Week 4 Nodal Analysis, or Well Deliverability, or NODAL Analysis
Production System Analysis
Divide system at a point (node) into upstream
and downstream components
Upstream components are inflow
Downstream components are outflow Endpoint pressures are fixed: Pres; Psep
It is all one system
Preservoir Pseparator = Psystem = Pcomponent A restriction at any component can hamper production M ak es com pletion design im portant Also im portant for flow assurance ( P, T can cause solids deposition)
Whole system must be analyzed for proper initial design
and/or debottlenecking Production Engineers Often Focus on the region from well inflow to wellhead outflowis the well performing as it should?
Well Inflow Performance
Wellbore/Tubing Flow Performance Preservoir Pwf Pwh surface flow system Basically, we superimpose IPR and VLP
Each component has a corresponding q and P relationship
for inflow and outflow (for a given flow rate, the pressure at a component is fixed)
Pnode
Inflow performance governed by Pres - Pwf
VLP governed by Pwf - P*wh
Flow through the system is determined from the facts that only one pressure is present at a node inflow must equal outflow at a nodemass balance requirement
*PPS uses Ptf
We can compute IPR Curves and VLP Curves for given sets of conditions. Their combination determines well deliverability.
Pnode
Inflow performance impacted by Pres - Pwf
Plus - ?
VLP impacted by Pwf - Pwh
plus -?
We can compute IPR Curves and VLP Curves for given sets of conditions. Their combination determines well deliverability.
Pnode
Inflow performance influenced by Pres - Pwf
Plus - fluid properties - k, h - ln(re/rw) - skin
VLP influenced by Pwf - Pwh
plus - Ppotential energy - Pkinetic energy - Pfriction
For a given IPR and well configuration,
We can determine flow rate as a function of required wellhead pressure, for example. q
Example
= 1.7
Reservoir Data: B = 1.1 bbl/bbl; = 1.7 cp; kh = 8.3 md; h = 53 ft re = 2980 ft; rw = 0.328 ft (7 7/8 in) What can we say about P for the VLP in this well and for this oil? - PKE? PPE? PF?
Radial inflow relationship for steady-state black oil:
q=
Rearrange:
For our example:
k H h( pe pwf )
r 141.2 Bo o ln e + s rw
r 141.2 Bo o ln e + s rw q pwf = pe kh
pwf = 5651 5.54q
IPR Curve for this Well
Now for the VLP
Single-Phase Liquid Flow: Incompressible
or Fanning friction factor or Moody friction factor
Example, Contd PKE = 0 (incompressible fluid, no diameter change)
(Independent of flow rate.)
But: PF is a function of flow rate (friction factor) ff =16/vd = 16/NRE
N RE
Dv
q = = D
or
q 1.48 in oilfield units D
Example, Continued Must assume turbulent flow. Instead of implicit eqn. shown last week, we can use Chens explicit method (shudder) from PPS, Ch 7:
