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Analyzer Recor.der
NITROGEN- ""
UQUID COz-
,. -~ G.L.V. 0 3085'
~ G.L.V. 0 3592'
~ G.L.V. 0 4100'
~~ G.L.V. 0 ...S93'
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1:81- 18
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8310278102
822
SPE26593 S. L. WELLINGTON, J. F. SIMMONS, AND E. A. RICHARDSON 3
Carbon dioxide was 11lected as the tracer fluid in the tests operating conditions, it ie possible to UBI a small hand-held
described in tbia paper. Itia readily available, inexpensive, non- cylinder containing a Bingle cbarp of nitrogen-blanket8d
flammable, easily detected, and compatible with both reaervoir ·co2 tracer. It would also be possible to invert a standard
and litl;paeaandiaenvironmentally acceptable. Furthermore, unblanketed C02 cylinder (one without a dip tube) and usa the
theiiiUIIl voluJiliB or COt required for the test C&UII insignif- bottle and vapor pressure to inject the liquid C02, providing the
icant additional corrosion oftubulars when compared with the bottle preaaure ia sulrlCiently greater than the lif\.gas line
volume• of C01 produced daily from moat wells. C01 pressure.
concentration is readily monitored in the gu phase by an
PRESENTATION 01' DATA AND RESULTS
infrared (llO spectrometer. Them spectrometer respon11 wu
digitallyrecordedandalsooutput toananalo(chartrecorder, to The teat reault•lrom application of the tracer method on .....
provide a continuous crapbical repreaentation of the li1\weDsintwoditTerentGulfcoastoJ1fteldaarap1'818nted. The
concentration ofCO. pr81181lt in the produced gu u a function now rate or the lift..gu entering the well wu metered by a
of time. The spectroJimer ia easil,y calibrated in the field using standard ~ce plate m~od.2.S. In the firat well, the Jift..pa
air or small available preaaurizedcanisterscontainincspecified walil\iected at a preaure of1,160 psi aild supplied at at rate:of
concentrations orca.. Followingcalibration, the spectrometer 345,000 acf/d. An accurate measurement of the lift.pa flow
m1t1 also be used to measure CO. concentration in the inJected rate is important ·in the11 calculationa. This point will be
Jift..ps and produced pa stream so that one ma,y account for discussed in more detail later.
baclqround CO. levels If neceasary. The well waa known to have an annulus volume ofl cubic foot
Thetracerisanalyzedbycollectingaslipatreamofdryproduced per6.41ineer feet. AtaYerapcaaingpreaure and temperature,
pa that ia supplied to the analyzer via the smaD weUhead thiaresultedinalinearvelocltyfortbelift-guofabout986feet
separator, as shown in Fipre 2. The water and oU must be per hourintheannulua. BecauHthecrou-sectional areaofthe
Hparated ainc:e th011 ftuida can foul the windows in the cuing-tubing annulus. was much pater than the crou-
lR spectromater. Carbon dioxide, which also pa.rtltiona into aectional . . - of the production tubin& and because the
both the produced brine and oil, may be alternatively detected production tubing operated at lower pressure, the velocity or
in the brine u carbonic acid by titration or llimpl,y by pH the pain theannuluawaamuchleH thanthevelocityofthepa
measurement. rsturning in the production tubing. Con11quently. the amount
of time required for the lif\.pa entering the well to return: to
The C01 is beat supplied to thalift..pa u a condensed liquid or
the aurl'ace, the expected respon11 time, was assumed to be
supercritical ftuid, which allowa ready injection of a
approximately equal to the amount or time required for the lift..
concentrated tracer pul11. The preferred method is to obtain a
gas cylinder Btted with a dip tube and pressurized with .a
pa to trjil~ down the annulus and enter into the production
tubing. This 81111UDlpt1on would be valid for moat wells;
nitropn blanket from apaeupply manufacturer. A dip tub_e
however, a correction for travel in the production tubing could
andpressureblanketararequired when theiieldpa-litlaupply
be made.
preHUre 8IC88Cia the saturation preaaure or C01 at ambient.
temperature. The nitropn overpreBBUre blanbt rapidly The mechanical well diqrem indicated then were fmt pa-lift
inJects the required liquid C{)z pulse into the Jitl-pa. InJection valvuinstalled with the production tubing. .Aaaumlnconl,ytbe
of 6 to 20 Ibm (46 to 180 act') ofcondensed C02 proved effective bottom pa-litl valve was open, and that there were no leaks in
and allowedJOOCI tracer reaponae meuuremant. Various high- the production tubinr, the expected reapon11 time was
pressure CO. c:ylincfar elan are available. For the tests calculated u 280 minutes. The lR llp8Ctrometer reaults are
deacribed in this paper, acyUnder with approximately 60 Ibm of plotted in Fisure 3. The data clearly showed that there were
C02 under a 2,000 psi nitropn blanket wu used. CO. tracer three entry points into the production tubing. Therefore, more
m111 was determined by weighing the cylinder before and after than one pe-lit\ valve was open on the production tubing and/
each inJected pulll. For .... or handling under difftc:ult or that the production tubing had a leak(a).
823
AN ON-lJNE METHOD FOR TROUBLESHOOTING GAS-lJFT WELLS SPE26593
WITHOUT WJRElJNE TOOlS
Thlclc-Wolled --E~o~N
Gla• Crllndera
,..
12"
Adaptor
1-1/4" X 112" Nl90let
IOOOf Ill S.S.'
DWJI/01
824
SPEZ6593 S. L. WELLINGTON, J. F. SIMMONS, AND E. A. RICHARDSON 5
Is
c
0.27
Calculated
GAS-LlFl' ANALYSIS TEST RESULTS
Response Depth
Installed
Valve Depth
Depth
Difference
Percent
DifFerence
..
84 0.31 (feet) (feet) (feet) (percent)
~3
F
3,631
4,618
3,692
4,100
+39
+58
+1.1
+1.4
4,545 4,693 -48 -1.0
2
SEVEN ADDITIONAL TESTS
1
In another Gulf Coast field, the following aet of gas-lift tracer
~----------~ ~ ~ teats were preformed by injecting 10-20 Ibm C02 into the the
0+--,--,.--.-~.r-~--.-.-r--r-,~__, PI:-lift aupply line of eliCb well and monitoring the response
0 100 200 300 400 500 with an IR spectrometer. Seven testa were performed on four
Elapsed Time, min. wells in three days, two testa each on three of the wells and a
single teat on one well..
Fig. 3 - Tr..- response from well 54. Wel1186 - Testa 1 and 2: Figures 4 and 6.
The position of the fii'St entry point waa calcuJated by Well data
Annulus Size: 7 in.-23# x IJ3/a in.
multiplyingthelinearvelocityofthelii\-pa(986feetperhour)
Meter Orifice Plate: 2 in. x 0.500 in.
=
by the actual responae time (22U60 3.68 feet per hour), which
indicated first entry ofthe lift-gas into the production tubing at Well Diagram
about 3,631 feet. Mandrel Depths: 1,789l\
3,201!\
Above the first point ofen~ the entire gas flow rate to the well 4,261ft
contributed to the linear velocity of gas in the annulus. 4,094 ft, interpreted lit\ point
However, onceaome gasentered the production tubing, thatlin-
earvelocity wasreducedbelowthe point ofentry by the fraction Tracer Reaponae
or total gas that entered the production tubing. The relative
Tracer Cum. Gas Calculated
or
contribution of each point gas entry was eatimated from the Teat Return In.jected Lit\ Depth
relative size of each C02 peak. By integration, it waa No. (min.) SCF (feet)
determjned that 27 percent oftbelift.gas entered at the first
entry point, 42 percent at the second entry point, and31 percent 1 175.1 39,960 4,482
at the third entry point, as noted in Figure 3. Thus, thellnear 2 199.2 46,183 6,827
velocity of gas traveling between the fU'IIt entry point and the
second entry point was calculated to be 720 feet per hour The gas rate on this well was was erratic due to heading and
(73 percent o£986 feet per hour). varied from 222 to 366 MCFPD; hence, depth control was not
good. Very little liquid production and large pressure drop
The incremental depth of the second entry point (627 t\) was
across the iJVection control valve resulted In cool gas inJection.
calculated from the reduced velocity (720 ft/hr) and the
The tentative conclusion was that the well was lil\ing from a
incremental time of travel between the first and aecond entry
single gas-lift valve at 4904 l\. This conclusion was later
pointa(266- 221 = 44minutea,or0.73hour). Thedepthofthe
coruU'IIled by a wireline flowing pressure survey. Amll,jorupaet
second entry point was determined to be 4,168 ft (• 3,631 ft +
in the gas injection rateduringthiatestreduced depth accuracy.
527 l\). The third entry point wu similarly calculated to be
Note the flattened C02 concentration peak in Figura 4. The
4,546feet.
i!Qected tracer pulse was too large and cauaed the IR
The resultaoftheae calculatloiiii are summarized in Table 1 and spectrometer reliponae to top-out at full-scale (10%) C02
compared with the bottom three valve depths found on the well concentration.
825
6 AN ON-LINE METHOD FOR TROUBLESHOOTING GAS-LIFT WELLS SPE26593
WITHOUT WIREIJNE TOOLS
I
5,3961\
5 &,758ft
Tracer Response
4
J 3 Teat
No.
Tracer
Return
(min.)
Cum. Gas
11\iected
SCF
Calculated
Lift Depth
(feet)
...
!
~2
1 -vv--
-.A . ......._,..,_, 'v
826
SPE28693 S. L. WELLINGTON. J. F. SlMMONS, AND E. A. RICHARDSON 7
"--·~-
- ~ \- ..... 1
2
7ol.2
74.8
16,926
17,136
2,789
2,823
The well was Hftln&"f'rom a silllfle valve located at 3,318 ft. The
171161t 2704ft 3411811 420411 4808Il 5388lt
J: J: I J: I J: well was ata'ble. hence the JOOfl reproduCJ"bility from the two
0 I I I I I I testa. The wide valve spaciq near the lift point simplifted
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 ·140 identification of the active pa-Jift; valve. Calculated lift depth
was shallo~ pon~"bly due to cuing preuure uncertainty. The
Elapsed Time, min.
gas temperature was also di01cult to estimate. Warm liquid
production was ob~&rved, and cool gas bijection due to control
Flc. 6 - Tracer retpQn&e f'rom well107 teat L
valve throWinc to 480 psi caainc pre81Ure.
4
Test2 10
Well107 Test1
9
X = Mandrel depth Well79
3 8 X =Mandrel depth
7
it
I8
... 4
6
~
R
3
2
17881t 270411 3488ft 420411 400811 53ll6tt ~
:1 I II I :1 1
o+-~~,~-~,~,~~~,~~,r-~,.~ 1911ft 3138ft 4092ft
I I I
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 0 I I I I I .,.
827
8 AN ON-LINE METHOD FOR TROUBLESHOOTING GAS-LIFT WELLS SPE28593
WITHOUT WIRELINE TOOLS
*'c
2
tc
8...
1911ft
z
\.
3138ft
z
40e2ft
z
R
1
~-- ~ \...,_... --· ........
o;--r~,~~-r-,~---~,--r-1.--.-,-r-;
828
SPE26593 S. L. WEWNGTON, J. F. SIMMONS, AND E. A. RICHARDSON 9
the linear velocity of the lift-gas traveling between the leak and
the bottom gas-lift valva ia 76 percent or that velocity, or
TEST 2
1 750feetlhour. Knowing the two linear velocities, itie possible to
l,, calculate the depth of the leak as follows:
WELL 79 ,,,,
~
'i'-
,,,,•'
.~ •',,.~
I8 i:tJ
where tr
d!w =
= Reaporiae time for the tracer.
Depth of bottom pa~lift valva.
829
10 AN ON-LINE METHOD FOR TROUBLESHOOTING GAS-LIFT WELLS SPE26693
WITHOUT WIRELINE TOOLS
pressure. The tempei'Mure wu diffieult to estimate due to &. The preferred tracer, carbon dioxide, is inexpensive, easily
Joule-Thompson cooUngofthe paat the flow control valve detected, and environmentally acceptable.
near the wellhead and warminc or the pa by produced Ruids.
6. Field trials have highlighted areu, including lift.ps
Accuracy could be bnprovedbydilitalpressurerecordingofthe metering, density and preuure, where the the tracer
orifice plate atatic p1'881Ure alid ditl'erential pressure to method ma,y be improved to yield higherdepth-ot:.b~tion
or
facilitate num~cal inteption the gas injlcted. The pa accuracy, iC needed.
temperature and gravity mightalaobedetermined at the meter
7. The tracer method abould allow on-line evaluation and
run bec:auae both have a peat impact. on the orifice coet1icient..
tuniq of pa-lift wells when multiple valves are
Similar~ thedlllllityofthe caaincpsCould be JDOre accurately
determined to be open. The in,jection pressure may be
estimated by using a "test pup" to determine the casing
pre~eure. Improwd measurement of the iJVected pa and
altered in an attempt to cl0111 open valve• and t.he well
reteated to determine IUCCIBB or failure.
produced fluid te~tures would also permit more precise
evaluation ol the cuing pa denait.y. The improved 8. The riab and danger• lliiOCiated wit.h wireline methods
meuurements should easily reduce valve location error to · are avoided.
within 2 to & percent.
SUMMARY ACKNOWLBDGM)!:NTS
1. Field trials on muWpleweJJa indicate that a pa tracer may The aut.honoft.biapaper would like to thank.KermitTIChiedel
be Ul8d to determine whet.ber pa-lift valves along the for histirel111r18ldworkandGeorpStegemeierfor hiaaupport
production tubiq'are openorclo11d. The method ma,y alao and inaipt. The authors alao thank Shell Development Co. for
be ulllll to cletect leaks in the produ~Uon tubiq or eaaiq. permiallion to publiah this paper.
830