THE EFFECTS ON PRODUCTION RATES

Basically, the smaller the choke... the less gas produced but it will flow at higher
pressure. Opening the choke reduces the flowing pressure. There are as many
schools of thought as to the best way to flow a shale well as there are operators, I
imagine, but generally they are mostly using a "smallish" choke (less than 20/64),
initially, where in the beginning of the play it was fairly common to see shale wells
with 24/64 or larger choke. Some of these wells are so over-pressured that they have
to be flowed on a bigger choke until the pressures come down a little and then they
.are choked down some more
Normally choke sizes are increased (opened) over time until flowing pressure reaches
line pressure (~ 1000 psi). I assume the operator would decrease the choke size
initially when a well is dropped into a lower pressure gathering system (~ 300 to 500
.psi)
Most natural gas wells are produced initially on choke to avoid damaging the
formation and/or downhole and surface equipment. Chokes can be located on the
.wellhead or in the flow line upstream of the production separator

What does the well operator look for to determine when a choke size should be
increased or decreased in a producing oil well - rate of oil dump? What does the well's
production equipment (separators or whatever) tell them that says you can increase
?the choke size? Goodrich stated in a Q&A today that they listen to the well
oil wells behave a bit differently than a dry gas well. Some will flow from formation
pressure, for awhile, and others will require some sort of artificial lifting mechanism,
the most familiar being a pump jack, right from the getgo. It is not uncommon to see
an oil well, or one flowing lots of condensate, operating on a fairly large or full open
choke but with low flowing pressure (compared to a high pressure gas well). But, the
idea is to maintain, at least, the minimum flowing pressure required by the gathering
system, if there is one, or flow into a holding tank and if the formation pressure is not
high enough to do that then a pump will have to be used to lift the oil. Lack of
pressure and an open choke doesn't mean no oil can be produced... just that an
artificial means will have to be used to overcome the lack of formation pressure. Each
well will behave a bit differently (but within an expected "norm" for the field) & will
decline in flow rate & pressure, over time, and I think that is what they mean by
.""listen(ing) to the well