A semi-analytical solution to compositional flow in liquid-rich gas plays

Abstract

Liquid-rich gas (LRG) reservoirs can exhibit complex phase and flow behavior due to gas condensation and re-vaporization and differences in phase mobilities that results in compositional variations inside the system. To date, the analysis of composition variation in liquid-rich wells has been largely limited to numerical modeling. This work uses a similarity-based analytical approach to study the in situ and flowing fluid composition of gas condensate wells producing under infinite-acting linear and radial flow under constant bottomhole pressure (BHP) condition. We propose a semi-analytical solution to the governing partial differential equations (PDEs) written in terms a compositional fluid formulation for multiphase (gas, oil and water) flow system in liquid rich gas reservoirs. The proposed solution is developed using similarity-theory (i.e. Boltzmann’s transformation) and is validated by both analytical development and numerical simulation data. Using proposed method, pressure and overall composition are solved simultaneously and rigorously without any kind of simplification or approximation, from which producing fluid composition can be fully predicted prior to the availability of field production data. Moreover, results corroborate that when LRG wells are producing under 1D linear regime – a commonly-observed flow condition for hydraulically-fractured horizontal wells completed in unconventional formations – and against a constant BHP constraint, the producing wellbore fluid composition remains constant as long as the system remains infinite acting, leading to a constant producing gas-oil ratio (GOR). For radial flow, however, producing wells team composition and GOR are shown to be time-dependent before stabilization at a nearly-constant value.