A Simple Method for Predicting Gas/Oil Ratio GOR of Electric Submersible Pumping ESPx Oil Wells

Abstract

Abstract Analyzing well performance is an important step toward increasing profits by improving production techniques. Among artificial lift the main factors controlling the oil producing wells are gas/oil ratio (GOR), the bottom-hole pressure (BHP) and the pump intake pressure (PIP) of the electric submersible pump (ESP). These factors are used to calculate the possible well production when choosing the appropriate pumping equipment and optimizing well performance. There are different methods which can be used for determining (BHP) and (PIP) of electric submersible pumping (ESP) wells such as conventional pressure bomb, pressure sensors and acoustic well sounding technique. In addition, the GOR is determined only from production test by a separator. All the previous methods require a device. This requires additional money. A new method for calculating the pump intake pressure (PIP) and the bottom hole pressure (BHP) for ESP wells has been developed using production and completion data only. Based on this method, a new procedure was established for calculating the gas/oil ratio (GOR) for electric– submersible pumping oil wells. In this study, the value of pump intake pressure (PIP) is measured using acoustic method (measure the fluid level in the annulus) then the (PIP) is calculated by our developed method using production and completion data assuming a value of GOR, conducting many trials with different assumed GOR until matching the calculated and measured data of PIP. At this point, the calculated GOR is close to the actual GOR. The data used in this study were collected from 27 wells; these wells were selected from Western Desert of Egypt covering a wide range of variations in their reservoirs, fluid properties, and ESP assembly. The comparison of the calculated and measured gas-oil ratio (GOR) proves good accuracy of this technique. It allows drawing a conclusion for an opportunity to use this method in oil field.