Abstract
The development of shale gas reservoir is mainly based on horizontal well production. Slug flow of gas-liquid two-phase is invariably encountered in inclined wells and horizontal wells of a producing environment. Due to gravitational differentiation, oil-water two-phase flow pattern, the local velocity and local phase holdup along the radial direction of pipe in near horizontal wells will perform complicatedly. This paper presented the results of an experimental study and a theoretical analysis of two-phase gas/water flow in horizontal and highly inclined systems. Extensive experiments were conducted using a test loop made of 124 mm diameter acrylic pipe with inclination angles from the horizontal of 0°, 5°, 15°, 45°, -2°, -5° and -10°, and with the total flow rate ranging from 50 to 800 m3/day. Based on the research on the law of slug flow dynamics model for gas-water two-phase flow in near horizontal pipeline, the theoretical analysis and experimental researches were done to propose the expressions of stable and exact production logging interpretation model for two-phase flow in near horizontal pipeline. The performance of the proposed method for estimating water holdup and water superficial velocity is in good agreement with our measurements. As a result, the slug flow dynamics model of gas-water two-phase flow in near horizontal wellbore was developed. The application effect of production logging in near horizontal wells had been improved.
Highlights
As an unconventional energy source, the shale gas plays an important role in the global energy structure
Through the production logging interpretation theoretical model based on slug flow structure, the following conclusions were obtained by comparing the predicted results of water holding capacity and water surface velocity with the experimental values in the inclined well
1) In this paper, the theoretical distribution models for production logging interpretation of slug flow were substituted into the theoretical values of experimental gas, the water apparent velocity and the water holdup as known values for positive and negative inversion calculations
Summary
As an unconventional energy source, the shale gas plays an important role in the global energy structure. The characteristics of gas-liquid two-phase flow in near horizontal wells are important for the establishment of the interpretation models of production profile logging data. Slug flow is a common flow pattern in the horizontal or slightly inclined production oil-gas wells and oil-gas pipeline, which is the alternation of the liquid plug body and the long air bag in space and time, and that shows intermittent and unstable characteristics during the flow process [3]. Many researches on multi-phase flow of oil and gas mixed transportation are to study slug flow characteristics [4]. By using a ground multiphase flow loop simulation experiment device, the internal relationship between the liquid holdup and the two-phase characteristic parameters of the slug flow in the horizontal and large inclined tubes was studied on the basis of the simulated well gas water two phase dynamic experiment to get a more perfect and more comprehensive law. The law can better guide the logging interpretation of horizontal and large inclined well production profile, and improve the production logging application technology
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