Well Performance

compares the formation (geothermal) temperature with the fluid temperature during production. In general, the higher the production rate, the hotter the fluid will be at any given depth (since the increase in the (rate of) supply of energy (heat) is proportional to the production increase while the heat losses from the wellbore by thermal conductivity etc. are a only function of the temperature difference between the well and the surroundings i.e. independent of the production rate. This temperature change will effect the average fluid properties - which in turn will alter the pressure drop calculation (and hence the temperature change). A full simulation of flow in a well thus requires a coupling of the fluid temperature prediction model with the pressure calculation. This temperature model may range from a simple analytical equation to a rigorous numerical description of heat flows. The coupling of temperature and pressure requires an iterative procedure for their calculation. Figure 30 charts the pressure (inner) and temperature (outer) loops.

START
Given P1,T1,H1,DL,q Estimate T & P

Outer Loop
P2 = P1+PEST T2 = T1+T

T=T1+T/2 Calculate HEST

Inner Loop
P=P1+P/2 P = PEST Calculate H2 H = H2_H1

Calculate Fluid Props. Calculate PEST

| HEST _ H |< H YES

NO

Tnew = Told.HEST/Hold P = PEST

NO

| PEST _ P |<P

YES

Figure 30 Pressure and temperature calculation

STOP
P and H are the allowable differences in the calculations between successive iterations

1.9 SURFACE PRESSURE LOSSES

1.9.1 Surface Components The principal surface system pressure loss is often the surface choke. This is an optional pressure loss in the sense that it is designed into the well completion in order to control the well flow rate and the pressures to which the surface equipment is exposed. The choke can be eliminated completely when the wellhead pressure has been depleted to such an extent that economic flow rates can only be achieved by lowering the wellhead pressure to its minimum value. A second source of pressure losses in the surface system is the flow line. It should be remembered that flow line pressure losses are not only related to the length, diameter and wall roughness of this pipe; but that additional pressure losses will occur in pipe fittings (T-pieces, elbows, etc) and valves. These additional pressure losses are
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accounted for as an increase in the effective length of the pipeline. These increases can be quite substantial e.g. the pressure losses in some types of valve - especially when only partly open - can be up to several hundred times the pipe inner diameter. Excessive flow line pressure losses can be reduced by installing a parallel, or looped, flow line in order to reduce the fluids flowing velocity. (This is an option not available within the well!) Modeling of looped pipelines is relatively simple for single-phase flow; since the flow will divide itself between the two branches so that there is an equal pressure drop along the two pipelines. The looped pipeline constructed from individual flow lines of diameters d1 and d2 will behave in a similar manner to a single pipe with an effective diameter of (d12.5 + d22.5)0.4 (this assumes that the same fluid properties and friction factors apply to both branches). The above concept is not appropriate for multiphase flow since the liquid and gas phases are unlikely to split equally between the two branches - often most of the liquid will go into one branch while most of the gas will be diverted to the second one. The mass split ratio between the two lines is difficult to predict - it will depend on the exact arrangement of the T piece and the Reynolds number associated with the flow in each line. Thus a lower flow velocity and a T junction design where the loop flow lines are not at the same elevation, will result in most of the denser, liquid flow going into the downward pointing line. 1.9.2 Flow Through Chokes Flow from a well often has to be controlled for reasons such as: (i) limitation of the drawdown to prevent water coning, gas cusping or sand production; (ii) dissipation of well energy to meet pressure limitations of the downstream surface production equipment etc; (iii) control of well production rates to meet regulatory, reservoir management or production equipment constraints. Chokes differ from other completion equipment in that they are designed to produce a pressure loss while other components, such as subsurface safety valves, are designed so that their presence has a minimal effect on the total system pressure losses. Commonly employed chokes (Figure 31) disturb the fluid flow pattern by use of a fixed bean, an adjustable rod (which (partly) blocks an orifice) and a rotating disc. Chokes achieve the desired pressure loss by restricting the flow diameter and acceleration of the flowing fluid. The phenomenon of critical flow occurs once this acceleration in the throat of the choke is sufficient that the flowing fluids sonic velocity is exceeded.

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Well Performance

Replacable Fixed Restriction or Bean

Direction of Flow

Fixed Choke
Direction of Flow

Adjustable Rod

Adjustable Rod

Direction of Flow

Direction of Flow

Replaceable Orifice

Replaceable Orifice

Adjustable Choke
Fully Open Choked Flow

Rotating Discs

Fully Opened

Throttling

Fully Closed

Figure 31 Example of surface choke designs

Rotating Disc Choke

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 wells performance (upstream of the choke) can thus be decoupled from events occurring in the downstream flow line and separation system. This has obvious advantages when trying to control the wells performance.

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Eddy Currents lead to irreversible pressure losses

Upstream Pressure (Pu) Gas Flow Rate (Q)

D2

Downstream Pressure (Pd)

D1

Abrubt Restriction Vena Contracta Abrubt Enlargement Leads to Leads to Low Velocity Flow High Velocity Flow and Low Pressure and (incomplete) Pressure Recovery

Pressure ratio (Pu / Pd)

Flow

2.0

al

F lo

Critical

Pu

1.0

Sub

-C

rit

Mass Flow Rate of Gas

Figure 32 Critical and sub-critical flow through a choke

Figure 32 sketches the fluid flow pattern through the choke and the resulting flow behaviour. The top part of the figure shows how the choke represents an abrupt restriction in the fluid flow in the pipe. 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 had been lost during passage through the choke. Full pressure recovery is not normally experienced since there are irreversible pressure losses due to eddy currents which create disengagement and reattachment of the flowlines to the pipeline wall. The bottom section of this figure shows how the flow rate through the choke is related to the ratio: {(upstream pressure (Pu) / downstream pressure (Pd)}. For sub critical flow conditions, the flow rate will increase with decreasing downstream pressure {or increasing (Pu/Pd) ratio} until this ratio is sufficiently large that critical flow occurs. The ratio (Pu/Pd) normally has a value of the about 2 at this point - the exact figure will depend on the properties of the flowing fluid, as discussed below - with critical flow continues to occur for all higher (Pu/Pd) ratios.
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Well Performance

The mass flow rate under critical flow conditions is independent of the upstream pressure for incompressible (liquid) flow. By contrast, it will depend on the upstream pressure when a compressible fluid (gas) is flowing. Single-phase critical flow typically occurs when the (P /P ) ratio is greater than 1.5. Critical flow in multi-phase u d mixtures requires a somewhat greater pressure ratio; (P /P ) typically having a value u d of between 2.0 and 3.0. 1.9.2.1 Single Phase Subcritical Liquid Flow Single phase, liquid flow is described by:

Q = C * CD * D2

PU PD

where: PU = Upstream Pressure PD = Downstream Pressure D2 = Choke Diameter CD = the flow discharge coefficient through the choke, C = a constant depending on the units employed and = the density. The choke manufacturer normally supplies a choke performance chart or correlation that relates the discharge coefficient (CD) to the diameter of the choke (D2) and the Reynolds Number. 1.9.2.2 Single Phase Gas Flow It is relatively simple to derive equations describing the isentropic flow of an ideal gas through a choke. These can be found in the standard text books on the subject. It can be shown that:

PU + 1 = 2 PD c
where:

+1

{Pu/Pd}c = the ratio of the up and downstream pressures at which critical flow occurs, and = the ratio of the gas heat capacities at constant pressure and constant volume {or (Cp/Cv)}. has a value of approximately 1.4 for diatomic gasses such as air. Hence the critical pressure ratio is 1.89, confirming the values quoted above and illustrated in Figure 32. 1.9.2.3 Multiphase Flow Critical Flow Rate Multiphase (gas-liquid) flow is not easily described theoretically - empirical correlations have been developed by a number of investigators which are all of the form:
c Pu = b * Q L * R a D 64

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where: Pu QL D64 R a,b, & c = = = = = the upstream pressure (psig, except for Ros who uses the unit psia) the liquid critical flow rate (Stb/d) the choke diameter (64th of an inch) the gas / liquid ratio (scf/STB) and are constants given in Table 5.
Correlation
Ros Gilbert Achong Ausseens Baxendell

a
2.00 1.89 1.88 1.97 1.93

b
17.40 10.00 3.82 3.86 9.56

c
0.500 0.546 0.650 0.680 0.546

Table 5 Flow through chokes empirical choke correlations

The effect of changing the choke size on well production and flow system pressure losses can be studied using the Nodal analysis technique (see section 1.12). The upstream side of the choke is normally chosen as the Node. The Wellhead Performance (or combination of the wells Inflow Performance and Tubing Performance Relationships) is the upstream, inflow component to the node and the choke, flowlines and separator are the downsteam, outflow component. A typical result from such a calculation is shown in Figure 33. This shows an operating point of 460 b/d for a 16/64 in choke increasing to 1370 b/d for a 40/64 in. choke.

1200

Choke size 16/64 in.

Node pressure (psi)

24/64 in. 800 Well head performance 32/64 in. 400 40/64 in.

0 0

sub critical flow 750 Well production (bfd) 1500

Figure 33 Choke performance curves

1.9.3 Gathering System Layout The layout of the surface facilities and flow lines is important for land fields where, typically (near) vertical wells are drilled at a relatively small interwell spacing. The wellhead locations thus reflect the subsurface locations - the resulting grid pattern being illustrated in Figure 34 and 35. Connection of each wellhead directly to a local gathering stations with primary separation facilities (Figure 34) results in each well being connected by a short length of flowline directly to the primary separator. This allows lower wellhead pressures than the alternative (Figure 35) where the wells are tied into a common pipeline.
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Well Performance

Export pipeline Well head Gathering station Main processing facility

Figure 34 Oil field developed with local gathering station

Trunk line Well head to gathering station flow line

Export pipeline Well head

Figure 35 Oil field developed with single processing facility only

Main processing facility Trunk line Local gathering line to trunk line

Flowline pressure drops are thus much larger in the Figure 35 case, unless wide diameter pipes are installed e.g. a 50% increase in flow rate can sometimes lead to a 300% increase in the frictional pressure loss across a section of pipe. The increase in flow rate in the gathering system as one gets nearer the separator means that wells with a more direct connection to the separator can be produced at a lower wellhead pressure. The performance of each well thus has a much greater impact on its neighbours compared to the installation of a local gathering station (Figure 34).

1.10 Completions Inflow Performance

Well performance prediction programs require that the Inflow Performance Relationship is specified. This is normally in the form of a Productivity Index value. For existing wells this value can be obtained from analysis of a Well test, Production Logging Survey etc. A model of the completion, in conjunction with either a straight
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