Determination of the best-fit multiphase flow correlation for high water-cut wells using prosper

Abstract

Pressure drop in a vertical or deviated borehole is mainly due to hydrostatic changes and friction when the produced fluids flow to the surface. When the oil is flowing upwards, the flowing pressure along the tubing string will drop and gas starts to liberate from the oil. Thus, multiphase flow forms in the tubing string. Hence, adequate modeling of vertical lift performance is required to predict the pressure drop and subsequently the wellbore pressure. The bottomhole pressure prediction was realized by using PROSPER, a program developed by Petroleum Experts. The data of oilwell X-01 with high water cut (i.e., 56%) in field X was used in this research work. The most accurate correlation was chosen from 12 selected built-in correlations to predict the pressure drop via gradient matching. A sensitivity analysis has been done to observe the parameters that affected the vertical lift performance of a high water cut well. These parameters were tubing diameter, gas-oil ratio, wellhead pressure, water cut, and tubing roughness. The results show that Dun and Ros original correlation appeared to be the best-fit correlation for well X-01. Results from sensitivity analysis indicated that reduction of wellhead pressure from 390 psi to 285.3 psi could increase liquid rate by 13.2%. An adjustment of wellhead pressure gave the most significant impact on the production rate of well X-01 as compared to other four parameters studied.