Artificial Lift Systems

Artificial Lift Systems
The purpose of any artificial lift system, including gas lift, is to reduce the bottom-hole pressure in order
to allow the well to flow under the existing formation pressure. With gas lift, this can be accomplished by
forcing gas through a choke or control valve, located at the surface, down the annulus and then through
valves into the tubing. The injected gas aerates the liquid column in the tubing. The aeration reduces the
bottom hole pressure caused by the weight of the column of fluid in the tubing. With sufficient aeration, the
bottom hole pressure may be reduced to a point where the well once again begins to flow.
The continuous aeration of the fluid column in the tubing will cause more oil to flow from the formation
into the wellbore and then to the surface. Over time, though, as more fluids are produced, the average
reservoir pressure decreases, requiring increasing amounts of aeration to maintain a constant production
level.
The lifting of fluids can be accomplished by either continuous or intermittent gas injection.
In continuous flow gas lift, a continuous volume of high pressure gas is introduced into the annulus and
tubing at a controlled rate, causing a continuous flow of fluids from the well ( Figure 1 ).
Figure 1
This artificial lift method is usually applied to high productivity index wells which have high bottomhole
pressures relative to their depths. For normal tubing strings, it is possible to lift from 200 to 20,000 barrels
per day per well. If, alternatively, we choose to inject gas down the tubing and produce fluid up the
annulus, it is possible to lift up to 80,000 barrels per day using continuous gas lift. When small macaroni
tubing strings are used, it is possible to obtain production rates as low as 25 barrels per day using
continuous lift. The range of continuous gas lift, then, is from 25 to 80,000 barrels per day.
The other gas lift method involves intermittent rather than continuous injection of lift gas. It is generally
applied only when a limited amount of fluid is flowing from the reservoir into the well-bore. Under these
conditions it becomes necessary to wait until the fluid volume in the wellbore builds up to a level worth
lifting ( Figure 2 ).
Figure 2
Once the fluid builds to this level, a slug of gas is injected down the annulus, through a gas lift valve and
into the tubing, where it pushes the column of fluid to the surface as a slug. Gas injection is then interrupted
until the fluid level builds up again to the appropriate level.
Cycling is regulated to coincide with the buildup of the fluid level in the wellbore. Intermittent injection
and, therefore, intermittent production, are accomplished by the use of a time cycle controller or an
adjustable choke located at the surface on the gas injection line.
Intermittent flow gas lift is ideally suited for a well which has a high productivity index but a low average
reservoir pressure or, alternatively, a well with a low productivity index but high reservoir pressure.
The major advantage of gas lift as an artificial lift mechanism is the fact that the specific gravity of gas is so
much less than that of oil or salt water. The following example illustrates this statement.
Assume that we have three 6,000-foot wells each completed with tubing on a packer and each having a
surface pressure of 100 psi ( Figure 3 ). The first well is filled with salt water, the second with oil, and the
third with gas. Our objective is to calculate the bottomhole pressure of each.
Figure 3
We begin with the well filled with salt water. The specific gravity of salt water is 1.07 which is equivalent
to a hydrostatic gradient of 0.465 psi per foot. The static bottomhole pressure for this well, then, will be:
100 + 0.465 (6000) = 2890 psi.

Now we perform the same calculations for the oil well. If the column is filled with 0.8 specific gravity oil,
with a pressure gradient of 0.346 psi per foot, then the static bottomhole pressure will be 2176 psi. This is
more than 700 pounds less than that for the well filled with salt water.
Now we turn to the gas-filled well. We are told that it has an equivalent pressure gradient of 0.069 psi per
foot. This gives a static bottomhole pressure of 514 psi, a value which is much lower than the bottom-hole
pressures of the oil- and salt water-filled wells.
The pressure profiles for the conditions obtained in each well are shown graphically in Figure 4 .
Figure 4
We see the very low bottomhole pressure that exists when a well is filled with gas. We conclude that, if we
have a well filled with oil or water and can mix the liquid column with gas, the bottom-hole pressure will
be reduced significantly. With a reduced bottomhole pressure, fluid inflow from the formation will be
increased and, perhaps, become continuous. It is the petroleum engineer’s job, then, to select the tubing
size, the gas pressure and volumes, points of injection, and frequency of injection so as to optimize the
production from the well.
Gas Lift vs. Pump-Assisted Lift
The choice between gas lift and pump-assisted lift is clearly one of the most important decisions that a
production engineer must undertake with regards to wells in need of artificial lift. Productivity, production-
induced problems and economics must be considered together.
The total pressure gradient in the well is a combination of the hydrostatic and the friction pressure drops.
As the working GLR increases, the hydrostatic pressure drop decreases but the friction pressure drop
increases. As the GLR increases further, the rate with which the total pressure drop decreases is reduced.
Eventually, at the "optimum" GLR (as it was called when the costs of gas reinjection were insignificant
compared to the benefits of incremental oil rate) the decrease in the hydrostatic pressure drop is offset by
the increase in the friction pressure drop.
Today, with production costs escalating, this GLR can no longer be considered as the "optimum" but rather
as the "limit" GLR. This physical limit may not be even near the optimum, which, instead, must relate the
incremental production rate to the additional costs of gas lift. Economic calculations are indicated.
The physical limit GLR also limits the minimum flowing bottom hole pressure which is often several
hundred psi. Pump-assisted lift with downhole pumps can reduce the flowing bottomhole pressure to a
much lower value.
Of course the latter is likely to be affected by other important production engineering considerations such
as sand production, water and/or gas coning.

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100 + 0.465 (6000) = 2890 psi.

Gas Lift vs. Pump-Assisted Lift

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