University Of Zakho

Petroleum Engineering
Department Stage 4

Introduction to IPR and VLP

Prepared by:
1
Anwar Saeed
Barham Salih
Hammo Ali
Nazeer Alyas Supervised by: Mr.Barham
2 Contents

 Inflow Performance Relationship

 Darcy,s Law
 Energy Balance Equation
 Vertical Lift Performance Relationship (VLP) and Inflow Performance Relationship
(IPR) Comparison
 References
 Productivity Index
 Vogel’s Inflow Performance Relationship
 Comparison Between Vogel’s Model and PI (J) model for IPR calculation
 Vertical Lift Performance Relationship (VLP)
3
Inflow Performance Relationship (IPR)

 IPR is mathematical tool used in production engineering to assess well performance by

plotting the well production rate against the flowing bottomhole pressure (BHP).
 The data required to create the IPR are obtained by measuring the production rates under
various drawdown pressures.
 The reservoir fluid composition and behavior of the fluid phases under flowing conditions
determine the shape of the curve.
 Inflow Performance Relationship (IPR) is defined as the well flowing bottom-hole pressure
(Pwf) as a function of production rate.
 It describes the flow in the reservoir.
 The Pwf is defined in the pressure range between the average reservoir pressure and
atmospheric pressure.
4
Inflow Performance Relationship (IPR)

 Well Inflow Performance represents the relationship between pressure and flow rate at the
well face of an individual well.
 The scientist Darcy was the first studied extensively the relationship between pressure and
flow rate, his experimental studies consist on creating a pressure differential across a
porous media and measured the resulting flow rate.
5
Inflow Performance Relationship (IPR)
 A typical inflow performance relationship is presented in the following graph:
 The intersection of the PI plot with
the x-axis is the flow rate corresponding
to a Pwf equal to zero, this point in the
Flow (AOF) potential of the well, at that
 The intersection of the PI plot with the
Y-axis indicates reservoir pressure (Pr).
pressure flow rate (Q) Is maximum.
IPR plot is known as the Absolute Open
6
Darcy’s Law

 Darcy’s experiments result in what is known as “Darcy’s law”. For general flow through a
porous media:

 The Darcy’s law can be written for any geometry, but radial flow geometry is the one of
most interest to the production engineer dealing with single well issues.
 For radial flow geometry, Darcy’s law is:
7
Productivity Index

 For a particular well, we can assume that h, Pr, Pwf, re, rw, B0, k0 and µ0 are constant,
Thus replaced by K:
 Qo = K (Pr – Pwf)
 The constant K is known as Productivity index or simply “PI”. PI is often called J in some
textbooks.
 The productivity index (PI) is equal to the liquid flow rate divided by the well drawdown
(Pr-Pwf).
 Qo = PI (Pr – Pwf) , or Pwf = (-1/PI) Qo + Pr
 The maximum flow rate occurs at the maximum drawdown (Pwf=0).
 PI = Qmax / (Pr – 0) Then: Qmax = Pr × PI
 Unit of (PI) = bbl/day/psi
8
Vogel’s inflow performance relationship
 Vogel established an empirical relationship ( Vogel’s inflow performance relationship )for
flowrate prediction of a solution gas-drive reservoir in terms of the wellbore pressure based on
reservoir simulation results.
 Productivity of an oil well draining a solution-gas drive reservoir was investigated by Vogel
using numerical simulation, total of 21 simulations covering a wide range of oil, PVT properties,
and relative permeabilities were made.
 By using dimensionless pressures and rates, Vogel found well productivity could be described
by:

 Where Q is oil production rate in STB/day, Qmax is maximum oil production rate in STB/day,
Pwf is bottomhole flowing pressure in psig, and Pr is average reservoir pressure in psig.
9 Comparison Between Vogel’s Model and PI
(J) model for IPR calculation
 The PI model works very well for single phase fluid (water, oil, or water/oil) flowing into a
wellbore, even though water and oil are two separate phases, they are considered as a
single phase since they are both liquid.
 Compared to liquid, gas has much higher permeability and much lower viscosity, these two
factors will give the gas a much higher flow rate than liquid inside the reservoir.
 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 and reduces flow of oil. This effect is
quantified by:
 A decrease of oil Relative permeability
 An increase of oil viscosity (as its solution gas content drops)
 Therefore, the combination of the relative permeability effect and the viscosity effect
results in lower oil production rate at a given bottom-hole pressure.
10 Comparison Between Vogel’s Model and PI
(J) model for IPR calculation
 The figure in the right shows the IPR curve
of a reservoir with a pressure lower that the
Bubble point pressure (Pr<Pb) by both PI
(constant J method) Represented by the red
dashed line and vogel’s model represented by
that PI model for pressures below the
bubble-poin pressure.

the blue line, from this figure we conclude that

Vogel’s model is more accurate and better
11
Vertical Lift Performance Relationship (VLP)

 Vertical Lift Performance Relationship (VLP), named also Outflow, describes the bottom-
hole pressure as a function of flow rate.
 The VLP depends on many factors including fluid PVT properties, well depth, tubing size,
surface pressure, water cut and GOR.
 It describes the flow from the bottom-hole of the well to the wellhead.
 Vertical Lift Performance curve is a relationship between the flow rate and the pressure.
 VLP curve shows how much pressure required to lift a certain amount of fluid to the
surface at the given well head pressure.
12
Vertical Lift Performance Relationship (VLP)
The figure in the right is a wellbore schematic. We have the reservoir,
perforations, bottomhole, completion string and the wellhead.

The depth of the well is h. The two pressure points of importance are
flowing bottom hole pressure FBHP and flowing well head pressure
FWHP.

To build the VLP curve we need to calculate the bottom hole pressure
given the well head pressure for the different well rates in a range form
0 to AOF, to do it we need to solve the Energy balance equation.
13
Energy Balance Equation

 This equation relates the pressure to the distance for the given mass.
 It has 3 terms: Gravity, Friction and Kinetic.
 To find the required lift pressure we need to integrate this equation over the fluid’s travel
distance.
 All available VLP correlations are solving the same equation.
 The differences are usually in the way how the friction term is calculated.
14 Vertical Lift Performance Relationship (VLP) and Inflow
Performance Relationship (IPR) Comparison
 Both the Inflow Performance Relationship and the Vertical Lift Performance Relationship
relate the wellbore flowing pressure to the surface production rate.
 While the IPR represents what the reservoir can deliver to the bottom hole, the VLP
represents what the well can deliver to the surface.
 The intersection of the IPR with the VLP
Is called the operating point, yields the well
will actually produce for a given operating
condition (Pr, PI, WC, GOR, THP, Tubing size…)
 deliverability, an expression of what a well
15 The figure below shows the difference
between IPR and VLP
16 References

 https://production-technology.org/introduction-ipr-vlp/#:~:text=Vertical%20Lift
%20Performance%20Relationship%20(VLP,a%20function%20of%20flow
%20rate.&text=It%20describes%20the%20flow%20from,the%20well%20to%20the
%20wellhead.https://production-technology.org/vogels-inflow-performance-relationship/

 https://wiki.pengtools.com/index.php?title=VLP

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Thank You