Petroleum Engineering 613 — Natural Gas Engineering Lecture 6 — IPR Concepts for Gas Wells

Orientation
Inflow Performance Relationships

Tom BLASINGAME | t-blasingame@tamu.edu | Texas A&M U. Slide — 1

 Petroleum Engineering 613 — Natural Gas Engineering Lecture 6 — IPR Concepts for Gas Wells

Early Performance Relations — Historical

From: Back-Pressure Data on Natural-Gas Wells and Their Application to Production
Practices — Rawlins and Schellhardt (USBM Monograph, 1935).

Discussion: Early Performance Relations

●Early "Gas IPR Plot," (circa 1935).
●Note the quadratic relationship between well-head pressure and flowrate.
●Interpret past-performance and predict future behavior.
Tom BLASINGAME | t-blasingame@tamu.edu | Texas A&M U. Slide — 2
Petroleum Engineering 613 — Natural Gas Engineering Lecture 6 — IPR Concepts for Gas Wells

Early Performance Relations — Historical

Discussion: Early Performance Relations

●Early "Gas Deliverability Plot," note straight-line trends in the data (circa 1935).
●Early performance correlations.
●Interpret past-performance and predict future behavior.
Tom BLASINGAME | t-blasingame@tamu.edu | Texas A&M U. Slide — 3
 Petroleum Engineering 613 — Natural Gas Engineering Lecture 6 — IPR Concepts for Gas Wells

Early Performance Relations — Historical

Gas Well Deliverability:
From: Back-Pressure Data on Natural-Gas Wells and Their Application to Production

� The original well deliverability relation

was derived from observations:

qg � C( p2 � p2 )n
Practices — Rawlins and Schellhardt (USBM Monograph, 1935).

wf
� The "inflow performance relationship" (or
IPR) for this case is: (assuming n=1)

qg � C ( p 2 � p 2 )
wf

qg,max � C( p2) ( p � 0)
wf
� p �2
qg �
� wf �
�

� 1 � �� �
�
q g,max �
�
�
p �
�
�

Discussion: Early Performance Relations

●Not early wellbore diagram (circa 1935).
●"Deliverability relation" is one of the oldest equations in Petroleum Engineering.
●Ratio of rates and pressures yields "inflow performance relation" (IPR).
Tom BLASINGAME | t-blasingame@tamu.edu | Texas A&M U. Slide — 4
Petroleum Engineering 613 — Natural Gas Engineering Lecture 6 — IPR Concepts for Gas Wells

IPR Developments/Correlations
�2
qo �1 � 0.2 �� pwf �� � 0.8 �� pwf ��
� � �

qo,max �
� p ��� �
� p ���
� �

qg pwf ��2
�

qg,max �1 � p ��
�
�
�
�
�
�
�

qo �1 � �� pwf
� �
�
�
qo,max �
� p
�
�
� �

Discussion: IPR Developments/Correlations

●IPR — liquid (oil), gas, and "two-phase" (solution gas-drive) cases [Vogel (1968)].
●Correlate performance, estimate maximum flowrate.
●Individual phases require, separate correlations.
Tom BLASINGAME | t-blasingame@tamu.edu | Texas A&M U. Slide — 5
Petroleum Engineering 613 — Natural Gas Engineering Lecture 6 — IPR Concepts for Gas Wells

Solution-Gas Drive Systems — Vogel IPR

p� � � p �2
qo �1 � 0.2 wf � � 0.8 � wf ��
�
�
� �

qo,max �
p ���
�
�
� p �
�
� � �

Discussion: Vogel IPR Correlation — Solution Gas-Drive Behavior

●Derived as a statistical correlation from simulation cases.
●No "theoretical" basis — "intuitive" correlation (qo,max and pavg).
●IPR behavior is dependent on the reservoir depletion stage.
Tom BLASINGAME | t-blasingame@tamu.edu | Texas A&M U. Slide — 6
Petroleum Engineering 613 — Natural Gas Engineering Lecture 6 — IPR Concepts for Gas Wells

Solution-Gas Drive Systems — Other Approaches

Fetkovich IPR: (Semi-Empirical) Richardson, et al. IPR: (Empirical)

� n
p � � � 2 �� �2
qo � 1 � wf �
�
�
�
�
�
�
�
p� � �p
qx �1 � ν wf �� � (1 � ν ) �� wf ��
�
� � �
qo,max � �
qx,max x � x �
p�
�
�
�
�
�
�
� p ���
�
�
�
�
p �
�
�
� � � �
� �
(x = phase (e.g., oil, gas, water))
Discussion: Fetkovich and Richardson IPR Correlations — Solution Gas-Drive Case
●Fetkovich: Semi-Empirical (assumes 1/(uoBo) is linear in pressure).
●Richardson, et al.: Empirical, generalized correlation.
●Fetkovich result is equivalent to gas formulation when n=1.
Tom BLASINGAME | t-blasingame@tamu.edu | Texas A&M U. Slide — 7