GAS LIFT DESIGN

Muhammad Akhtar UET Lahore

CONTENTS
Introduction Need of Gas Lift Design Considerations Manual Design PIPESIM Design Results Comparison Synopsis

Gas Lift

Continued
Gas is injected continuously or intermittently at selected locations, resulting in the lifting(decreasing density) of the produced fluids to the surface The lowering of the bottom hole pressure is accomplished to increase the drawdown between reservoir and wellbore

When We need Gas Lift?

Producing wells that cant flow naturally Initial unloading of a well that will flow on its own later Increasing the production rate of a flowing well

Continued
Accommodating deviated and horizontal well bores Unloading a well affected by adjacent well drilling and fracturing Removing solids by back flowing Producing wells with sand or scale problems

Data Required

2. Production Data: a.- Wellhead tubing & casing pressure b.- Present production rate c.- Static & dynamic fluid level d.- GOR & W/C e.- Datum point f.- BHT g.- Desired production rate

3. Well Fluid Properties: a.- Water specific gravity b.- Oil API or specific gravity c.- Gas specific gravity d.- Bubble-point pressure e.- Oil viscosity f.- PVT data

4. Possible Problems: a. Sand b.- Deposition c.- Corrosion d.- Paraffin e.- Emulsion f.- Gas g.- Abnormal temperature

10

Design Considerations

Gas injection depth, pressure and GLR for desired production Principles of unloading operations Well Gradients Gas lift valve spacing principles Types of gas lift valves Mechanics of gas lift valve operation Factors that affect efficiency (injected gas)

Limitations
Not feasible if no source of gas present. High initial capital purchase cost. Maintenance intensive. Difficult to operate

GAS LIFT VALVES

The heart of any gas lift system is the gas lift valve. Gas lift valves are basically downhole pressure regulators Practically all gas lift valves use the effect of pressure acting on the area of a valve element (bellows, stem tip, etc.
Tubing

pressure operated valves (r-25p, r25p1, etc.) Casing pressure operated valves (r-20, altec, etc.)

GAS LIFT VALVES

GAS FLOW FROM CASING

REVERSE FLOW VALVE

GAS FLOW FROM CASING

GAS FLOW INTO THE TUBING

GAS FLOW INTO THE TUBING

CASING PRESSURE OPERATED

TUBING PRESSURE OPERATED

GAS LIFT VALVE (IPO)

GAS LIFT VALVE (PPO)

UNLOADING PROCEDURE

Obtain the design details of the gas lift string. The kick-off pressure, estimated gas injection rate during unloading Bleed the tubing pressure to the oil manifold. This should be done very slowly. Start injecting +/- 500 mscfd gas. Slowly control the lift gas rate so that it takes 10-12 minutes for 50 psi buildup in the casing pressure.

CONTINUED.
Increase the gas injection rate slowly to allow the casing pressure to buildup 100 psi in every 10 minutes till the gas is passing through the orifice. Once the well has cleaned up and unloaded to the orifice, adjust the gas injection rate as per the recommendation.

Case Study
DATA:

Well depth=Gas injec depth= 13250 ft Tubing id= 4.89 inch Water Cut= 60% Tsc= 60 F API= 35.7 degree Formation GLR = 500 scf/STB psep= 190 psig P.G= 0.465 psi/ft Test Data: pr=SIBHP= 3100 psig Pb = 3600 psig P.I=6.1 STB/D-psi T= 200 F pinj= 1800 psia

Manual Design

P.I method was used for IPR plotting Hagedorn Brown Correlation was used to generate pressure traverse curve using tubing data

Then the qL and pwf values were plotted on same graph of IPR The point with maximum value of qL is taken as operating flow rate Optimization of Gas Injection Rate

GAS LIFT OPTIMIZATION

4500

4000

3500

3000

IPR, WCUT=60%
pwf (psig) 2500 GLRinj= 0 mmscfd GLRinj= 0.4 mmscfd 2000 GLRinj= 0.8 mmscfd GLRinj= 1.2 mmscfd GLRinj= 1.4 mmscfd 1500 GLRinj= 1.6 mmscfd GLRinj= 1.8 mmscfd GLRinj=2.0 mmscfd 1000 GLRinj= 2.2 mmscfd

500

0 0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000 qL (STB/D) 12000 14000 16000 18000 20000

Operating Flow Rates

GLRTotal(scf/STB) 500 900 1300 1700 1900 2100

qL (STB/D) 7000 8350 8700 8800 8850 8850

Optimization of Gas Injection Rate

qinj Optimization
10000 9000

8000
7000 6000 5000 4000 3000 2000 1000 0 0 5 10 15 20 25

qL (STB/D)

qinj (MMSCF/D)

Valve Setting Depth Calculations

Following are the steps used for drawing gradient lines and calculating valce setting depths:

VALVE SETTING DEPTH CALCULATIONS

P, psig 0 0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500

2000

Mandrel#1 @ 3600 ft
4000

Depth TVD(ft)

6000

Mandrel#2 @6400 ft

8000

Mandrel#3 @8400ft Mandrel#4 @9800 ft

10000

Mandrel#5 @10700 ft Mandrel#6 @11350 ft Mandrel#7 @11800 ft

12000

DRAWDOWN CREATED BY GAS INJECTION

DEPTH OF WELL
14000

FBHP

SIBHP

Valve Setting Depth

VALVE DEPTH , ft

1. Unloading Valve
2. Unloading Valve 3. Unloading Valve 4. Unloading Valve 5. Unloading Valve 6. Unloading Valve 7. Operating valve

3600 6400 8400 9800 10700

11350
11800

PIPESIM DESIGN

OPTIMIZATION OF GAS INJECTION RATE

GAS LIFT OPTIMIZATION

Operating Flow rates

qinj MMSCF/D qL STB/D

1
2 3 4 5 6 7

4400
5700 6500 7000 7400 7700 7800

Results Analysis
qL STB/D MANUAL DESIGN qinj MMSCF/D RECOVERY

7000
8700 PIPESIM DESIGN 4000 7800

0
6.9

NATURAL
GAS LIFT

0 6.9

NATURAL GAS LIFT

Conclusions
Manual Calculations give us overestimated results PIPESIM is a very helpful tool in determining the efficiency of artificial lift methods Gas Lift is remarkably beneficial in increasing productivity

ANY QUESTION?

THANK YOU FOR BEING PATIENT