Well 

Completion & 
Production Enhancement
Gas Lift

By: Mohammad Taghizadeh
 Introduction
• Gas lift technology increases oil production rate by injection of compressed gas into the
lower section of tubing through the casing–tubing annulus and an orifice installed in the
tubing string.
• Upon entering the tubing, the compressed gas affects liquid flow in two ways:
a) the energy of expansion propels (pushes) the oil to the surface
b) the gas aerates the oil so that the effective density of the fluid is less and, thus, easier to get to
the surface
• There are four categories of wells in which a gas lift can be considered:
1. High productivity index (PI), high bottom‐hole pressure wells
2. High PI, low bottom‐hole pressure wells
3. Low PI, high bottom‐hole pressure wells
4. Low PI, low bottom‐hole pressure wells

 PI < 0.50 or less               low productivity wells. 
 PI > 0.50                           high productivity wells

2
 Introduction
• High bottom‐hole pressures will support a fluid column equal to 70% of the well depth.
• Low bottom‐hole pressures will support a fluid column less than 40% of the well depth.
• Gas lift technology has been widely used in the oil fields that produce sandy and gassy oils
• Crooked/deviated holes present no problem
• Well depth is not a limitation
• It is also applicable to offshore operations
• Lifting costs for a large number of wells are generally very low. However, it requires lift gas
within or near the oil fields
• It is usually not efficient in lifting small fields with a small number of wells if gas
compression equipment is required

3
 Gas Lift System
• A complete gas lift system consists of a 
 Gas compression station
 Gas injection manifold with injection chokes
 Time cycle surface controllers
 Tubing string with installations of unloading valves and operating valve down‐hole
chamber.

Configuration of a typical gas lift well

4
 Gas Lift System
• Advantages of using multiple valves in a well:
1. Deeper gas injection depths can be achieved by using valves for wells with fixed 
surface injection pressures.
2. Variation in the well’s productivity can be obtained by selectively injecting gas 
valves set at depths ‘‘higher’’ or ‘‘lower’’ in the tubing string.
3. Gas volumes injected into the well can be ‘‘metered’’ into the well by the valves.
4. Intermittent gas injection at progressively deeper set valves can be carried out to 
‘‘kick off’’ a well to either continuous or intermittent flow.

5
 Gas Lift System
• 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.
• Intermittent gas lift operation is characterized by a start‐and‐stop flow from the bottom
(or near bottom) of the well to the surface. This is unsteady state flow.
• In continuous gas lift, a small volume of high‐pressure gas is introduced into the tubing to
aerate or lighten the fluid column. This allows the flowing bottom‐hole pressure with the
aid of the expanding injection gas to deliver liquid to the surface. To accomplish this
efficiently, it is desirable to design a system that will permit injection through a single
valve at the greatest depth possible with the available injection pressure.
• Continuous gas lift method is used in wells with a high PI ( >=5 stb/day/psi) and a
reasonably high reservoir pressure relative to well depth.
• Intermittent gas lift method is suitable to wells with 
(1) high PI and low reservoir pressure
(2) low PI and low reservoir pressure

6
 Gas Lift System
• The type of gas lift operation used, continuous or intermittent, is also governed by the
volume of fluids to be produced, the available lift gas as to both volume and pressure, and
the well reservoir’s conditions such as the case when the high instantaneous BHP
drawdown encountered with intermittent flow would cause excessive sand production, or
coning, and/or gas into the wellbore

simplified flow diagram of a

closed rotary gas lift system
for a single well in an
intermittent gas lift operation

7
 Evaluation of Gas Lift
• Continuous gas lift can be satisfactorily applied to most wells having a reasonable degree
of bottom‐hole maintenance and a PI of approximately 0.5 bbl/day/psi or greater

• A PI as low as 0.2 bbl/day/psi can be used for a continuous gas lift operation if injection
gas is available at a sufficiently high pressure.

• An intermittent gas lift is usually applied to wells having a PI less than 0.5 bbl/day/psi.

• Continuous gas lift wells are changed to intermittent gas lift wells after reservoir pressures
drop to below a certain level. Therefore, intermittent gas lift wells usually give lower
production rates than continuous gas lift wells.

• The decision of whether to use gas lift technology for oil well production starts from
evaluating gas lift potential with continuous gas injection.

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 Evaluation of Gas Lift
• Evaluation of gas lift potential requires system analyses to determine well operating
points for various lift gas availabilities.

• The principle is based on the fact that there is only one pressure at a given point (node) in
any system; no matter, the pressure is estimated based on the information from upstream
(inflow) or downstream (outflow).

• The node of analysis is usually chosen to be the gas injection point inside the tubing,
although bottom hole is often used as a solution node.

• The potential of gas lift wells is controlled by gas injection rate or gas liquid ratio (GLR).
Four gas injection rates are significant in the operation of gas lift installations:
1. Injection rates of gas that result in no liquid (oil or water) flow up the tubing. The gas amount 
is insufficient to lift the liquid. If the gas enters the tubing at an extremely low rate, it will rise 
to the surface in small semi‐spheres (bubbly flow).

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 Evaluation of Gas Lift
2. Injection rates of maximum efficiency where a minimum volume of gas is required
to lift a given amount of liquid. (Limited Gas Supply)

2. Injection rate for maximum liquid flow rate at the ‘‘optimum GLR.’’ (Unlimited Gas
Supply)

3. Injection rate of no liquid flow because of excessive gas injection. This occurs when
the friction (pipe) produced by the gas prevents liquid from entering the tubing.

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 Evaluation of Gas Lift
• Following figure depicts a continuous
gas lift operation. The tubing is filled
with reservoir fluid below the
injection point and with the mixture
of reservoir fluid and injected gas
above the injection point.

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 Evaluation of Gas Lift
• The pressure relationship
is shown in following
figure

12
 Evaluation of Gas Lift
• The inflow performance curve for the node at the gas injection point inside the tubing is
well IPR curve minus the pressure drop from bottom hole to the node.

• The outflow performance curve is the vertical lift performance curve, with total GLR being
the sum of formation GLR and injected GLR. Intersection of the two curves defines the
operation point, that is, the well production potential.

• In a field‐scale evaluation, if an unlimited amount of lift gas is available for a given gas lift
project, the injection rate of gas to individual wells should be optimized to maximize oil
production of each well.

• If only a limited amount of gas is available for the gas lift, the gas should be distributed to
individual wells based on predicted well lifting performance, that is, the wells that will
produce oil at higher rates at a given amount of lift gas are preferably chosen to receive
more lift gas.

13
 Evaluation of Gas Lift
• If an unlimited amount of gas lift gas is available for a well, the well should receive a lift
gas injection rate that yields the optimum GLR in the tubing so that the flowing bottom‐
hole pressure is minimized, and thus, oil production is maximized.

• The optimum GLR is liquid flow rate dependent and can be found from traditional
gradient curves such as those generated by Gilbert (Gilbert, 1954). Similar curves can be
generated with modern computer programs using various multiphase correlations such as
modified Hagedorn and Brown method (Brown, 1977)

• It can be used for predicting the optimum GLR in tubing at a given tubing head pressure
and liquid flow rate.

• After the system analysis is completed with the optimum GLRs in the tubing above the
injection point, the expected liquid production rate (well potential) is known. The
required injection GLR to the well can be calculated by:

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 Evaluation of Gas Lift

Then the required gas injection rate to the well can by calculated by:

where qo is the expected operating liquid flow rate

If a limited amount of gas lift gas is available for a well, the well potential should be estimated 
based on GLR expressed as

where qg is the lift gas injection rate (scf/day) available to 
the well.

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 Evaluation of Gas Lift
Example:
• An oil well has a pay zone around the mid‐perf depth of 5,200 ft. The formation oil has a
gravity of 26 API and GLR of 300 scf/stb. Water cut remains 0%. The IPR of the well is
expressed as

• A 21⁄2 ‐in. tubing (2.259 in. inside diameter [ID]) can be set with a packer at 200 ft above
the mid‐perf. What is the maximum expected oil production rate from the well with
continuous gas lift at a wellhead pressure of 200 psia if
a) an unlimited amount of lift gas is available for the well?
b) only 1 MMscf/day of lift gas is available for the well?

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 Evaluation of Gas Lift
Solution:
• A) The maximum oil production rate is expected when the gas injection point is set right
above the packer. Assuming that the pressure losses due to friction below the injection
point are negligible, the inflow‐performance curve for the gas injection point (inside
tubing) can be expressed as:

where Pvf is the pressure at the gas injection point

GR is the pressure gradient of the reservoir fluid
D is the pay zone depth
DV is the depth of the gas injection point

API = 26      so            GR=0.39 psi/ft

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 Evaluation of Gas Lift
• The outflow performance curve for the gas injection point can be determined based on
2.259‐in. tubing ID, 200 psia wellhead pressure, and the GLRs.

• Optimum GLR using modern computer programs such as modified Hagedorn and Brown
method will be:

• Using these data and Hagedorn Brown‐ Correlation gives:

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Evaluation of Gas Lift

19
 Evaluation of Gas Lift
• Calculation of IPR using following equations will result the following graph

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 Evaluation of Gas Lift
• The optimum GLR at the operating point is calculated with interpolation as

The injection GLR is

Then the required gas injection rate to the well can be calculated:

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 Evaluation of Gas Lift
• B) For a given amount of lift gas 1 MMscf/day, the GLR can be calculated with Eq

Using these data and Hagedorn and Brown Correlation gives:

22
 Evaluation of Gas Lift

This example shows that increasing the gas injection rate from 1 MMscf/day to 1.58
MMscf/day will not make a significant difference in the oil production rate.

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 Gas Lift Gas Compression Requirements
• The gas compression station should be designed to provide an adequate gas lift gas flow
rate at sufficiently high pressure.

• These gas flow rates and output pressures determine the required power of the
compression station.

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 Gas Lift Gas Compression Requirements 
(Gas Flow Rate Requirement)
• The total gas flow rate of the compression station should be designed on the basis of gas
lift at peak operating condition for all the wells with a safety factor for system leak
consideration, that is:

• The procedure for determination of lift gas injection rate qg,inj to each well has been
illustrated in previous section

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 Gas Lift Gas Compression Requirements 
(Output Gas Pressure Requirement)
• Kickoff of a dead well (non‐natural flowing) requires much higher compressor output
pressures than the ultimate goal of steady production (either by continuous gas lift or by
intermittent gas lift operations).

• Mobil compressor trailers are used for the kickoff operations.

• The output pressure of the compression station should be designed on the basis of the 
gas distribution pressure under normal flow conditions, not the kickoff conditions.

• It can be expressed as

26
 Gas Lift Gas Compression Requirements 
(Output Gas Pressure Requirement)
• Starting from the tubing pressure at the valve (Pt,v), the pressure at the inlet of the gas
distribution line can be estimated based on the relationships of pressures along the
injection path. These relationships are discussed in the following subsections.

• Injection Pressure at Valve Depth

• The injection pressure at valve depth in the casing side can be expressed as

• It is a common practice to use ∆ Pv= 100 psi

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 Gas Lift Gas Compression Requirements 
(Output Gas Pressure Requirement)
• Injection Pressure at Surface
• Accurate determination of the surface injection pressure Pc,s requires rigorous methods
such as the Cullender and Smith method (Katz et al., 1959).

• The average temperature and compressibility factor method also gives results with
acceptable accuracy.

• In both methods, the frictional pressure losses in the annulus are considered. However,
because of the large cross‐sectional area of the annular space, the frictional pressure
losses are often negligible. Then the average temperature and compressibility factor
model degenerates to (Economides et al., 1994)

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 Gas Lift Gas Compression Requirements 
(Output Gas Pressure Requirement)
• Equation can be rearranged to be

• Since the z factor also depends on pc,s, this equation can be solved for pc,s with a trial‐
and‐error approach

• Because equation involves exponential function that is difficult to handle without a

calculator, an approximation to the equation has been used traditionally.

• In fact, when is expended as a Taylor series, and if common fluid properties for a natural
gas and reservoir are considered such as , it can be
approximated as

29
 Gas Lift Gas Compression Requirements 
(Output Gas Pressure Requirement)
• Neglecting the pressure losses between injection choke and the casing head, the pressure
downstream of the choke (Pdn) can be assumed to be the casing surface injection
pressure, that is,

30
 Gas Lift Gas Compression Requirements 
(Pressure Upstream of the Choke)
• The pressure upstream of the injection choke depends on flow condition at the choke,
that is, sonic or subsonic flow.

• Whether a sonic flow exists depends on a downstream‐to upstream pressure ratio.

• If this pressure ratio is less than a critical pressure ratio, sonic (critical) flow exists.

• If this pressure ratio is greater than or equal to the critical pressure ratio, subsonic
(subcritical) flow exists.

• As discussed before The critical pressure ratio through chokes is expressed as

where k = Cp/Cv is the gas‐specific heat ratio.
The value of the k is about 1.28 for natural gas.
Thus, the critical pressure ratio is about 0.55.
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 Gas Lift Gas Compression Requirements 
(Pressure Upstream of the Choke)
• Sonic Flow
• Under sonic flow conditions, the gas passage rate reaches and remains its maximum
value. The gas passage rate is expressed in the following equation for ideal gases:

(I)
• The choke flow coefficient Cc can be determined using charts in Choke Performance
section for nozzle‐ and orifice‐type chokes, respectively.

32
 Gas Lift Gas Compression Requirements 
(Pressure Upstream of the Choke)

• The following correlation has been found to give reasonable accuracy for Reynolds
numbers between 104 and 106 for nozzle‐type chokes (Guo and Ghalambor, 2005):

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 Gas Lift Gas Compression Requirements 
(Pressure Upstream of the Choke)
• Above equation indicates that the upstream pressure is independent of downstream
pressure under sonic flow conditions. If it is desirable to make a choke work under sonic
flow conditions, the upstream pressure should meet the following condition:

(II)
• Once the pressure upstream of the choke/orifice is determined by equation (II), the
required choke/orifice diameter can be calculated with equation (I) using a trial‐and‐error
approach
• Subsonic Flow
• Under subsonic flow conditions, gas passage through a choke can be expressed as
If it is desirable to make a choke
work under subsonic flow
conditions, the upstream
pressure should be determined
from equation with a trial‐and‐
error method.
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 Gas Lift Gas Compression Requirements 
(Pressure of the Gas Distribution Line)
• The pressure at the inlet of gas distribution line can be calculated using the Weymouth
equation for horizontal flow (Weymouth, 1912):

• Equation can be rearranged to solve for pressure:

35
 Gas Lift Gas Compression Requirements
• Example:
• An oil field has 16 oil wells to be gas lifted. The gas lift gas at the central compressor
station is first pumped to two injection manifolds with 4‐in. ID, 1‐mile lines and then is
distributed to the wellheads with 4‐in. ID, 0.2‐mile lines. Given the following data,
calculate the required output pressure of compression station:

36
 Gas Lift Gas Compression Requirements
• Solution:
• Using , the injection pressure at valve depth is then 600 psia. Then casing
pressure at surface will be:

• Neglecting the pressure losses between the injection choke and the casing head, pressure
downstream of the choke (Pdn) can be assumed to be the surface injection pressure, that
is,

• Assuming minimum sonic flow at the injection choke, the pressure upstream of the choke 
is calculated as:

37
 Gas Lift Gas Compression Requirements
• The gas flow rate in each of the two gas distribution lines is (2)(16)/(2), or 16 MMscf/day.
Using the trial‐and‐error method,

• The required output pressure of the compressor is determined to be

38
 Gas Lift Valve
• Kickoff of a dead well requires a much higher gas pressure than the ultimate operating
pressure.

• Because of the kickoff problem, gas lift valves have been developed and are run as part of
the overall tubing string.

• These valves permit the introduction of gas (which is usually injected down the annulus)
into the fluid column in tubing at intermediate depths to unload the well and initiate well
flow.

• Proper design of these valve depths to unsure unloading requires a thorough

understanding of the unloading process and valve characteristics.

39
 Unloading Sequence
• Usually all valves are open at the initial condition, due to high tubing pressures

• The fluid in tubing has a pressure gradient Gs of static liquid column

• When the gas enters the first (top) valve, it creates a slug of liquid–gas mixture of less
density in the tubing above the valve depth. Expansion of the slug pushes the liquid
column above it to flow to the surface.

• It can also cause the liquid in the bottom hole to flow back to reservoir if no check valve
is installed at the end of the tubing string.

40
 Unloading Sequence
• However, as the length of the light slug grows due to gas injection, the bottom‐hole
pressure will eventually decrease to below reservoir pressure, which causes inflow of
reservoir fluid.

• When the tubing pressure at the depth of the first valve is low enough, the first valve
should begin to close and the gas should be forced to the second valve.

41
 Unloading Sequence
• Gas injection to the second valve will gasify the liquid in the tubing between the first and
the second valve. This will further reduce bottom‐hole pressure and cause more inflow.

• By the time the slug reaches the depth of the first valve, the first valve should be closed,
allowing more gas to be injected to the second valve.

• The same process should occur until the gas enters the main valve

42
 Selection of Gas Lift Valve
• The main valve (sometimes called the master valve or operating valve) is usually the lower
most valve in the tubing string.

• It is an orifice type of valve that never closes.

• In continuous gas lift operations, once the well is fully unloaded and a steady‐state flow is
established, the main valve is the only valve open and in operation

• Different types of unloading valves:
 Casing pressure‐operated valve (usually called a pressure valve)
 Throttling pressure valve (also called a proportional valve or continuous flow valve)
 Fluid‐operated valve (also called a fluid valve)
 Combination valve (also called a fluid open‐pressure closed valve).

43
 Valve Spacing
• Various methods are being used in the industry for designing depths of valves of different
types
 universal design method
 the API‐recommended method
 fallback method
 percent load method

• However, the basic objective should be the same:

To be able to open unloading valves with kickoff and injection operating pressures
To ensure single‐point injection during unloading and normal operating conditions
To inject gas as deep as possible

• No matter which method is used, the following principles apply:

 The design tubing pressure at valve depth is between gas injection pressure (loaded condition) and the
minimum tubing pressure (fully unloaded condition).
 Depth of the first valve is designed on the basis of kickoff pressure from a special compressor for well kickoff
operations.
 Depths of other valves are designed on the basis of injection operating pressure.
 Kickoff casing pressure margin, injection operating casing pressure margin, and tubing transfer pressure
margin are used to consider the following effects:
o Pressure drop across the valve
o Tubing pressure effect of the upper valve
o Nonlinearity of the tubing flow gradient curve.
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 Valve Spacing
• Different procedures are used with the universal design method:
 Design procedure using constant surface opening pressure for pressure‐operated valves.
 Design procedure using 10‐ to 20‐psi drop in surface closing pressures between valves for pressure‐operated valves.
 Design procedure for fluid‐operated valves.
 Design procedure for combination of pressure‐closed fluid‐opened values.

• Following figure illustrates a graphical solution procedure of valve spacing using constant
surface opening pressure for pressure‐operated valves. The arrows in the figure depict the
sequence of line drawing.

For a continuous‐flow gas lift, the analytical solution

procedure is outlined as follows:

1. Starting from a desired wellhead pressure phf at

surface, compute a flowing tubing‐pressure traverse
under fully unloaded condition. This can be done
using various two phase flow correlations such as the
modified Hagedorn– Brown correlation

45
 Valve Spacing
• 2. Starting from a design wellhead pressure Phf,d=Phf+∆Phf,d at surface, where ∆Phf can be taken
as 0.25 Pc,s establish a design tubing line meeting the flowing tubing‐pressure traverse at
tubing shoe. Pressures in this line, denoted by Ptd, represent tubing pressure after adjustment
for tubing pressure margin. Gradient of this line is denoted by Gfd. Set ∆Phf=0 if tubing pressure
margin is not required

• 3. Starting from a desired injection operating pressure pc at surface, compute a injection

operating pressure line. This can be done using Eq.

or

• 4. Starting from Pcs‐∆Pcm at surface, where the casing pressure margin ∆Pcm can be taken as 50
psi, establish a design casing line parallel to the injection operating pressure line. Pressures in
this line, denoted by Pcd, represent injection pressure after adjustment for casing pressure
margin. Set ∆Pcm =0 if the casing pressure margin is not required as in the case of using the
universal design method

46
 Valve Spacing
• 5. Starting from available kickoff surface pressure Pk,s, establish kickoff casing pressure
line. This can be done using Eq.

or

• 6. Starting from Pk‐∆Pkm at surface, where the kickoff pressure margin ∆Pkm can be taken
as 50 psi, establish a design kickoff line parallel to the kickoff casing pressure line.
Pressures in this line, denoted Pkd, represent kickoff pressure after adjustment for kickoff
pressure margin. Set ∆Pkm =0 if kickoff casing pressure margin is not required.

• 7. Calculate depth of the first valve. Based on the fact that Phf+GsD1=Pkd1, the depth of the 
top valve is expressed as

47
 Valve Spacing

• Applying equation

• When the static liquid level is below the depth calculated by use above equation, the first
valve is placed at a depth slightly deeper than the static level. If the static liquid level is
known, then

• where Ds is the static level and S1 is the submergence of the valve below the static level. 

48
 Valve Spacing
• Calculate the depths to other valves. Based on the fact that 

• the depth of valve 2 is expressed as

• Applying equation

49
 Valve Spacing
• Solving above equation

• Similarly, the depth to the third valve is

• Thus, a general equation for depth of valve i is

50
 Valve Spacing
Example:
• Only 1 MMscf/day of lift gas is available for the well described in the Example 1 (p15). If
1,000 psia is available to kick off the well and then a steady injection pressure of 800 psia
is maintained for gas lift operation against a wellhead pressure of 130 psia, design
locations of unloading and operating valves. Assume a casing pressure margin of 50 psi.

• Solution:
• The hydrostatic pressure of well fluid (26 API oil) is (0.39 psi/ft) (5,200 ft), or 2,028 psig,
which is greater than the given reservoir pressure of 2,000 psia. Therefore, the well does
not flow naturally. The static liquid level depth is estimated to be

• Depth of the top valve is calculated with Eq

51
 Valve Spacing

• Tubing pressure margin at surface is (0.25)(800), or 200 psi. The modified Hagedorn–
Brown correlation gives tubing pressure of 591 psia at depth of 5,000 ft. The design
tubing flowing gradient is Gfd = [591 ‐ (130 + 200)]/(5,000) or 0.052 psi/ft. Depth of the
second valve is calculated with Eq

52
Valve Spacing

53
 Valve Sizing
• Gas lift valves are sized on the basis of required gas passage through the valve. 

• Unloading and operating valves (orifices) are sized on the basis of subcritical (subsonic 
flow) that occurs when the pressure ratio Pt/Pc is greater than the critical pressure ratio 
defined in the right‐hand side of equation

• The value of the k is about 1.28 for natural gas. Thus, the critical pressure ratio is about 
0.55.

• We had already   

• Rearranging Eq.

54
 Valve Sizing
• Since the flow coefficient C is port‐diameter dependent, a trial‐and‐error method is 
required to get a solution.
• A conservative C value is 0.6 for orifice‐type valve ports.
• Once the required port area is determined, the port diameter can then be calculated by
and up‐rounded off to the nearest 1⁄16 in.

• The values of the port area to bellows area ratio R are fixed for given valve sizes and port 
diameters by valve manufacturers. 

55
 Valve Sizing
• Example:
• Size port for the data given below:

56
 Valve Sizing
• Solution:

57