Experimental evaluation of wellbore flow models applied to worst-case-discharge calculations for oil wells

Paulo J. Waltrich; Matheus S. Capovilla; Woochan Lee; Pedro Cavalcanti De Sousa; Muhammad Zulqarnain; Richard Hughes; Mayank Tyagi; Wesley Williams; Seung Kam; Alexander Archer; Jagdeep Singh; Hai Nguyen; John Duhon; Craig Griffith

doi:10.2118/184444-PA

Experimental evaluation of wellbore flow models applied to worst-case-discharge calculations for oil wells

Paulo J. Waltrich, Matheus S. Capovilla, Woochan Lee, Pedro Cavalcanti De Sousa, Muhammad Zulqarnain, Richard Hughes, Mayank Tyagi, Wesley Williams, Seung Kam, Alexander Archer, Jagdeep Singh, Hai Nguyen, John Duhon, Craig Griffith

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

10 Scopus citations

Abstract

An experimental and numerical investigation is presented in this study to verify the accuracy of wellbore flow models applied to worst-case-discharge (WCD) calculations. Wellbore flow models often used in WCD calculations show errors of more than 100% when compared to experimental data for large-diameter pipes. However, for low gas/liquid ratios, there is a reasonable agreement between experimental data and simulation results for all wellbore flow models tested, with errors lower than 10%. This study uses the comparison between experimental data and simulation results to provide guidance on how to improve these flow correlations and proposes how to use the flow models to obtain improved predictions on WCD calculations.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	315-333
Number of pages	19
Journal	SPE Drilling and Completion
Volume	34
Issue number	3
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.2118/184444-PA
State	Published - 2019
Externally published	Yes

Funding

The authors would like to thank the BOEM for financial support under the research contract award M15PC00007.

Funders	Funder number
Bureau of Ocean Energy Management	M15PC00007

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10.2118/184444-PA

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Waltrich, P. J., Capovilla, M. S., Lee, W., De Sousa, P. C., Zulqarnain, M., Hughes, R., Tyagi, M., Williams, W., Kam, S., Archer, A., Singh, J., Nguyen, H., Duhon, J., & Griffith, C. (2019). Experimental evaluation of wellbore flow models applied to worst-case-discharge calculations for oil wells. SPE Drilling and Completion, 34(3), 315-333. https://doi.org/10.2118/184444-PA

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title = "Experimental evaluation of wellbore flow models applied to worst-case-discharge calculations for oil wells",

abstract = "An experimental and numerical investigation is presented in this study to verify the accuracy of wellbore flow models applied to worst-case-discharge (WCD) calculations. Wellbore flow models often used in WCD calculations show errors of more than 100% when compared to experimental data for large-diameter pipes. However, for low gas/liquid ratios, there is a reasonable agreement between experimental data and simulation results for all wellbore flow models tested, with errors lower than 10%. This study uses the comparison between experimental data and simulation results to provide guidance on how to improve these flow correlations and proposes how to use the flow models to obtain improved predictions on WCD calculations.",

author = "Waltrich, {Paulo J.} and Capovilla, {Matheus S.} and Woochan Lee and {De Sousa}, {Pedro Cavalcanti} and Muhammad Zulqarnain and Richard Hughes and Mayank Tyagi and Wesley Williams and Seung Kam and Alexander Archer and Jagdeep Singh and Hai Nguyen and John Duhon and Craig Griffith",

note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2019 Society of Petroleum Engineers",

year = "2019",

doi = "10.2118/184444-PA",

language = "English",

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journal = "SPE Drilling and Completion",

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Waltrich, PJ, Capovilla, MS, Lee, W, De Sousa, PC, Zulqarnain, M, Hughes, R, Tyagi, M, Williams, W, Kam, S, Archer, A, Singh, J, Nguyen, H, Duhon, J & Griffith, C 2019, 'Experimental evaluation of wellbore flow models applied to worst-case-discharge calculations for oil wells', SPE Drilling and Completion, vol. 34, no. 3, pp. 315-333. https://doi.org/10.2118/184444-PA

TY - JOUR

T1 - Experimental evaluation of wellbore flow models applied to worst-case-discharge calculations for oil wells

AU - Waltrich, Paulo J.

AU - Capovilla, Matheus S.

AU - Lee, Woochan

AU - De Sousa, Pedro Cavalcanti

AU - Zulqarnain, Muhammad

AU - Hughes, Richard

AU - Tyagi, Mayank

AU - Williams, Wesley

AU - Kam, Seung

AU - Archer, Alexander

AU - Singh, Jagdeep

AU - Nguyen, Hai

AU - Duhon, John

AU - Griffith, Craig

PY - 2019

Y1 - 2019

N2 - An experimental and numerical investigation is presented in this study to verify the accuracy of wellbore flow models applied to worst-case-discharge (WCD) calculations. Wellbore flow models often used in WCD calculations show errors of more than 100% when compared to experimental data for large-diameter pipes. However, for low gas/liquid ratios, there is a reasonable agreement between experimental data and simulation results for all wellbore flow models tested, with errors lower than 10%. This study uses the comparison between experimental data and simulation results to provide guidance on how to improve these flow correlations and proposes how to use the flow models to obtain improved predictions on WCD calculations.

AB - An experimental and numerical investigation is presented in this study to verify the accuracy of wellbore flow models applied to worst-case-discharge (WCD) calculations. Wellbore flow models often used in WCD calculations show errors of more than 100% when compared to experimental data for large-diameter pipes. However, for low gas/liquid ratios, there is a reasonable agreement between experimental data and simulation results for all wellbore flow models tested, with errors lower than 10%. This study uses the comparison between experimental data and simulation results to provide guidance on how to improve these flow correlations and proposes how to use the flow models to obtain improved predictions on WCD calculations.

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DO - 10.2118/184444-PA

M3 - Article

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SN - 1064-6671

VL - 34

SP - 315

EP - 333

JO - SPE Drilling and Completion

JF - SPE Drilling and Completion

IS - 3

ER -

Experimental evaluation of wellbore flow models applied to worst-case-discharge calculations for oil wells

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