Stability and stable production limit of an oil production well

Abstract

Abstract Unstable well flow is detrimental to the technical and economic performances of an integrated production system. To mitigate this problem, it is imperative to understand the stability limits and predict the onset of unstable production of an oil well. Taking advantage of the phenomenon of slug flow and the onset of unstable equilibrium from inflow performance and vertical lift curves of a producing well, this paper presents a new method for evaluating the stability of an oil production well on the one hand and estimating its stable production limits in terms of wellhead flowing pressure and flow rate on the other hand. A novelty of this work is the introduction and quantitative characterization of three distinct stability phases in the performance of a production well. These phases are uniquely identified as stable, transition and unstable flows. Practical examples and field cases demonstrate the robustness of the new method. When compared against results from a commercial wellbore simulator for the same set of problems, the new method yields an average absolute deviation of 5.3%. Additional validation tests against a common, but more computationally demanding method of stability analysis yield satisfactory results. Several parametric tests conducted with the proposed model and method provide additional insights into some of the major factors that control well stability, highlighting scope for production optimization in practice. Overall, this work should find applications in the design and management of production wells.

Keywords

• Well performance
• Well stability
• Unstable production
• Intermittent production
• Operating envelope
• Flow assurance