode (q)  Ps   Pc (q, P)
OS
567 Nodal Analysis

 Equilibrium Solution is Reached When Inflow Section
Becomes Capable of Delivering Flow Rate at a Sufficient
Pressure for Outflow Section to transport the Fluids into
the Separator.
i
Pnode ( q )  Pnoo d e ( q )
qe
568 Nodal Analysis


 Requirements: Pwh
 Flow into the node equals flow out of the
node.
 Only one pressure can exist at a node

with the exception of functional node. qe
 A relationship between flow rate and
pressure drop must exist for each
component.
 Nodal Analysis™ requires two pressures qe

(pr and psep or pwh) to be fixed at any
time.
Pnode
J Pr
569 Nodal Analysis
Nodal Analysis - Example
Production Separator
Flowline
Production String
Reservoir
570 Nodal Analysis

Nodal Analysis - Example
Production Separator
Flowline
Node = Perforations
Production String
Reservoir
571 Nodal Analysis
Nodal Analysis Example - Inflow

5000
4500 Pr
4000
3500
Pre ssure (psi)
3000
2500
2000
1500
1000
500
0
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000
Flow ra te (bpd)
572 Nodal Analysis

Nodal Analysis Example - Inflow

5000
4500
Pr
4000
3500
Pres (q)
Pre ssure (psi)

3000
2500
2000
1500
Pwfi
1000
500
0
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000
Flowrate (bpd)
573 Nodal Analysis
Nodal Analysis Example - Outflow

5000
4500
4000
3500
Pre ssure (psi)
3000
2500
2000
1500
1000
500 Psep
0
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000
Flow ra te (bpd)
574 Nodal Analysis


5000
4500
4000
3500
Pr e ssu re (p si)
3000
2500
2000
1500  Pline (q )
1000
500
Psep
0
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000
Flo w rate (b pd )
575 Nodal Analysis

5000
4500
4000
3500
P re ssure (psi)
3000
2500
 Ptubing ( q)
2000
Pwho
1500
1000
500 Psep
0
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000
Flow ra te (bpd)
576 Nodal Analysis


5000
4500
4000 Pwfo
3500
Pr e ssu re (psi)
3000
2500
 Ptubing ( q)
2000
Pwho
1500
1000
500
Psep
0
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000
F low rate (b p d)
577 Nodal Analysis
Nodal Analysis Example

5000
4500 Pwfo
4000
3500
Pre ssu re (p si)
3000
2500
2000
1500
1000
i
500
Pwf
0
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000
F lo w rate (b p d )
578 Nodal Analysis

Nodal Analysis Example

5000
4500 Pwfo
4000
3500
Pwf
Pr e ssu re (psi)
3000
2500
2000
1500
qe
1000
i
500
Pwf
0
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000
F low rate (b p d)
579 Nodal Analysis
Example 1: Oil well

 For the data given in the following table, predict the
operating point:
Depth (D): 9,850 ft

Tubing inner diameter (dti): 1.995 in.
Oil gravity (API): 45 oAPI
Oil viscosity (cp): 2 cp

Production GLR (GLR): 500 scf/bbl
Gas specific gravity (g): 0.7 air =1
Flowing tubing head pressure (phf): 450 psia
Flowing tubing head temperature (thf): 80 oF
Flowing temperature at tubing shoe (twf): 180 oF
Water cut (WC): 10 %

Reservoir pressure (pe): 5000 psia
Bubble point pressure (pb): 4000 psia
Productivity above bubble point (J*): 1.5 stb/d-psi
580 Nodal Analysis

Example 1: Solution
 Generalised Vogel method used for inflow curve (IPR).
J * pb  p  
2
p 
q  J *  p  pb   1 0.2 wf   0.8 wf  
1.8   pb   pb  

  q  qb  
pwf  0.125 pb  81  80    1
  qmax  qb  
 Hagedorn and Brown correlation employed for outflow

curve (TPR).
dp 1  fm 2 
   
dz 144  (7.413 10 ) D  m 
10 5
581 Nodal Analysis
Example 1: Solution
7,000
qb = 1,500 stb/d
IPR
qmax = 4,833 stb/d 6,000
Bottom Hole Pressure (psia)
TPR
q pwf (psia) 5,000
(stb/d) IPR TPR

4,000
0 4,908
537 4,602 2,265
3,000
1,074 4,276 2,675
1,611 3,925 3,061 2,000
2,148 3,545 3,464
2,685 3,125 3,896 1,000
3,222 2,649 4,361
3,759 2,087 4,861 0
4,296 1,363 5,397 0 1,000 2,000 3,000 4,000 5,000
4,833 0 5,969 Liquid Production Rate (bbl/d)
Figure indicates that the expected

oil flow rate is 2200 stb/d at a bottom-
hole pressure of 3500 psia.
582 Nodal Analysis

Example 2 : Gas well

 Calculate the expected gas production rate of the well using
the following data for IPR:
Gas specific gravity (gg): 0.65

Tubing inside diameter (D): 2.259 in
Tubing relative roughness (e/D): 0.0006
Measured depth at tubing shoe
(L): 10000 ft
Inclination angle (q): 0 Deg
Wellhead pressure (phf): 800 psia
Wellhead temperature Thf 150 oF
Bottom hole temperature (Twf): 200 oF
Reservoir pressure (p~): 2000 psia

C-constant in backpressure
IPR model: 0.01 Mscf/d-psi2n
n-exponet in backpressure
IPR model: 0.8
583 Nodal Analysis
Example 2 : Gas well

 The following equation is for inflow curve (IPR).
f f ( ZTq) 2 0.375 g Sin L
p22  e s p12  2.685 10 3 (e s  1) s
Sin D 5
ZT
 Rawlins and Schellhardt (1936) was employed for

outflow curve (TPR).
qg  C  Pr2  Pwf2 
n
584 Nodal Analysis

Example 2: Solution
2500
qsc (Mscf/d) IPR TPR
IPR
2000
0 2000 993
191 1943 994
Bottom Hole Pressure (psia)

383 1861 996 1500
574 1764 999
765 1652 1003
956 1523 1009 1000
1148 1374 1015
1339 1200 1023
500
1530 987 1032
1721 703 1042
1817 498 1048 0
1865 353 1051 0 500 1000 1500 2000
Gas Production Rate (Mscf/d)
1889 250 1052
1913 0 1054 Operating flowrate = 1494 Mscf/d
Operating pressure = 1030 psia
585 Nodal Analysis
Outline
 Nodal Analysis

586 Nodal Analysis

Stable and Unstable Conditions

 When A Production System is disturbed from Its
operating point (equilibrium point) , It is Called:
 Stable: If It Restores Equilibrium.

 Unstable: If It Diverges from Equilibrium Solution.
5000
4500 Pwof
4000
3500
Pr e ssur e (p si)
3000
2500
2000
1500
Pwfi  Pwfo Pwfi  Pwfo
1000
i
500
Pw f
0
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000
F lo w r a t e (b p d )
587 Nodal Analysis

 Consider a Closed Completion System Pwh
as Shown.
 Flow Rate from Reservoir Needs to Be

Equal to Flow Rate Into Tubing String.
qe
 Inflow Bottom Hole Flowing Pressure
Needs to Be Equal to Outflow Bottom
Hole Flowing Pressure.
qe
 Nodal Analysis Assume Steady State
Flow and No Acceleration. Pwf
J Pr
588 Nodal Analysis


 This is system operating point based on Nodal analysis:
5000
4500 Pwfo
4000
3500
Pre ssu re (p si)
3000
2500
2000
1500
Pwfi  Pwfo Pwfi  Pwfo
1000
i
500
Pwf
0
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000
Flow rate (b pd)
589 Nodal Analysis

 Consider a Temporary Disturbance Pwh
Results in a Lower Flow Rate than
the Equilibrium Steady State Value.
 As Seen From Nodal Analysis Graph, q  qe

q
Inflow Pressure Becomes Higher
Than Outflow Pressure.
q  qe
Pwf
J Pr
590 Nodal Analysis


 Lower Outflow
Pressure Results in 5000
Increased Flow Rate 4500 Pwof
Due to Increased 4000
Drawdown. 3500
Pre ssu re (p si)

3000
This is Contrary to
2500

2000
Initial Disturbance.
1500
Pwfi  Pwfo
1000
i
Pw f
 Eventually, the Flow Rate 500
Will Be Converging to 0
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000
Equilibrium Solution. F lo w r a te (b p d )
591 Nodal Analysis

 Similar Analysis can be Made When Pwh
Fluctuations Cause Flow Rate to
Be Larger Than the Equilibrium
Value.
q q  qe
q  qe
Pwf
J Pr
592 Nodal Analysis


 Higher Outflow
Pressure Results in
decreased Flow Rate 5000
4500 Pwof
Due to reduced 4000
Drawdown. 3500
Pre ssur e (p si)

3000
2500
 This is Contrary to 2000
Initial Disturbance. 1500

Pwfi  Pwfo
1000 Pwfi  Pwfo i
500
Pw f
Will Be Converging to 0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000
F lo w r a te (b p d )
Equilibrium Solution.
593 Nodal Analysis

5000
4500 Pwof
4000
3500
Pre ssu re (psi)
3000
2500
2000
1500
Stable Production
1000 Equilibrium Point
i
500
Pw f
0
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000
F lo w r a t e ( b p d )
594 Nodal Analysis


 In some cases, due to the nature of two phase Pwh
flow phenomena, two equilibrium points may
be possible.
4000
3500
Pwof
3000
B qe
A
Pre ssu re (p si)
2500
2000
1500
1000
? Stable i
Pw f qe
500
0 Pwf
0 5 00 1 000 15 00 2000 2 500 3000
J Pr
595 Nodal Analysis

 What Can We Say About Equilibrium
Pwh
Conditions for Point B ?
3700
3500
Pwof
3300 q  qe
Pre ssu re (p si)
B
3100 i
Pw f
2900
Pwfi  Pwfo Pwfi  Pwfo

2700
q  qe
2500
0 50 10 0 1 50 200 250 300
F lo w r a t e ( b p d ) Pwf
596
Pr
Nodal Analysis
J


 When Flow Rate is
Smaller Than Equilibrium 3700
Rate, outflow Bottom-
hole Pressure is Greater 3500
Pwof
than inflow bottom-hole
Pressure Obtained from 3300
IPR.
Pre ssu re (p si)

B
3100 i
Pw f
 This will Cause Further 2900
Reduction in Reservoir Pwfi  Pwfo
Flow Rate. 2700

0 50 1 00 150 200 250 300
Will not Converge to the F lo w r a te (b p d )
Equilibrium Solution.
597 Nodal Analysis

 Similar Analysis can be Made When Pwh
Fluctuations Cause Flow Rate to Be
Larger Than the Equilibrium Value.
 When Flow Rate is Greater Than the q  qe

Equilibrium Rate, Bottom Hole
Pressure is Smaller Than Sandface
Pressure.
q  qe
 This will Cause Flow Rate to Increase
Pwf
598 J P
Nodal Analysis r


 When Flow Rate is
larger Than Equilibrium
Rate, outflow Bottom- 3700
hole Pressure is Pwfo

smaller than inflow 3500
bottom-hole Pressure
Obtained from IPR. 3300
Pr e ssu r e (p si)
B
3100
Pwfi
 This will Cause Further
increase in Reservoir 2900
Flow Rate.
2700
Pwfi  Pwfo
Will not Converge to the 0 50 100 150 200 250 300
Equilibrium Solution. F lo w r ate (b p d )
599 Nodal Analysis

3700
3500
Pwof
3300
Pre ssu re (p si)
B
3100 i
Pwf
2900
2700 Unstable Production

Equilibrium Point
2500
0 50 100 150 200 250 300
600 Nodal Analysis


4000
3500
B Pwfo
3000
A
Pre ssu re (p si)
2500
2000
1500
1000 Unstable Stable i

Pw f
500
0
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000
601 Nodal Analysis

 This is Very Common for
Wells with High
Reservoir Pressure and
a Very Small Pwf
Productivity Index
Pwfo
 What about This

Equilibrium Condition?
 Is It Stable ?
Pwfi
q
602 Nodal Analysis


 This Well is In Fact Unstable.
 The Reason for Instability is a

Little Different. Pwf
Pwfo
 Notice that the IPR and OPR
Intersect Each Other at a Point
That Looks Stable.
 Small Fluctuations of Pressure in

the System can Cause This Well
to Die
Pwfi
603 Nodal Analysis

 A similar situation can occur
with those wells.
 This is somewhat common for Pwf Pwfo
deep water production of high
productivity wells.
Pwfi
604 Nodal Analysis

Choke Performance
Yousef Rafiei
Outline
 Fluid flow through choke
 Choke types
 Sonic and subsonic flow
 Choke fluid flow measurement
 Single phase flow

 Multi-phase flow
606 Choke Performance

Fluid flow through choke

 The flow from almost all wells is
controlled by with a surface choke in
order to:
1. Limitation of the drawdown to prevent

water gas coning or sand production.
2. Dissipation of well energy to meet

pressure limitations of the downstream
surface production equipment etc.
3. Control of well production rates to meet

regulatory, reservoir management or
production equipment constraints.

 Chokes are designed to
produce a pressure loss.
 Chokes achieve the

desired pressure loss by
restricting the flow
diameter and
acceleration of the
flowing fluid.


 This restriction results
in an area of high velocity
and decreased pressure
in the centre of the
choke.
 This is known as the

“Vena Contracta”.
 As shown, it forces the

liquid to flow through an
even smaller diameter
than that of inner
diameter of the choke.

 The fluid flow expands
again to its original
diameter at the (abrupt)
end of the choke.
 The decrease in velocity

results in recovery of
(some) of the pressure
that has been lost during
passage through the choke.
 Full pressure recovery is

not normally experienced
since there are
irreversible pressure
losses due to eddy
currents.

Outline
 Choke types

Choke types: Fixed chokes

 Beans are fixed (non
adjustable) orifices –ID size
is in 64ths of an inch.
 This type of choke is used on

wells that require almost no
adjustments to flow.

Choke types: Variable chokes

 Provides variable orifice
size through external
adjustment without
choke disassembly.
Outline
 Choke types


Sonic and Subsonic flow

 The phenomenon of critical flow occurs once this acceleration in the throat of
the choke is sufficient that the flowing fluid’s sonic velocity is exceeded.
 This is frequently experienced in gas and multi-phase flow.
 Critical flow prevents a pressure disturbance downstream of the choke

from being propagated upstream, since a pressure wave can not travel faster than
the speed of sound.
 The well’s performance (upstream of the choke) can thus be decoupled from
events occurring in the downstream flow line and separation system.

 Whether a sonic flow exists at a
choke depends on a down stream-
to-upstream pressure ratio.
 For sub critical flow conditions, the

flow rate will increase with
decreasing downstream pressure
until this ratio is sufficiently large that
critical flow occurs.
 If this pressure ratio is less than a

critical pressure ratio, sonic flow
exists.
 If this pressure ratio is greater than

or equal to the critical pressure ratio,
subsonic flow exists.


 The critical pressure ratio
through chokes is expressed as:
k
 P2   2  k 1
   
 P1 c  k  1 
 Where
 P2 is the pressure at choke outlet,
 P1 is the upstream pressure,
 And k is the specific heat ratio.
 The value of the k is about 1.28

for natural gas.
 Thus, the critical pressure ratio
is about 0.55 for natural gas.
Outline
 Choke types


Single phase liquid flow

 The flow rate is related to the pressure drop across the
choke by:
P
q  8074CD ( D2 )2

 This equation applies for subcritical flow.

 CD is the flow coefficient of the choke and D2 is the choke
diameter.
Single phase liquid flow

 Flow coefficient of the choke, is a function of Reynolds number and
the ratio of the choke diameter to the pipe diameter.

Single phase gas flow

 Szilas (1975) introduced the following equation for rate
measurement based on the pressure ratio:
 2 k 1

 P   1   k   P2  k  P2  k 
qg  3.505 D  1  C
2
         
  gT1   k  1   P1   P1  
64
 Psc 
 
 This equation is generally applied for subsonic flow.
 However for sonic flow critical pressure ratio should be used.
 Under sonic the gas passage rate is expressed in the following

equation for ideal gases:
k 1
 k  2  k
qg  879 ACP1 
  T   k  1 
 g 1
Outline
 Choke types


Two phase flow through choke

 When the produced oil reaches the wellhead choke, the wellhead pressure is usually below the bubble-
point pressure of the oil.
 This means that free gas exists in the fluid stream flowing through choke.
 Choke behaves differently depending on gas content and flow regime (sonic or subsonic flow).
 Empirical choke flow models have been developed in the past half century. They generally take the
following form for sonic flow:
C  ql (GOR) m
p1 
D64n

Surface Facilities
Separators
Yousef Rafiei
Outline
 Flow line
 Separators
 Pumps
 Gas compressors
 Separator
 Principles of separation
 Separator components
 Separators types
 Operational problems of separation process
 Separator design
626 Surface Facilities: Separators

Production System
 It has been defined that the
Surface facilities
production system consists of:
 Reservoir
 Well
Well
627 Reservoir Surface Facilities: Separators
Outline
 Flow line
 Separators
 Pumps
 Gas compressors
 Separator

Surface facilities
 Surface facilities are designed to:
 Separate different phases of

producing stream.
 Remove un-necessary and un-

wanted fluids such as water.
 Process and treat oil to improve its

quality for exporting.
 Supply required energy to

transport oil and gas to the sale
points.
Surface facilities
 Main surface facilities are:
 The flow-lines leads the

produced fluid to separators.
 The separators remove gas

and water from the crude oil.
 Pumps and compressors are

used to transport oil and gas
through pipelines to sales points.

Outline
 Flow line
 Separators
 Pumps
 Gas compressors
 Separator
Flow lines
 The pipelines are by far the most
economical means of large-
scale overland transportation for
crude oil, natural gas, and their
products, clearly superior to rail
and truck transportation.
 Pipelines have demonstrated an

ability to adapt to a wide variety
of environments including
remote areas and hostile
environments.
 With very minor exceptions, most

refineries are served by one or
more pipelines, because of their
superior flexibility to the
alternatives.

Outline
 Flow line
 Separators
 Pumps
 Gas compressors
 Separator
Separators
 A separator is a large pressure vessel designed to separate
production fluids into their constituent components of oil, gas and
water.

Outline
 Flow line
 Separators
 Pumps
 Gas compressors
 Separator
Pumps
 After separation, oil is
transported through
pipelines to the sales
points.
 Most of the times after

separation fluid energy
is not enough for
transportation.
 In such a case pumps are

used to provide energy
required for the
transportation.

Outline
 Flow line
 Separators
 Pumps
 Gas compressors
 Separator
Gas Compressors
 Like oil, produced gas needed to be transport to the sale points.
 Compressors are used for providing gas pressure required to transport

gas with pipelines and to lift oil in gas-lift operations.

Surface facilities design

 The nature, scope and
geographical spread of these
facilities will vary greatly depending
on:
 Location: On or off-shore
 Well and Field Production Rate
 Fluid type produced oil, gas or

condensate Field
 Central gathering station or local

facilities
 Secondary processing
requirements e.g. removal of
contaminants such as H2S
Surface facilities schematic

Outline
 Flow line
 Separators
 Pumps
 Gas compressors
 Separator
Separator
 The fluids produced from oil wells
are normally complex mixtures of
hundreds of different compounds.
 A typical oil well stream is:

 A high-velocity, turbulent, constantly
expanding mixture
 Which consists of gases and
hydrocarbon liquids
 And also mixed with water vapour, free
water, and sometimes solids.
 The well stream should be

processed as soon as possible after
bringing them to the surface.
 Separators are used for the purpose.

Separator
 Field separation processes
fall into two categories:
1. Separation of oil, water,

and gas.
2. Dehydration that removes

condensable water vapour
and other undesirable
compounds, such as
hydrogen sulfide or
carbon dioxide.
Separator
 Separation of well gas
stream from free liquids is
the first and most critical
stage of field-processing
operations.
 Composition of the fluid

mixture and pressure
determine what type and
size of separator are
required.

Separator
 Separators are also used in
other locations such as
upstream and downstream
of compressors, dehydration
units, and gas sweetening units.
 At these locations, separators

are referred to as scrubbers,
liquid knockouts, and free
water knockouts.
 All these vessels are used for

the same purpose: to separate
free liquids from the gas &
oil stream.
Outline
 Flow line
 Separators
 Pumps
 Gas compressors
 Separator

Principles of separation
 Separator utilize the gravity and centrifugal segregation force
to separate oil-gas mixtures (due to different densities of the fluids).
 The oil which is heavier than the gas falls to the bottom of the
vessel and taken off through the fluid line.
 The lighter gas rises to the top and is removed for separate sale.
Outline
 Flow line
 Separators
 Pumps
 Gas compressors
 Separator

Separator components
1. Primary separation device and/or inlet section.
2. Secondary “gravity” settling (separating) section
3. Mist extractor to remove small liquid particles from the gas.
4. Liquid settling (separating) section to remove gas.
5. Gas and liquid outlets
Inlet section
 With momentum
breaker/inlet deflector
to rapidly reduce the inlet
liquid velocity; hence
helping disengage free gas.
 The centrifugal inlet

device makes the incoming
stream spin around.

Inlet section
 Depending on the mixture
flow rate, the reaction
force from the separator wall
can generate a centripetal
acceleration of up to 500
times the gravitational
acceleration.
 This action forces the liquid

droplets together where
they fall to the bottom of
the separator into the settling
section.
Settling section
 In a separator allows the turbulence of the fluid stream to subside and
the liquid droplets to fall to the bottom of the vessel due to gravity
segregation.
 A large open space in the vessel is required for this purpose.
 Use of internal baffling or plates may produce more liquid to be

discharged from the separator.

Gas outlet with mist eliminator

 Small liquid droplets that
do not settle out of the
gas stream due to little
gravity difference between
them and the gas phase tend
to be entrained and pass out
of the separator with the gas.
 A mist eliminator or
extractor near the gas outlet
allows this to be almost
eliminated.

 One mist extractor design is
a wire pad of thin stainless
steel wire wrapped in a
cylinder.
 It is designed to remove liquid

droplets between 10 µm and
100 µm from the gas phase.
 These droplets:
1. Impinge on the wire
2. Coalesce and flow down in
to the liquid phase.


 Efficient operation depends
on operating with the
correct gas velocity:
 Too high gas velocity -

liquid drops are “eroded”
from wire and are re-
entrained in the gas stream.
 Too low liquid velocity -

liquid drops drift past
mesh without impinging.
Liquid outlet
 Under level control to
evacuate the liquid or the
separated oil and water
phases (2 or 3-phase
separators respectively).
 The outlet is usually

equipped with a vortex
breaker to prevent re-
entrainment of gas in the
liquid.

Outline
 Flow line
 Separators
 Pumps
 Gas compressors
 Separator
Separator types
 Based on function:
 Two phase separator
 Three phase separator
 Based on configuration:
 Horizontal separator
 Vertical separator
 Spherical separator

Two phase separator

 Gas is separated from the liquid with the gas and liquid
being discharged separately.
 Sufficient gas phase residence time such that liquid
droplets of 100 µm will separate from the gas.
Separator types

Three phase separator

 As for 2-phase separators plus sufficient oil phase residence time such
that 500 µm water droplets will settle into the water phase.
 The separated water phase will typically contain 500 ppm dispersed
oil, hence requiring further treatment before disposal.
Separator types

Horizontal separator
 In horizontal separators, gas flows horizontally while liquid droplets
fall toward the liquid surface.
 The moisture gas flows in the baffle surface and forms a liquid film that
is drained away to the liquid section of the separator.
 The baffles need to be longer than the distance of liquid trajectory

travel.
 Horizontal separators are usually the first choice
because of their low costs.
 They are almost widely used for high gas–oil ratio well
streams, foaming well streams, or liquid-from-liquid
separation.

 They have much greater gas–liquid interface because
of a large, long, baffled gas separation section.
 Horizontal separators are easier to skid-mount and

service and require less piping for field connections.
Separator types

Vertical separator
 The inlet diverter is a
centrifugal inlet device
making the incoming stream
spin around.
 This action forces the liquid

droplets to stay together
and fall to the bottom of
the separator along the
separator wall due to
gravity.
Vertical separator
 Sufficient room is available
in the settling section of the
vertical separator to handle
slugs of liquid without
carryover to the gas outlet.
 A mist eliminator or
extractor near the gas
outlet allows the entrained
liquid in the gas to be almost
eliminated

Vertical separator
 Vertical separators are often
used to treat low to
intermediate gas–oil
ratio well streams and
streams with relatively large
slugs of liquid.
 They handle greater slugs

of liquid without carryover
to the gas outlet, and the
action of the liquid level
control is not as critical.
Vertical separator
 Vertical separators occupy
less floor space, which is
important for facility sites
such as those on offshore
platforms where space is
limited.
 Vertical separators are

more costly to fabricate
and ship in skid-mounted
assemblies.

Separator types
Spherical separator
 Spherical separators offer an
inexpensive and compact
means of separation
arrangement.
 Because of their compact

configurations, this type of
separator has a very limited
surge space and liquid settling
section.

Outline
 Flow line
 Separators
 Pumps
 Gas compressors
 Separator
Separation operational problem

 The process equipment used in
platform operations is designed to
achieve the required product
specifications using standard chemical
engineering design procedures.
 However, operational problems can

be encountered if allowance is not
made for the fact that we are not
processing “pure” fluids and that the
fluid flow rates composition and
qualities will vary over the life of the
field.
 The complex mixture that makes up

the produced hydrocarbon contains
many minor components that cause
problems.

Foaming
 Foam (semi-stable gas
bubbles at the oil / gas
surface) prevents the gas dis-
engaging quickly from the
liquid surface.
 A de-foaming chemical (a
surfactant) is injected at a low
concentration to overcome
this problem.
 An effective de-foamer
coupled with a mist
eliminator will remove
liquid droplets larger than
100 µm from the gas stream.
Solid particles
 Low concentrations of solids are
frequently produced to surface with the
well fluids.
 They represent a large absolute solid

volumes even if present in a low
concentration due to the large
volumes of produced fluid.
 These solids collect in the bottom of

the separators where they reduce fluid
residence time and the separation
efficiency.

Solid particles
 The can also cause erosion in the
separator.
 They have to be regularly

removed.
 Water jets are mounted at the

bottom of the tank.
 Their jetting action re-suspends

the solids and transports them to a
holding tank for removal of any
oil and ultimate disposal.
Scale and asphaltene

 Several other solid phases can
appear in the separators and the
other components parts of the
production system.
 Scale:
 These are formed by the mixing of
incompatible waters.
 Alternatively pressure/temperature
changes.
 Scale deposition can be controlled by
the addition of a scale ‘inhibitor’.


 Several other solid phases can appear in
the separators and the other components
parts of the production system.
 Wax:
 Cooling of the crude oil in the production
system may result in part of the paraffin
content precipitating as a solid wax.
 This is avoided by preventing the crude
cooling below the wax appearance temperature
or cloud point.
 The temperature at which wax deposition
occurs can be controlled to some extent by the
use of wax inhibitors.

 Several other solid phases can
appear in the separators and the
other components parts of the
production system.
 Asphaltenes:
 Pressure reduction can lead to
the precipitation of asphaltenes
from some crude oils

Emulsion
 Emulsion separation may
not be sufficiently complete
within the residence time
available in the primary
separator.
 This depends on the

chemical properties of the
crude oil/water system.
 Reverse emulsion
breakers can be employed
for treating water-in-oil
emulsions.
Outline
 Flow line
 Separators
 Pumps
 Gas compressors
 Separator

Separator selection
 Petroleum engineers normally do not perform
detailed designing of separators but carry out
selection of separators suitable for their operations
from manufacturers’ product catalogues.
Separator design
 The liquid droplets will settle at a velocity determined by equating the
gravitational force acting on the drop with the drag force caused by its
relative motion to the continuous phase.
 The separator geometry should allow the liquid droplets sink in to

the bottom of separator

Separator gas capacity

 The following empirical equations proposed by
Souders– Brown are widely used for calculating gas
capacity of oil/gas separators :
l   g
vg  K and q g  A  vg
g
 A = total cross-sectional area of separator, ft2

 vg = superficial gas velocity based on total cross-sectional area A,
ft/sec
 q = gas flow rate at operating conditions, ft3/sec
 pl = density of liquid at operating conditions, lbm/ft3
 pg = density of gas at operating conditions, lbm/ft3
 K = empirical factor

 K values for various types of separators


 The previous equation can be rewritten as:
2.4  D 2 KP l   g
qst 
Z (T  460) g
 qst = gas capacity at standard conditions, MMscf/d

 D = internal diameter of vessel, ft
 P = operation pressure, psia
 T = operating temperature, ºF
 Z = gas compressibility factor
Liquid capacity
 Retention time of the liquid within the vessel determines liquid
capacity of a separator.
 Adequate separation requires sufficient time to obtain an equilibrium

condition between the liquid and gas phase at the temperature and
pressure of separation.
 The liquid capacity of a separator relates to the retention time

through the settling volume:
ql = liquid capacity, bbl/day


1440  Vl
 Vl = liquid settling volume, bbl ql 
 t = retention time, min t

Liquid capacity
 The following table presents “t” values for various types of separators
tested in fields.
 It is shown that temperature has a strong impact on three-phase

separations at low pressures.

Near Wellbore Condition

Skin
Yousef Rafiei
Outline
 Near wellbore condition
 Formation damage
 Skin
 Skin factor
 Different skin types:
 Damaged skin
 Partial completion skin
 Deviation skin
 Rate dependent skin
 Perforation skin
 Gravel pack skin
692 Near Wellbore Condition: Skin


 When a vertical
well is open to
produce oil at Choke
production rate q,
it creates a
pressure funnel
of radius r around
the wellbore.
Pwf Pr
 This pressure
difference
between wellbore
and reservoir will
∆P
force the
reservoir fluid
toward the well
bore.

 The highest
pressure drops
are experienced Choke
in the near
wellbore
regions.
P Pwf Ps Pr
 The critical rd
parameter r
determining well
productivity is
thus the
condition of
the near
wellbore
region.


 It is important to
describe the
reservoir and well
condition in near Choke
wellbore area.
 Several phenomena
and factors may
change the
condition of near P Pwf Ps Pr
wellbore. rd
r
 Such as:
 Formation
damage
 Completion type
 Well geometry
Outline
 Skin
 Skin factor
 Damaged skin
 Deviation skin

Formation damage
 Formation Damage
refers to the volume
of rock in the near
wellbore zone having a Choke
reduced
permeability.
 This permeability
reduction can be due
to a multitude of
causes. P Ps Pr
Pwf
rd
r
 But in all cases it will
reduce the “natural”
productivity.
 Because of the
imposition of an extra
pressure drop as the
fluid flows to the
wellbore.
Outline
 Skin
 Skin factor
 Damaged skin
 Deviation skin

Skin
 It is important to quantify the
effect of damaged zone and other
sources of change in the near
wellbore condition, in evaluation
of reservoir performance.
 “Skin” is defined as a zone of

reduced permeability within the
vicinity of the wellbore as a result
of formation damage or change in
wellbore condition.
 Any changes from the original

formation permeability are
characterised by the “skin” value.
Outline
 Skin
 Skin factor
 Damaged skin
 Deviation skin

Skin factor
 The most commonly
used measure of
formation damage in a
well is the “skin
factor”, S.
 The skin factor is:

 A dimensionless
parameter
 Relating the apparent
(or effective) and actual
wellbore radii according
to the parameters of the
damaged region.
rwa  e  s rw
Skin factor
 The skin factor is a lumped
parameter incorporating
the integral effects of the
magnitude and the extent of
damage in the near-wellbore
region.
 Therefore, many efforts

have been made to express
the skin factor based on
the analytical solutions of
simplified models relating
well flow rate to formation
and fluid conditions.
ℎ( −
=
1
141.2 ln − +
2

Skin factor
 Skin factor is an
important parameter to
predict the well inflow
performance.
 Skin is usually calculated

from a multi rate well
test.
 Typical values for the skin

factor range from “-6”
for an infinite-conductivity
massive hydraulic fracture
to more than “100” for
a poorly executed gravel
pack.
Outline
 Skin
 Skin factor
 Damaged skin
 Deviation skin

Skin factor components

 The value of the Total
Well skin (Stotal)
measured during a
production test has
many sources that
restrict reservoir inflow
in to the well.
 The total well skin is a

composite parameter:
 Stotal = Sd + Sgeometry +
Scompletion + Srate-dependent
Skin factor components

 latter three skin
components have a
common cause – a
disturbance of the fluid
flow streamlines normal
to the well.
 It is very important to be
able to identify the
formation damage
component (Sd).
 Since this can be reduced

by better operational
practices or, possibly, be
removed or bypassed by
a stimulation treatment .

Outline
 Skin
 Skin factor
 Damaged skin
 Deviation skin
Formation damaged skin

 Most forms of formation damage
reduce the rock permeability to a
certain depth away from the well.
 Formation damage can occur

throughout the life of the well from
the moment that the drill bit first
penetrates the formation.
 Formation can be damaged during,

Drilling, Perforating, Gravel pack
installation…

Formation damaged skin

 Processes which lead to formation
damage typically act through a
restriction of flow (on a pore throat
scale) due to either:
 Physical blockage or reduction in size

of the pore throat
 Reduction in the relative (oil)

permeability e.g. due to phase changes
in the producing fluids.
Formation damage skin

 A well-known equation relating
the skin effect and the
damaged permeability has
been presented by “Hawkins”
formula.
 It is useful in assessing the

relative effects of
permeability impairment
and the penetration of
damage.
k  r
S   o  1 ln d
k
 d  rw

Formation damage skin

 Hawkins formula
shows that the formation
damage skin increases
as the permeability
damage ratio (ko/kd)
increases or the radius
of damage (rd)
increases.
 As an example if the
formation permeability is
reduced to 10% of its
original value (ko/kd =
10) out to a radius of
30 cm, then the
formation damage skin
(Sd) is equal to 10.
Damaged permeability and production rate

 The results of Radial
Inflow calculations using
typical, permeability
damage ratios are
found in the following
Figure.
 As it can be seen Well

production is rapidly
reduced as formation
damage increases.
 Showing the damage in

the very near
wellbore region (first
few feet) being the most
important.

Outline
 Skin
 Skin factor
 Damaged skin
 Deviation skin
Geometry skin
 The well geometry skin reflects geometrical
considerations which alter the skin value occur due
to the well design.
 These include :
 Partial perforation skin

 Limited entry - well not perforated across the
complete reservoir height and/ or well not fully
penetrating the reservoir; or
 Well not placed in the centre of the drainage
boundary.
 The above factors always lead to a positive skin and
reduced well productivity.
 Deviation skin
 The well is slanted through the formation.
 Deviated wells with their longer exposure to the
producing formation show an increasing well
productivity (negative skin) as the well deviation
increases.

Partial completion skin

 Frequently wells are partially completed; that is the
height that is open to the formation is smaller
than the reservoir height.
 Sometimes this is known as partial penetration.
 This situation can occur as result of a bad

perforation or by deliberate under-completion to
retard or avoid conning effects.

 In such a cases the bending of the
flow lines would result in a skin
effect.
 The smaller perforated interval

height compared to the reservoir
height the larger the skin would be.


 Odeh (1980) produced a relatively simple equation for
determining the partial penetration skin (Spc) :
0.835
 h    k    k  
S pc  1.35   1 ln  h h  7   1.95  lnrwc  0.49  0.1ln  h h   
h  kv  
 p       kv   

 The corrected wellbore
radius (rwc) is calculated
as:
zm
0.2126(  2.753)
rwc  rw e h
 where “Zm” is the distance

between the top of the sand
and the middle of the open
interval.

Outline
 Skin
 Skin factor
 Damaged skin
 Deviation skin
Deviation skin
 While partial completion generates a positive skin
effect by reducing the well exposure to the reservoir, a
deviated well results in the opposite.
 The larger the angle of slant, the larger the negative

contribution to the total skin effect will be.

Deviation skin
 One of the earliest relationships is by Cinco
et al. (1975).
' 
2.06
  ' 
1.865
 h kh 
Sdev        log10   
 For a fully completed well in the pseudo  41   56   100rw kv 
steady-state flow period, it takes the form:
 kv 
 '  tan 1  tan 

 kh 
Outline
 Skin
 Skin factor
 Damaged skin
 Deviation skin

Rate-dependent skin
 Rate dependent skin is often observed in high rate gas wells (and very
high rate oil wells).
 This is due to non-Darcy or turbulent flow.
 The non-Darcy skin can be calculated by:
S non  Darcy  Dq
Rate-dependent skin
 In the previous equation “D” is the non-Darcy
coefficient.
Snon Darcy  Dq
 And for oil and gas can be calculated by: 2.3  1014  R Bo2 o
Do 
h 2 rw
3.161 1012  R g ZT
Dg 
h 2 rw
2.33 1010
R 
k 1.2

Outline
 Skin
 Skin factor
 Damaged skin
 Deviation skin
Completion skin
 Completion skin includes the skin related to the
following items:
 Perforation
 Gravel pack

Perforation skin
 In cased-hole completion the flow area between reservoir
and well is restricted to the perforation channels.
 This means reduction in inflow area and therefore skin.
 To determine the overall productivity or skin from perforating,

the performance of a single perforation must be known .
Perforation skin
 This must then be
combined with the
phasing and shots per
foot of multiple
perforations.
 A schematic of
multiple perforations
including the drilling
damage and crushed
zones is shown in
Figure.

Perforation skin
 The perforation skin
(Sp) excluding the
damage skin can be
calculated from the sum
of the:
 Horizontal skin (Sh)

 Vertical skin (Sv)
 Wellbore skin (Swb)
 Crushed zone skin (Scz)
Perforation skin: Horizontal skin

 The horizontal skin
can be determined by:
 
rw
S h  ln   for phasing angles other than 0o
 
 r l
w p
 
 4r 
S h  ln  w  for the case of 0o phasing
 l 
 p 
 α is obtained from
reference Table for
common phasing angles.

Perforation skin: Vertical skin

 Perforation vertical
skin is measured by:
S v  10a hDb 1rpD

b
h kh
hD 
lp kv a  a1 log10  rpD   a2
r  k 
rpD  p  1  v  b  b1rpD  b2
2h  kh 
 a1,a2 ,b1 and b2 are also

obtained from Table.
Perforation skin: Wellbore skin

 Wellbore skin is
measured by:
S wb  C1 exp  C2 rwD 
rw
rwD 
l p  rw
 C1 and C2 are also

obtained from Table.

Perforation skin: Crushed zone skin

 Crushed zone skin
can be obtained by:
h k  r 
Scz    1  ln  cz 
l p  kcz 
  rp 
Perforation skin parameters

Perforation skin parameters
Outline
 Skin
 Skin factor
 Damaged skin
 Deviation skin

Gravel pack skin

 The productivity of the gravel
pack is affected by the
pressure drop through the
gravel pack.
 In an open-hole gravel pack,

the pressure drop through the
gravel should be very small
compared to the formation.
 Therefore the gravel pack skin

is negligible
Gravel pack skin

 For inside-casing gravel
pack completion, the
pressure drop through
gravel-packed perforation
can be contribute to the
overall pressure drop.
 Also since the productivity of

unconsolidated sand
requiring sand control is often
high, turbulence in the
perforation may add to the
laminar (Darcy) flow.

Gravel pack skin

 Golan and Whitson (1991)
presented the following
equations for inside-casing
gravel packs.
 They said the total gravel pack

skin is:
Total gravel pack skin =

Sg+Dgq
Gravel pack skin:

 The first part can be
determined by the following
equation:
96khl p
Sg  2
k g D perf n
 In which:
 Kg : Gravel pack permeability
(md)
 n: Number of perforations

Gravel pack skin:

 For non-Darcy skin the
following equations can be
employed for determining
coefficient:
2 1010  g khl p  g
Dgg 
 rw Dperf
4
n2
1.8  1011 Bo  khl p  g

Dgo 
 rw D perf
4
n2
 g  bk g a
Gravel pack skin parameters

Well Production Enhancement
Yousef Rafiei
Outline
 Production enhancement
 Artificial lift
 Hydraulic fracturing
 Matrix acidizing
 Artificial lift
 Gas lift
744 Well Production Enhancement

Production enhancement
 Inflow improvement
 Production can be improved by

increasing well inflow
performance.
 This can be done by improving

productivity index.
 The employed techniques for

increasing reservoir performance
are called “Well Stimulation”.
Production enhancement
 Outflow improvement
 The rate of production system

increases as the well
performance improves.
 More oil can be recovered

from the same reservoir by
improving vertical lift
performance.
 Outflow improvement
techniques are referred as
“Artificial lift” methods.

Outline
 Artificial lift
 Artificial lift
 Gas lift
Well stimulation
 Well stimulation is a well intervention

performed on an oil or gas well to increase
production by improving the flow of
hydrocarbons from the reservoir
drainage area into the well bore.
 Therefore it is a treatment performed to or

enhance the productivity of a well.
 Stimulation treatments fall into two main

groups, hydraulic fracturing treatments
and matrix treatments.

Well stimulation
 Fracturing treatments are performed

above the fracture pressure of the
reservoir formation and create a highly
conductive flow path between the
reservoir and the wellbore.
 Matrix treatments are performed below

the reservoir fracture pressure and
generally are designed to restore the
natural permeability of the reservoir
following damage to the near-wellbore area.
Outline
 Artificial lift
 Artificial lift
 Gas lift

Artificial lift
 When the natural drive energy of

the reservoir is not strong enough to
push the oil to the surface, artificial
lift is employed to recover more
production.
 In fact, 96% of the oil wells in the US

require artificial lift from the very
beginning.
Artificial lift
 Even those wells that initially posses natural

flow to the surface, that pressure depletes
over time, and artificial lift is then required.
 Therefore, artificial lift is generally performed

on all wells at some time during their
production life.
 Although there are several methods to achieve

artificial lift, the two main categories of
artificial lift include pumping systems and gas
lifts.

Outline
 Artificial lift
 Artificial lift
 Gas lift
Hydraulic fracturing
 Hydraulic fracturing is a well-stimulation technique
that is most suitable to wells in low- and
moderate-permeability reservoirs that do not
provide commercial production rates even
though formation damages are removed by
acidizing treatments.
 When fluid is pumped into the reservoir at a

sufficiently high pressure, the reservoir rock will
crack open.
 Continued pumping of the fluid at this pressure will

propagate the crack into the reservoir.
 A slurry can be pumped into the crack to create a

slab-shaped zone of high permeability known
as a hydraulic fracture.

 Hydraulic fracturing jobs are
carried out at well sites using
heavy equipment including:
 Truck-mounted pumps
 Blenders
 Fluid tanks
 Proppant tanks.
 A hydraulic fracturing job is

divided into two stages:
 The pad stage
 The slurry stage
Hydraulic fracturing: Pad stage

 In the pad stage,
fracturing fluid
only is injected
into the well to
break down the
formation and
create a pad.
 The pad is
created because
the fracturing fluid
injection rate is
higher than the
flow rate at which
the fluid can
escape into the
formation.

Hydraulic fracturing: Slurry stage

 After the pad
grows to a
desirable size,
the slurry stage
is started.
 During the
slurry stage,
the fracturing
fluid is mixed
with
sand/proppant
in a blender and
the mixture is
injected into
the
pad/fracture.
 After filling the fracture
with sand/proppant, the
fracturing job is over and
the pump is shut down.
 To prop the fracture, the

sand/ proppant should
have a compressive
strength that is high
enough to resist the
stress from the
formation.

Outline
 Artificial lift
 Artificial lift
 Gas lift
Matrix acidizing
 Matrix acidizing is also called acid matrix

treatment. It is a technique to stimulate wells for
improving well inflow performance.
 In the treatment,
 Acid solution is injected into the formation
 To dissolve some of the minerals to recover
permeability of sandstones (removing skin) or
 Increase permeability of carbonates near the wellbore.
 Matrix acidizing is a near-wellbore treatment, with all

of the acid reacting within about a foot of the wellbore
in sandstone formations, and within a few to perhaps as
much as 10–20 ft of the wellbore in carbonates.

Matrix acidizing acid types
 The most common acids used are:

 Hydrochloric acid (HCl), used primarily to
dissolve carbonate minerals.
 Mixtures of hydrofluoric and hydrochloric acids
(HF/HCl), for attacking sandstone formations.
 Because traditional drilling fluid (drilling “mud”)

was a suspension of bentonite clay, the mixture
HF/HCl, effective in dissolving bentonite
particles, has been known in as mud acid.
 Other acids, particularly some of the weak

organic acids, are used in special applications.
Matrix acidizing & acid fracturing
 For the petroleum production engineer, acid fracturing has

more in common with proppant fracturing than with
matrix acidizing.
 Acid fracturing is sometimes used to overcome formation

damage in relatively high-permeability formations.
 However, carbonate reservoirs of relatively low

permeability may also be candidates for acid fracturing.
 For such reservoirs, a comparison with propped fracturing

must be done, taking into account the expected post-
treatment production rate versus costs.

Acid mineral reaction

 Silicate minerals such as clays and feldspars in
sandstone pores are normally removed using mixtures
of HF & HCl, whereas carbonate minerals are usually
attacked with HCl.
 The chemical reactions are summarized in Table.
Acid mineral reaction stoichiometry

 The amount of acid needed to dissolve a given amount
of mineral is determined by the stoichiometry of the
chemical reaction, which describes the number of moles of
each species involved in the reaction.
 For example, the simple reaction between hydrochloric acid

(HCl) and calcite (CaCO3) can be written as
 Which shows that two moles of HCl are required to dissolve one
mole of CaCO3.
 The numbers 2 and 1 multiplying the species HCl and CaCO3 are
the stoichiometric coefficients, νHCl and ν CaCO3, for HCl and
CaCO3, respectively.

Dissolving power of acid

 A more convenient way to express reaction stoichiometry is with the
dissolving power, introduced by Williams, Gidley, and Schechter
(1979).
 The dissolving power expresses the amount of mineral that can be

consumed by a given amount of acid on a mass or volume basis.
 First, the gravimetric dissolving power, β.

 The dissolving power on a mass basis is called gravimetric dissolving power
and is defined as:
 β = gravimetric dissolving power of acid solution, lbm mineral/lbm solution m MWm

 Ca = weight fraction of acid in the acid solution   Ca


ʋm = stoichiometry number of mineral
na = stoichiometry number of acid
a MWa
 MWm= molecular weight of mineral
 MWa = molecular weight of acid.
Dissolving power of acid

 The volumetric dissolving power, χ, similarly defined
as the volume of mineral dissolved by a given
volume of acid solution, is related to the gravimetric
dissolving power by 
X  a
 m
 X = volumetric dissolving power of acid solution, ft3 mineral/ft3 solution

 ρa =density of acid, lbm/ft3
 ρm =density of mineral, lbm/ft3

Acidizing design
 Sandstone acidizing
 The purpose of sandstone acidizing is
to remove the damage to the
sandstone near the wellbore that
occurred during drilling and well
completion processes.
 Carbonate acidizing
 The purpose of carbonate acidizing is
not to remove the damage to the
formation near the wellbore, but to
create wormholes through which
oil or gas will flow after stimulation.
Sandstone acidizing design
 The purpose of sandstone acidizing is to

remove the damage to the sandstone
near the wellbore that occurred during
drilling and well completion processes.
 The acid treatment is only necessary

when it is sure that formation
damage is significant to affect well
productivity.
 A major formation damage is usually

indicated by a large positive skin
factor derived from pressure
transient test analysis in a flow
regime of early time

Sandstone acidizing design: Acid selection
 The acid type and acid

concentration in acid solution used in
acidizing is selected on the basis of
minerals in the formation and field
experience.
 For sandstones, the typical treatments

usually consist of a mixture of 3 wt%
HF and 12 wt% HCl.
 McLeod (1984) presented a guideline

to the selection of acid on the basis of
extensive field experience.
Sandstone acidizing design: Acid selection
His
recommendation
s for sandstone
treatments are
shown in Table.

Acid volume requirement

 The acid volume should be:
 High enough to remove near
wellbore formation damage.
 low enough to reduce cost of
treatment.
 Selection of an optimum acid volume

is complicated by the competing
effects.
 The volume of acid needed depends

strongly on the depth of the
damaged zone, which is seldom
known.
 Also, the acid will never be

distributed equally to all parts of
the damaged formation.
Acid volume requirement
 The efficiency of acid treatment and, therefore, acid volume also depends on acid injection rate.
 To ensure that an adequate amount of acid contacts most of the damaged formation, a larger amount of
acid is necessary.
 The required minimum acid volume is expressed as
Vm Va = the required minimum acid volume, ft3/ft

Va   VP  Vm
X Vm = volume of minerals to be removed, ft3/ft
VP = initial pore volume, ft3/ft
Vm    r  r
a
2 2
w  1    C
m ra = radius of acid treatment, ft
rw = radius of wellbore, ft
VP    r  r  
a
2 2
w
φ = porosity, fraction
Cm = mineral content, volume fraction

Acid injection rate

 Acid injection rate should be
selected on the basis of mineral
dissolution and removal and
depth of damaged zone.
 Selecting an optimum injection

rate is a difficult process because
the damaged zone is seldom
known with any accuracy.
 Fortunately, research results have

shown that the highest rate
possible yields the best results.
Acid injection rate

 There is always an upper limit on the acid injection rate
that is imposed by formation breakdown (fracture)
pressure Pbd .
 Assuming pseudo–steady-state flow, the maximum
injection rate limited by the breakdown pressure is
expressed as
qimax = maximum injection rate, bbl/min
k = permeability of undamaged formation,
md
 
 h = thickness of pay zone to be treated, ft
4.917  106 kh  Pbd  P  Psf 
qi max    Pbd = formation breakdown pressure, psia
P = reservoir pressure, psia
 0.472re 
a  ln S ∆psf = safety margin, 200 to 500 psi
 rw  ρa = viscosity of acid solution, cp

re = drainage radius, ft
rw = wellbore radius, ft
S = skin factor, ft.

Injection pressure
 It is necessary to predict the surface injection
pressure at the design stage for pump selection.
 The surface tubing pressure is related to the bottom-hole

flowing pressure by:
Psi = surface injection pressure, psia
Psi  Pwf  Ph  Pf Pwf = flowing bottom-hole pressure, psia

∆Ph = hydrostatic pressure drop, psia
∆Pf = frictional pressure drop, psia.
Injection pressure
 The following approximation may be used for the
frictional pressure drop calculation:
 ρ=density of fluid, g/cm3

 q =injection rate, bbl/min 518 0.79 q1.79  0.207
 µ =fluid viscosity, cp Pf  L
1000 D 4.79
 D =tubing diameter, in.
 L =tubing length, ft.

Carbonate acidizing design
 The purpose of carbonate acidizing is

not to remove the damage to the
formation near the wellbore, but to
create wormholes through which oil
or gas will flow after stimulation.
 Carbonate acidizing is a more difficult

process to predict than sandstone
acidizing because the physics is much
more complex.
Carbonate acidizing design
 The acidizing process in carbonate

formations is fundamentally different
from that in sandstones.
 In a clastic formation, the surface

reaction rates are slow and a relatively
uniform acid front moves through the
porous medium.
 In carbonates, surface reaction rates

are very high leading to highly non-
uniform dissolution patterns.

Acid selection
 HCl is the most widely used acid for

carbonate matrix acidizing.
 Weak acids are suggested for clean up,

and strong acids are recommended for
other treatments.
 All theoretical models of wormhole

propagation predict deeper penetration
for higher acid strengths, so a high
concentration of acid is always preferable.
Acid selection
 Table lists recommended acid type and strength for
carbonate acidizing (McLeod, 1984).

Acidizing parameters
 Acidizing parameters include acid volume, injection rate, and injection pressure.
 The acid volume can be calculated with based on Daccord’s wormhole propagation model.
 Based on the wormhole propagation model presented by Daccord et al. (1989), the required
acid volume per unit thickness of formation can be estimated using the following equation:
Vh = required acid volume per unit thickness of formation, m3/m

2 1
 D q r3 3 df ρ=porosity, fraction
Vh  h wh
D =molecular diffusion coefficient, m2/s
bN Ac qh =injection rate per unit thickness of formation, m3/sec-m
rwh =desired radius of wormhole penetration, m
df =1.6, fractal dimension
b =105 ×10-5 in SI units
Nsc =acid capillary number, dimensionless
Acidizing parameters
 Where the acid capillary number is defined as:
 a
N ac 
1     m
 γa = acid specific gravity, water = 1.0

 γm = mineral specific gravity, water = 1.0.

Example: Sandstone acidizing

 A sandstone with a porosity of 0.2 containing 10 v% calcite (CaCO3) is to be
acidized with HF/HCl mixture solution.
 A pre-flush of 15 wt% HCl solution is to be injected ahead of the mixture
to dissolve the carbonate minerals and establish a low pH environment.
 If the HCl pre-flush is to remove all carbonates in a region within 1 ft
beyond a 0.328-ft radius wellbore before the HF/HCl stage enters the
formation, what minimum pre-flush volume is required in terms of gallon.
Vm
X
Vm    ra2  rw2  1    Cm
VP    ra2  rw2  
Example: Solution
 Volume of mineral:
Vm    ra2  rw2  1    Cm
 Vm   1.3282  0.3282  1  0.2  0.1  0.42 ft 3 /ft CaCO3
 Pore volume:
VP    ra2  rw2  
 VP   1.3282  0.3282  0.2  1.05 ft 3 / ft

Example 5: Solution
 Gravimetric dissolving power:
m MWm
  Ca
a MWa
1100.1m
    0.15   0.21 lb m min ersl / lbmacid
 2  36.5 
 Volumetric dissolve power:


X  a
 m
 X   0.21
1.07  62.4   0.082 ft 3min eral / ft 3acid
169 
Example 5: Solution
 Finally required acid volume will be:
Vm
X
0.42
 Va   1.05  0.42  6.48 ft 3 / ft  6.48  7.48  48 gal acid required per foot
0.082

Example: Sandstone acidizing

 A 60-ft thick, 50-md sandstone pay zone at a depth of 9,500 ft
is to be acidized with an acid solution having a specific gravity of
1.07 and a viscosity of 1.5 cp down a 2-in. inside diameter
tubing.
 The formation fracture gradient is 0.7 psi/ft.
 The wellbore radius is 0.328 ft.
 Assuming a reservoir pressure of 4,000 psi, drainage area radius of 1,000
ft, and a skin factor of 15, calculate
 (a) the maximum acid injection rate using safety margin 300 psi.
 (b) the maximum expected surface injection pressure at the

maximum injection rate.
Example: Solution
 The maximum injection rate will be:
 

4.917 106 kh  Pbd  P  Psf 
qi max   
 0.472re 
a  ln S
 rw 
4.917 106  50  60    0.7  9500   4000  300 

 qi max   1.04 bbl/min
 0.472 1000  
1.5  ln  15 
 0.328 

Example: Solution
 The maximum expected surface pressure:
Psi  Pwf  Ph  Pf Psi  Pwf  Ph  Pf  6350  4401  218  2167 psi
Pwf  Pbd  Psf   0.7  9500   300  6350 psi
Ph  0.433 1.07  9500  4401 psi
518  0.79 q1.79  0.207

Pf  L
1000 D 4.79
518 1.07  1.4 1.5
0.79 1.79 0.207
 Pf   9500   218 psi

1000  2 
4.79
Outline
 Artificial lift
 Artificial lift
 Gas lift

Artificial lift
 Hydrocarbons will normally flow to
the surface under natural flow
when the discovery well is completed
in a virgin reservoir.
 The fluid production resulting from

reservoir development will normally
lead to:
 Reduction in the reservoir pressure
 Increase in the fraction of water being
produced
 All these factors reduce, or may

even stop, the flow of fluids from
the well.
Artificial lift
 The remedy is to include within the well
completion some form of artificial lift.
 Artificial lift adds energy to the well fluid

which, when added to the available energy
provided “for free” by the reservoir itself,
allows the well to flow at a (hopefully
economic) production rate.
 It has been estimated that in 1994 there was

a world inventory of more than 900,000
producing wells.
 Only 7% of these flowed naturally while

the remaining 93% required some form of
artificial lift.

Artificial lift techniques

 The most popular forms
of artificial lift are
illustrated in the Figure.
 They includes:
1. Rod pump (beam pump)

2. Electric submersible pump
3. Gas lift
Artificial lift techniques

 The first two on the list
are all pumps, literally
squeezing, pushing or
pulling the fluids to
surface, thus
transferring
mechanical energy to
the fluids, albeit in
different ways.
 The gas lift systems add

energy by adding light gas
and thus lowering the
overall density of the
produced fluids.

Rod pump
 A downhole plunger is moved up
and down by a rod connected to an
engine at the surface.
 The plunger movement displaces

produced fluid into the tubing via a
pump consisting of suitably arranged
travelling and standing valves
mounted within a pump barrel.
 (Sucker) rod or beam pump was the

first type of artificial lift to be
introduced to the oil field.
Rod pump

Hydraulic pump
 It uses a high pressure
power fluid to:
 Drive a downhole
turbine or positive
displacement pump or
 Flow through a jet,

creating a low pressure
area which produces an
increased drawdown
and inflow from the
reservoir
Electric submersible pump

 ESP employs a downhole centrifugal
pump driven by electric motor
supplied with electric power via a cable
run from the surface penetrates the
wellhead and is strapped to the outside of
the tubing.
 The electric submersible pump applies

artificial lift by putting pressure on the
surrounding fluids and forcing them to
the surface.
 A mass producer, electric submersible

pumps can lift more than 25,000 barrels
of fluids per day.

Outline
 Artificial lift
 Artificial lift
 Gas lift
Gas lift
 Gas lift involves:
 The supply of high pressure gas to the
casing/tubing annulus.
 Its injection into the tubing via the Gas Lift
Operating Valve.
 The increased gas content of the produced

fluid reduces the average flowing density
of the fluids in the tubing, hence increasing
the vertical lift performance and the well
inflow rate.

Gas lift
 The injected gas enables the well to flow by:
 Reducing the average fluid density above the

injection point.
 Partially dissolving into in the produced fluids.

The undissolved gas, in the form of bubbles,
will expand due to reductions in the
hydrostatic pressure as the fluids rise up the
tubing.
 The coalescence of these gas bubbles into

larger bubbles occupying the full width of the
tubing.
 These bubbles are separated by liquid slugs,

which the gas bubbles displace to surface.This is
called slug flow.
Gas lift
 The tubing string has been fitted with
a number of gas lift valves.
 These valves are installed at carefully

spaced intervals so that any liquid
present above them in the casing/tubing
annulus (e.g. due to killing of the well)
can be removed by injection of gas at
the top of the valve.
 The gas injection point into the tubing

is then transferred to successively
deeper gas lift valves

Gas lift: Optimum injection rate of gas

 Increases in the gas injection
rate through a gas lift valve
set at a given depth will
increase the fluid production
rate until a maximum is
reached.
 At this point the “reduction

in average fluid density in
the tubing due to a slight
increase in the gas injection
rate” is being exactly
counterbalanced by the
“increased frictional
pressure losses due to the
greater mass of fluid flowing in
the tubing”.
Gas lift: Optimum injection rate of gas

 Further increases in the gas flow
rate will result in the friction
term increasing relatively
faster than the hydrostatic head
reduction term.
 This is the “technical optimum

gas injection rate” at which
the well liquid production rate is
maximised.
 “The maximum economic

gas injection rate” will be
somewhat lower - this is the gas
injection rate at which the
marginal cost of providing
extra injection gas is equal to
the marginal revenue from the
extra well production.

Gas lift scenario

 Gas lift can be operated at two different scenarios:
1. Continuous gas lift

 A continuous gas lift operation is a steady-state flow
of the aerated fluid from the bottom (or near bottom) of
the well to the surface.
 Continuous gas lift method is used in wells with a high
PI and a reasonably high reservoir pressure relative
to well depth.
2. Intermittent gas lift

 Intermittent gas lift operation is characterized by a start-
and-stop flow from the bottom (or near bottom) of the
well to the surface.
 Intermittent gas lift method is suitable to wells with high
or low PI and low reservoir pressure.
Unloading Wells with Multiple Gas-Lift Valves

 The unloading procedure starts from
the top-most valve.
 Gas injected through the first valve will

lift the liquid column from the valve
location to the surface, reducing the total
hydrostatic pressure in the wellbore.
 Then the first valve is closed, and the

next valve below opens to lift the
column from the second valve location
upward.
 The procedure repeats until the entire

wellbore is unloaded.


 Very commonly, to start the
procedure, a higher surface
pressure at the annulus side is
used, marked as kick off
pressure.
 The pressure gradient in the

annulus is the injected gas
gradient.
 The pressure gradient inside

the tubing is the wellbore fluid
pressure gradient, which is
much higher because of the
denser fluid in the wellbore.

 Depending on the
density of the tubing
fluid and compressor
outlet pressure, the
depth of the first
valve is determined by
the intercept of the
two pressure
gradient curves
(annulus and tubing).
 Which indicates that at

the first valve
location, the gas
injected has high
enough pressure to
lift the liquid column.


 Starting the gas
injection from the
valve will reduce
the pressure
gradient above
the valve,
therefore the
killing fluid
above the valve
can flow.

 The same
procedure will
be repeated
until all killing
fluid displaced
from the well.
 Now well can

produce
reservoir fluid

Gas lift design

 The gas lift system designed for installation in a
specific well should meet the following
objectives:
 Maximise the (net) value of oil produced.

 This normally implies that the:
 Operating valve, through which the gas will be
continuously injected, should be situated as deep as
possible.
 Gas injection rate should equal the economic limit at
which the marginal value of the extra oil produced
equals the marginal cost of providing this extra gas
Gas lift design

 The gas lift system designed for installation in a
specific well should meet the following
objectives:
 Maximise design flexibility.

 The gas lift design should be capable of coping with the
expected changes in the well producing conditions
during its lifetime, as well as the “unplanned”
uncertainties in reservoir properties and performance.
 These changes normally involve a deterioration, from
a well productivity point of view, due to a decrease
in the Reservoir Pressure or the Well Productivity
Index or an increase in the Water Cut.

Gas lift design parameters

 The gas lift design process has to answer the
following questions to meet the above
objectives:
 How many unloading valves are required and

at what depths should they be placed?
 What are the required settings for the
Unloading Valves?
 What is the depth of the operating valve
where the gas is continuously injected?
 What is the gas injection (or casing head)
pressure?
 How much lift gas should be injected?

Appendix A: More Examples
Yousef Rafiei
Example 1: Nodal Analysis

 Determine the flowrate (all oil) possible from a well with
a constant wellhead pressure. The data pertinent to the
well are shown below and assume constant productivity
index IPR.
816 Appendix A: More Examples

Example 1:Solution
 First IPR model should be developed:
q q
q  J ( Pr  Pwf )  Pwf  Pr   2300 
J 2.0
Example 1:Solution
Then the TPR should be construct by determining Pwf for
different rates using corresponding pressure traverse curve
flow rate 1000 1500 2000 3000

Pwf 1360 1570 1830 2330

Example 1:Solution
 From the plot, the
operating point is
where the two
curves intersect:
1432b/d, 1584psi
Example 2: Formation damage skin

 Assume that a well has a radius rw equal to 0.328 ft and a
damage penetration 3 ft beyond the well (i.e., rs = 3.328
ft).
 What would be the skin effect if the permeability impairment
results in ko/kd =5

Example 2: Solution
 The formation damage skin can be determined by
Hawkins formula:
k  r
S   o  1 ln d
 kd  rw
3.328
 S   5  1 ln  6.3
0.328
Example 3: Perforation skin

 Assume that a well with rw = 0.328 ft is perforated with 2
SPF, rperf = 0.25 in. (0.0208 ft), lperf = 8 in. (0.667 ft), and θ =
180°.
 Calculate the perforation skin effect if kH/kV = 10.
 (assume crushed zone skin is zero)

Example 3: Solution
 The perforation skin will be sum of:
 Horizontal skin (Sh)

 Wellbore skin (Swb)
 Vertical skin (Sv)
 Crushed zone skin (Scz)
Example 3: Solution
 Horizontal skin:
   
rw 3.936
Sh  ln   for phasing angles other than 0o  Sh  ln   = - 0.41

 r l
 w p
   0.5  3.936  8  
 4r 
Sh  ln  w  for the case of 0o phasing
 lp 
 

Example 3: Solution
 Wellbore skin:
S wb  C1 exp  C2 rwD   S wb  2.6  10 2 exp  4.353  0.33 = 0.1
rw 3.936
rwD   rwD  = 0.33
l p  rw 8  3.936
Example 3: Solution
 Vertical skin:
 103.271  2.37   0.027 

0.894 1.894
Sv  10a hDb 1rpD
b
Sv  10a hDb1rpD
b
 4.3
h kh
hD   2.37
lp kv
rp  kv 
rpD  1    0.027
2h  kh 
a  a1 log10  rpD   a2  3.271

b  b1rpD  b2  1.894

Example 3: Solution
 Final perforation skin is
S p  S H  S wb  S V  S cz  0.4  4.3  0.1  0  4
Example 3: Solution

Example 4: Gravel pack skin

 Determine the gravel pack skin parameters for a gas having a gravel pack inside a
7.875 in casing with 10/20 mesh size.
 The drainage radius is 1490 ft. The well is perforated with 0.5 in perforation
diameter and 2 in perforation length. Perforation density is 4 spf.
 Reservoir properties are listed below:
 Well and Reservoir Variables
 T = 180°F = 640°R
 Pi = 4613 psi
 Zi = 0.96
 μi = 0.0249 cp
 Bgi = 0.00376 cft/Scf
 h = 78 ft
 Sw = 0.27
 Sg = 0.73
 ϕ = 0.14
 rw = 0.328 ft (7 7/8-in. well)
 k = 100 md
Example 4: Solution
 Total gravel pack skin = Sg+Dggq. So in this problem we are
trying to find “Sg” and “Dgg”.
 Gravel skin can be determined by:

96khl p
Sg  2
k g D perf n
 The gravel permeability related to 10/20 mesh size is: 5×105

md, therefore:
96 khl p
Sg  2
k g D perf n
96 100  78  2 
 Sg   0.04
5 10  0.5   78  4 
5 2

Example 4: Solution
 The next term in non-Darcy flow skin:
 g  bk g a  8.4  1011  5 105 

1.34
 1.94 104
2  1010  g khl p  g 2  1010  0.65 100  78  2  1.94 104  7.92  106

Dgg   
D     0.5   78  4  
4 2 2
perf n 4
 So it should be that Dgg depends on gas viscosity. And gas

viscosity is changing with bottom-hole pressure.
Example 4: Solution

Example 5: Sandstone acidizing

 A sandstone with a porosity of 0.2 containing 10 v% calcite (CaCO3) is to be
acidized with HF/HCl mixture solution.
 A pre-flush of 15 wt% HCl solution is to be injected ahead of the mixture
to dissolve the carbonate minerals and establish a low pH environment.
 If the HCl pre-flush is to remove all carbonates in a region within 1 ft
beyond a 0.328-ft radius wellbore before the HF/HCl stage enters the
formation, what minimum pre-flush volume is required in terms of gallon.
Vm
X
Vm    ra2  rw2  1    Cm
VP    ra2  rw2  
Example 5: Solution
 Volume of mineral:
Vm    ra2  rw2  1    Cm
 Vm   1.3282  0.3282  1  0.2  0.1  0.42 ft 3 /ft CaCO3
 Pore volume:
VP    ra2  rw2  
 VP   1.3282  0.3282  0.2  1.05 ft 3 / ft

Example 5: Solution
 Gravimetric dissolving power:
m MWm
  Ca
a MWa
1100.1m
    0.15   0.21 lb m min ersl / lb macid
 2  36.5
 Volumetric dissolve power:


X  a
 m
 X   0.21
1.07  62.4   0.082 ft 3min eral / ft 3acid
169 
Example 5: Solution
 Finally required acid volume will be:
Vm
X
0.42
 Va   1.05  0.42  6.48 ft 3 / ft  6.48  7.48  48 gal acid required per foot of the formation
0.082

Example 6: Sandstone acidizing

 A 60-ft thick, 50-md sandstone pay zone at a depth of 9,500 ft
is to be acidized with an acid solution having a specific gravity of
1.07 and a viscosity of 1.5 cp down a 2-in. inside diameter
tubing.
 The formation fracture gradient is 0.7 psi/ft. The wellbore radius
is 0.328 ft. Assuming a reservoir pressure of 4,000 psi, drainage
area radius of 1,000 ft, and a skin factor of 15, calculate
 (a) the maximum acid injection rate using safety margin 300 psi.
 (b) the maximum expected surface injection pressure at the

maximum injection rate.
Example 6: Solution
 The maximum injection rate will be:
 

4.917 106 kh  Pbd  P  Psf 
qi max   
 0.472re 
a  ln S
 rw 
4.917 106  50  60    0.7  9500   4000  300 

 qi max   1.04 bbl/min
 0.472 1000  
1.5  ln  15 
 0.328 

Example 6: Solution
 The maximum expected surface pressure:
Psi  Pwf  Ph  Pf Psi  Pwf  Ph  Pf  6350  4401  218  2167 psi
Pwf  Pbd  Psf   0.7  9500   300  6350 psia
Ph  0.433 1.07  9500  4401 psi
518  0.79 q1.79  0.207

Pf  L
1000 D 4.79
518 1.07  1.4 1.5
0.79 1.79 0.207
 Pf   9500   218 psi

1000  2 
4.79
End of Slides!?
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Petroleum Production Engineering Amirkabir University of Technology

Fundamentals of The Petroleum Production Engineering

By: Dr. Yousef Rafiei

By: Dr. Yousef Rafiei 1

An Overview on Production Engineering Course

 E&P project phasing

 E&P project main tasks

 What does production engineering do?

By: Dr. Yousef Rafiei 2

Oil & gas industry

 The petroleum industry includes the global

 Divided into 2 major sectors:

Oil & gas industry

 The Upstream (E&P) sector includes:

 The downstream sector commonly

By: Dr. Yousef Rafiei 3

 E&P project phasing

 E&P project main tasks

 What does production engineering do?

E&P Projects: Gaining access

 The ﬁrst step an oil company will

 This will involve evaluating the

By: Dr. Yousef Rafiei 4

E&P Projects: Gaining access

 Some 90% of the world’s oil and gas

 The invitation to participate may be publicly

 Alternatively an arrangement for

E&P Projects: Exploration

 Hydrocarbon exploration (or oil and gas

 The objective of any exploration venture is to

 Once an area has been selected for exploration,

By: Dr. Yousef Rafiei 5

E&P Projects: Exploration

 The mapping of gravity anomalies

 Next, a coarse two-dimensional

E&P Projects: Exploration

 Eventually, only the drilling of an

 A ‘wildcat’ well is drilled in a region

 Wells either result in discoveries of oil

By: Dr. Yousef Rafiei 6

E&P Project: Appraisal

 Appraisal activity, if performed,

 The role of appraisal is to

E&P Project: Appraisal

 The objective of performing appraisal

 The next action may be, for example:

By: Dr. Yousef Rafiei 7

E&P Project: Development

 Based on the results of the feasibility

 The FDP’s prime purpose is to serve as a

E&P Project: Production

 The production phase commences with

 Development planning and

 The production proﬁle will determine the

By: Dr. Yousef Rafiei 8

E&P Project: Production profile

E&P Project: Production profile

By: Dr. Yousef Rafiei 9

E&P Project: Production profile

E&P Project: Decommissioning