Browsing by Subject "Horizontal wells"
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Item A study of a novel down-hole gas-liquid separator/connector(2018-06-27) Suresh Kumar, Adithya; Bommer, Paul Michael; Espinoza, David N.Development of shale assets in the United States has drastically increased the overall domestic oil production. This was achievable due to the advances in horizontal well drilling and hydraulic fracturing technology, which gave access to more reservoir rock and surface area. In addition, as wells declined in rate, artificial lift methods like the use of a beam pump, electric submersible pump (ESP), or gas lift physically helped bring the oil and gas to surface and extended the life of a well. Operational challenges such as containing costs to maintain ESPs and using beam pumps on high gas wells became significant factors in determining the economic viability of a well. In this study, we examined a method to improve oil and gas separation down-hole in the production tubing so that a beam-pump will lift primarily liquid to the surface. Simultaneously, the method ensures that an ESP will remain effective and not overheat, as reservoir pressure declines, to lift fluid to the depth of the separator. A gravity-based down-hole gas liquid separator/connector was constructed using three acrylic pipes, one set inside another, with the inner pipe intended to tie in to the production tubing. The outer two pipes acted together as a gravity separator and pump connector. Water and air was pumped at varying rates from the bottom to simulate the fluid an ESP would deliver to the separator/connector. A standing valve was built into the inner tube, and a rod with traveling valve was manually operated to simulate a beam pump. The water and air mixture was visually inspected inside the pump to determine the effectiveness of the separator. The point at which the separator will fail to keep gas bubbles larger than 0.25 inches from coming inside the pump was quantified using three function tests: 1) Allowable Gas-Liquid Ratio the separator will process, 2) Liquid Velocity falling down the middle tube of the separator, and 3) Annular Gas Superficial Velocity between outside and middle tube. After testing a variety of air/water rates through two different sized separators, the results showed that if a separator passed all three function tests for a given air/water rate, then it would successfully separate bubbles larger than 0.25 inches (approximately 6mm) from coming into the pumpItem Field-Scale Numerical Modeling of Multiple-Contact-Miscible Processes Using Horizontal Wells in Heterogeneous Reservoirs(1990-12) Lim, Min Teong; Pope, Gary A.; Sepehrnoori, KamyThe recent upsurge in the number of horizontal wells being drilled and completed, coupled with dwindling domestic oil reserves and diminishing chances of discovering large fields, will inevitably lead to more widespread application of horizontal wells in enhanced oil recovery (EOR) processes, especially miscible-gas flood processes. In anticipation of this future development, a field-scale numerical simulation study is proposed to assess the technical feasibility of applying multiplecontact- miscible (MCM) processes in horizontal wells, and to determine the realms of applicability - with respect to reservoir heterogeneity - of such processes. The fieldscale numerical model will incorporate the fine details of reservoir heterogeneity, thus requiring the identification, implementation, and testing of a rigorous and systematic reservoir characterization procedure, and a simple, yet robust and accurate scale averaging method in the model. Finally, the biggest motivation of this study is to provide the industry with a reliable and accurate tool for the design and performance prediction of field-scale projects utilizing MCM floods in horizontal wells, so that the associated project risks will be minimized and the incremental oil recovery optimized. This tool could be used to provide a better understanding of the effects and sensitivity of some basic process and design parameters with respect to the degree and type of heterogeneities, and could also be used to identify and establish the optimum range of some of the design parameters.Item Friction reduction optimization for extended reach and horizontal wells(2019-04-30) Rostagno, Ian; Oort, Eric vanWith conventional oil and gas reservoirs declining, energy companies are constructing more complex wells to economically produce natural resources that were not accessible previously. Extended reach Offshore wells and horizontal unconventional land wells are just two examples of technologies developed to unlock challenging reserves. However, torque and drag in extended reach and horizontal wells with departures of ten thousand feet or more still constitute one of the main challenges and technical limitations for drilling. Offshore wells can experience high friction even with the use of rotary steerable systems. Additionally, directional land wells drilled with downhole steerable motor experience high friction because only the bit rotates while the rest of the string slides against the wellbore wall. This friction can produce complications such as low sliding and rotating rates of penetration, high tortuosity, poor hole cleaning, vibrations, premature downhole tools failure or bit damaging and connection back-offs. Additionally, it can stop the string from moving backwards or forwards and rotating, potentially ending up with an irreversibly stuck drillstring and a shorter-than-planned well. In this work, we try to understand the influence of different agents on friction behavior and mitigation in deviated and horizontal wells, and how these agents can be used most effectively while drilling to improve drilling performance and wellbore qualityItem Gas injection techniques for condensate recovery and remediation of liquid banking in gas-condensate reservoirs(2011-05) Hwang, Jongsoo; Sharma, Mukul M.; Sharma, Mukul M.; Mohanty, Kishore K.In gas-condensate reservoirs, gas productivity declines due to the increasing accumulation of liquids in the near wellbore region as the bottom-hole pressure declines below the dew point pressure. This phenomenon occurs even in reservoirs containing lean gas-condensate fluid. Various methods were addressed to remediate the productivity decline, for example, fracturing, gas injection, solvent injection and chemical treatment. Among them, gas injection techniques have been used as options to prevent retrograde condensation by vaporizing condensate and/or by enhancing condensate recovery in gas-condensate reservoirs. It is of utmost importance that the behavior of liquid accumulation near the wellbore should be described properly as that provides a better understanding of the productivity decline due to the originated from impaired relative mobility of gas. In this research, several gas injection techniques were assessed by using compositional simulators. The feasibility of different methods such as periodic hot gas injection and gas reinjection using horizontal wells were assessed using different reservoir fluid and injection conditions. It is shown that both the temperature and composition of the injection fluids play a key role in the remediation of productivity and condensate recovery. The combined effect of these parameters were investigated and the resulting impact on gas and condensate production was calculated by numerical simulations in this study. Design parameters pertaining to field development and operations including well configuration and injection/production scheme were also investigated in this study along with the above parameters. Based on the results, guidelines on design issues relating gas injection parameters were suggested. The various simulation cases with different parameters helped with gaining insight into the strategy of gas injection techniques to remediate the gas productivity and condensate recovery.