Gas Well Deliverability I

PETE 444

Oct. 7
 Conventional and
Unconventional Gas

2
 Gas Well Deliverability

• Purpose
• History of Deliverability Testing
• Numeric Example
• Theoretical Basis
• Complications

3
Purpose of Deliverability Testing

• Obtain information for

– Design of well completions
• Tubing, casing size
– Sizing surface facilities
• Pipeline size
• Compression
– Optimum production rate

4
 History of Deliverability Testing

gas street light

Medicine Hat, Alberta

(one of Kipling’s
“fortunate” towns), ca.
1914

5
 History of Deliverability Testing

NOT calculated, but a

collection of measured data
points.

John C. Diehl: “Natural Gas Handbook,” 1927. 6

1935 7
 Rawlins & Schellhardt Report
• Derived an empirical relationship between gas
well flow and pressure
• Proposed a procedure for a “backpressure test”
based on that relationship
• Defined a flow benchmark as the “Absolute Open
Flow” (AOF)
• Recognized that time to “stabilize” production was
not constant

8
Backpressure test
setup, ca. 1935

9
10
 Rawlins & Schellhardt Report
• The backpressure equation:

• Derived from analysis of 966 backpressure tests of

582 wells in 9 states in the US, late 1920’s and
early 1930’s.
• Completely empirical

11
 Backpressure Test
By rearranging the backpressure equation we confirm that n is
the inverse slope of the plot:

Q  C P  P
f
2
s 
2 n

Q
log    n log  Pf2  Ps2 
C 
Q
log  Pf  Ps   log  
2 2 1
n C 
log  Pf  Ps   log  Q   log(C )
2 2 1 1
n n
y  mx  b, m  1/ n

12
 Backpressure Test
• A series of stabilized flow rates made at various
(decreasing) wellhead backpressures, starting with shut-in
conditions
• Gas vented to atmosphere or flows to pipeline
• Compute sand-face pressure (wellbore pressure in flow)
• Plot P2formation - P2sandface vs. gas rate, Q on log paper
• Can determine well deliverability at any (sand-face)
backpressure
• Compute an “Absolute Open Flow” (AOF) as defined as
gas rate at Psandface=Patm for comparison between wells.
– Rawlins & Schellhardt often disregarded Patm in calculated AOF
for high pressure wells
• Slope of line is 1/n

13
What about “n?”

14
Example Problem 7.1

15
Pf2 = 4502 = 202,500

4
3

1
QAOF = 40,000MSCFD

16
The other piece of information that is usually desired is the flow
exponent n. We start by obtaining the slope of the line, using the
first and last data point,

y 2 - y1 log(63371) - log(13275)
m= = = 1.285
x 2 - x1 log(17180) - log(5090)

Now the flow exponent n is given by 1/m, which is why it is

sometimes called the inverse slope. Without too much effort we
discover,
n = 1/m = 1/1.285 = 0.778

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In modern nomenclature
- the formation pressure is denoted by pR
- the flowing sandface pressure is called pwf
Therefore our backpressure equation now looks like,
 
n
qsc  C p  p 2
R
2
wf

Some useful rearrangments of the backpressure equation are to

qsc
C
 
n
find coefficient p p
2 2
R wf

or the flowing sandface pressure,

1 1
qsc qsc  qsc 
p  p 
n n n
2
p 2
 2
p
2
   2
p  p   
2
R
wf
C R wf
 C  wf R
 C 
1
qsc  n
pwf  p   
2
 C 
R

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 Theoretical Basis
Setting aside the empirical description of gas flow in a reservoir,
we can derive another equation, based on the following
assumptions:

• Darcy (laminar) flow

• Uniform radial flow
• Steady state flow
• Constant pressure (infinite acting) source (Pf)
(or appears to be for the duration of the test)
• Constant fluid properties
• Gravity effects ignored

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Henry Darcy (1803-1858)
– French engineer
– Studied the workings
of public fountains
(very big in Europe
before cinemas and
AM radio)
– Conducted experiments in
vertical sand packs
– Derived equation to
describe the flow of water
through porous media (sand
filters)
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 Theoretical Basis

(Pf)

Radial Flow Geometry

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Theoretical Basis

rR

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Steady State Flow Equation Derivation

• Darcy’s law (linear):

k dp v is fluid velocity
v q is volumetric flow rate
 dx
A is cross-section area
kA dp k is effective permeability
q  vA  
 dx  is fluid viscosity
dp/dx is pressure gradient
• in cylindrical coordinates:
(in direction of flow)
A  (2 r )(h)
k (2 rh) dp r is radial distance
q h is reservoir thickness
 dr

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• continuity:
1q1  2q2  scqsc  const

• equation of state:
pM

zRT

• since continuity applies

everywhere,
pM psc M
q  q qsc
zRT zsc RTsc
pTsc pTsc  2 rhk dp 
qsc  q   
psc zT psc zT   dr 

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• separate the variables:
qsc pscT  z dr
pdp 
Tsc 2 kh r

• integrate from reservoir external radius to wellbore,

assuming (for now) that the pressure dependent terms 
and z can be evaluated at some average pressure:
qsc pscT  z re dr
 pw pdp  T 2kh  rw r
pe

sc

pe2  pw2 qsc pscT  z

 ln( re )  ln( rw )
2 Tsc 2kh
khTsc pe2  pw2  The backpressure
qsc  equation (1935)
re 
pscT  z ln   qsc  C ( Pf2  Pwf2 ) n
rw 
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 Complications

• When pore spaces get really, really small

(tight gas, shale gas)
• Inertial and turbulence effects
• Viscosity, z-factor as functions of pressure

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 Klinkenberg Effect
• L.J. Klinkenberg paper, 1941
• At low pressures, gas can “slip” through the pores without
creating a boundary layer
• Permeability, k, to gas is not constant
• Found to be applicable to core testing conditions
• Apparent perm, ka related to true k by:

p is median pressure; b can be obtained graphically if ka is

evaluated at several different pressures.
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 Klinkenberg Effect

 b b
k a  k  1    k  k
 p p

intercept = true k∞

Klinkenberg measured gas

perm as high as 27x true perm!

high pressure low pressure

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 Inertial and Turbulent Effects
• Deviations from the (laminar) Darcy law occur because of
– Porous media geometry
• Tortuous paths
• Variation in cross-sectional flow area
– High velocity => turbulence
• These effects were identified by
– Forchheimer (1901)
• Turbulence in vertical sand packs
– Klinkenberg (1941)
• Pressure dependence of permeability
– Houpeurt (1959)
• Turbulent term in natural gas flow, radial coordinates
– Various authors
• Turbulence can correlated to rock properties

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 Turbulent Flow in Porous Media
Turbulent flow in porous media can also be defined in
terms of the (dimensionless) Reynolds number:
q 
Re 
 A

where
q is volumetric flow rate Re small: Laminar
 is fluid density Re large: Turbulent
 is viscosity
 is porosity
 is average sand grain diameter
(the characteristic dimension)

The transition from laminar to turbulent flow occurs

gradually over the range 1<Re<10
30
 Houpeurt Equation

Houpeurt, Revue de L’institut Français de Pétrole, Dec. 1959 31

 Next Lecture

• Gas Well Deliverablity II

– Your new friend, Mr. Pseudopressure
– Deliverability testing detailed
– Numeric examples

32
 Example Solution 7.1
A graphic solution for any backpressure test is easy to obtain.
P
First, calculate the term f
2
- P 2
s and plot against flow rate, Q;

draw a line through the data points. |

Next, from the definition of AOF, we can make an approximation,

( ) ( ) because P
n n
QAOF = C P - P
f
2 2
atm »C Pf
2
f >> Patm

P
We then find that at f
2
= 450 2
= 202,500
the corresponding value of flow rate is QAOF = 40,000MSCFD 33