Petroleum Production Optimization

Petroleum Production Analysis

Learning Outcomes
At the end of this lecture, students should be able to :
Analyze the performance of the petroleum system.

Introduction
Production wells are drilled and completed to move the oil and gas from
its original location in the reservoir to the stock tank.
Movement or transport of these fluids requires energy to overcome
friction losses in the system and to lift the products to the surface.
The fluids must travel through the reservoir and the piping system and
ultimately flow into a separator for gas-liquid separation.
The production system can be relatively simple or can include many
components in which energy or pressure losses occur.
Figure 1 shows a diagram of a complex production system, which
illustrates a number of components in which pressure losses occur.

Introduction

Figure 1. Possible pressure losses in complete system

Introduction
The pressure drop in the total system at any time will be:

This pressure drop is the sum of the pressure drops occurring in all of
the components of the system.
Since the pressure drop through any component varies with the
producing rate, the producing rate will be controlled by the components
selected.
The selection and sizing of the individual components is very important,
whereby changes in the pressure drop in one may change the pressure
drop and behavior in others.

Introduction Examples of Design Failure

Large amounts of money have been wasted on stimulating the formation
when the wells producing capacity was actually restricted because the
tubing or flowline was too small.

Errors in completion design whereby too large tubing is installed (for

expected high rate producing wells).
Oversizing the equipment not only wastes money but tubing that is too
large can reduce the rate at which the well will flow (well load up with
liquids and die).
This may require the use of artificial lift equipment.

System Analysis Approach

System analysis approach, often called NODAL Analysis, has been applied
for many years to analyze the performance of systems composed of
interacting components.

The procedure consists of selecting a node in the well and dividing the
system at this point.
The locations of the most commonly used nodes are shown in Figure 2.
All of the components upstream of the node comprise the inflow section,
while the outflow section consists of all the components downstream of
the node.

System Analysis Approach

The location of the most commonly used nodes are shown below:

Figure 2. Location of various nodes

System Analysis Approach

Once the node is selected, the node pressure is calculated from both
directions starting at the fixed pressures.
Inflow to the node :
=

Outflow from the node:

+ =

System Analysis Approach

The pressure drop, p, in any component varies with flow rate, Q.
A plot of node pressure versus flow rate produces two curves, the
intersections of which will give the operating point of the system.

Figure 3. Determination of flow capacity

System Analysis Approach

The effect of change in any of the components can be analyzed by
recalculating the node pressure versus flowrate using new characteristics
of the component.
If a change was made in an upstream component, the outflow curve will
remain unchanged.
If either curve is changed, the intersection will be shifted and a new flow
capacity and node pressure will exist.
The curves will also be shifted if either of the fixed pressures are changed
which may occur with depletion or a change in separation conditions.

System Analysis Approach

The effect on the flow capacity of changing the tubing size is illustrated
in Figure 4.

Figure 4. Effect of tubing size.

System Analysis Approach

The effect on the flow capacity of changing in flowline size is illustrated
in Figure 5.

Figure 5. Effect of flowline size.

System Analysis Approach

The effect on the flow capacity of changing tubing size is illustrated in
Figure 6.

Figure 6. Effect of tubing size.

Production Optimization
A producing system may be optimized by selecting the combination of
component characteristics that will give the maximum production rate
for the lowest cost.

The overall pressure drop available for a system is Pr Psep, however,

the producing capacity of the system depends on where the pressure
drops occur.
If too much pressure drop occurs in one component, there may be
insufficient pressure drop remaining for efficient performance of the
other components.
This is illustrated in Figure 7 for a system in which the tubing is too
small.

Production Optimization
For this type of well completion, it is obvious that improving the reservoir
performance by stimulation would be a waste of effort unless larger
tubing is installed.

Figure 7: Well restricted by piping system

Production Optimization
Figure 8 shows the well performance which is controlled by the
inflow.

Figure 8: Well restricted by inflow (Beggs 2003)

Production Optimization
Figure 9 shows a quantitative example of selecting the optimum tubing
size for a well that is producing both gas and liquids.

Figure 9. Effect of tubing size

Production Optimization
Figure 10 shows the quantitative effect of perforating density on the
inflow.

Figure 10.Effect of perforating density on inflow

Procedure For Applying NODAL Analysis

1) Determine which components in the system can be changed.
2) Select one component to be optimized.
3) Select node location.
4) Develop expressions for the inflow and outflow.

5) Obtain required data to calculate pressure drop versus rate for all
components.
6) Determine the effect of changing the characteristics of the selected
component by plotting inflow and outflow and reading the intersection.
7) Repeat procedure for each component that is to be optimized.

NODAL System Analysis Approach Possible Applications

Selecting tubing size
Selecting flowline size
Selection of wellhead pressures and surface choke sizing
Subsurface safety valve sizing
Analysing an existing system for abnormal flow restrictions
Artificial lift design
Gravel pack design
Evaluating well stimulation treatments
Determining the effect of compression on gas well performance
Evaluating perforation density
Predicting the effect of depletion on producing capacity

THANK YOU
2013 INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY PETRONAS SDN BHD
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