Vietnam National University - Ho Chi Minh City

University of Technology
Faculty of Geology & Petroleum Engineering
Department of Drilling - Production Engineering

Course

Petroleum production
analysis and forecast
Trần Nguyễn Thiện Tâm
[email protected]
 Chapter 1

Introduction

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 References
[1] Michael J. Economides, A. Daniel Hill, Christine Ehlig-Economides, Ding Zhu.
Petroleum Production Systems, 2nd Edition. Prentice Hall, 2013.
[2] Boyun Guo, Xinghui Lou Liu, Xuehao Tan. Petroleum Production Engineering, 2nd
Edition. Gulf Professional Publishing, 2017.
[3] H. Dale Beggs. Production Optimization Using Nodal Analysis. Oil & Gas Consultants
International, 2008.

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 Contents
❑ Introduction
❑ Systems analysis approach

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 Introduction
Role of a production engineer
is to maximize oil and gas
production in a cost-effective
manner.
Fig. 1.1 shows a simple oil
production system where a
well provides a link between
an oil reservoir and surface
facilities. The well consists of
a wellbore, a wellhead, and a
flowline leading the produced
fluids to separators.

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 Systems analysis approach
The systems analysis approach, often call NODALTM Analysis*, has been applied for
many years to analyze the performance of systems composed of interacting
components.

*"NODAL Analysis" is a trademark of Flopetrol Johnston, a division of Schlumberger

Technology Corporation, and is protected by U.S. Patent #4,442,710.
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 Systems analysis approach

Figure 1-1: The diagram of process of Nodal Analysis in petroleum production process

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 Systems analysis approach

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 Systems analysis approach
The procedure consists of
selecting a division point or
node in the well and dividing
the system at this point.
The locations of the most
commonly used nodes are
shown in Fig. 1-2.

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 Systems analysis approach
All of the components upstream of the node comprise the inflow section, while the
outflow section consists of all of the components downstream of the node.
A relationship between flow rate and pressure drop must be available for each
component in the system.
The flow rate through the system can be determined once the following requirements
are satisfied:
1. Flow into the node equals flow out of the node.
2. Only one pressure can exist at a node.

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 Systems analysis approach
At a particular time in the life of the well, there are always two pressures that remain
fixed and are not functions of flow rate. One of these pressures is the average
reservoir pressure 𝑝𝑅 , and the other is the system outlet pressure. The outlet pressure
is usually the separator pressure psep, but if the well is controlled by a surface choke, the
fixed outlet pressure may be the wellhead pressure pwh.

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 Systems analysis approach
Once the node is selected, the node pressure is calculated from both directions starting
at the fixed pressures.
Inflow to the node:
𝑝𝑅 − ∆𝑝 𝑢𝑝𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑚 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑝𝑜𝑛𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑠 = 𝑝𝑛𝑜𝑑𝑒
Outflow from the node:
𝑝𝑠𝑒𝑝 + ∆𝑝 𝑑𝑜𝑤𝑛𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑚 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑝𝑜𝑛𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑠 = 𝑝𝑛𝑜𝑑𝑒

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 Systems analysis approach
The pressure drop, Δp, in any component
varies with flow rate, q. Therefore, a plot
of node pressure versus flow rate will
produce two curves, the intersection of
which will give the conditions satisfying
requirements 1 and 2, given previously.
The procedure is illustrated graphically in
Fig. 1.3.

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 Systems analysis approach
The procedure can be further
illustrated by considering the simple
producing system shown in Fig. 1-4
and selecting the wellhead as the
node.

Inflow to the node:

𝑝𝑅 − ∆𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑠 − ∆𝑝𝑡𝑢𝑏𝑖𝑛𝑔 = 𝑝𝑤ℎ
Outflow from the node:
𝑝𝑠𝑒𝑝 + ∆𝑝𝑓𝑙𝑜𝑤𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑒 = 𝑝𝑤ℎ

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 Systems analysis approach
The effect on the flow capacity of changing the tubing size is illustrated in Fig. 1-5, and
the effect of a change in flowline size is shown in Fig. 1-6.

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 Systems analysis approach
The effect of increasing the tubing size, as
long as the tubing is not too large, is to give a
higher node or wellhead pressure for a
given flow rate, because the pressure drop in
the tubing will be decreased. This shifts the
inflow curve upward and the intersection to
the right.

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 Systems analysis approach
A larger flowline will reduce the pressure
drop in the flowline, shifting the outflow
down and the intersection to the right. The
effect of a change in any component in the
system can be isolated in this manner. Also,
the effect of declining reservoir pressure or
changing separator pressure can be
determined.

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 Systems analysis approach
A more frequently used
analysis procedure is to select
the node between the
reservoir and the piping
system. This is labeled as
point 6 on Fig. 1-2, and the
node pressure is pwf. Selecting
the node at this point
essentially divides the well
into a reservoir dominated
component and a piping
system dominated component.

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 Systems analysis approach
The inflow and outflow expressions for
the simple system will then be:
Inflow to the node:
𝑝𝑅 − ∆𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑠 = 𝑝𝑤𝑓
Outflow from the node:
𝑝𝑠𝑒𝑝 + ∆𝑝𝑓𝑙𝑜𝑤𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑒 + ∆𝑝𝑡𝑢𝑏𝑖𝑛𝑔 = 𝑝𝑤𝑓

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 Systems analysis approach
The effect of a change in tubing size on the total system producing capacity when pwf is
the node pressure is illustrated in Fig. 1-7.

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 Systems analysis approach
A producing system may be optimized by selecting the combination of component
characteristics that will give the maximum production rate for the lowest cost.
Although the overall pressure drop available for a system 𝑝ҧ𝑅 − 𝑝𝑠𝑒𝑝 , might be fixed at a
particular time, the producing capacity of the system depends on where the pressure
drops occur.

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