Gas lifting design and application in geothermal wells: A case study from West Anatolia, Turkiye

Abstract

The gas content of the producing fluid has crucial effects on the production performance of geothermal wells. The decline of non-condensable gases (NCG) could result in significant performance reduction of the wells. Artificial production techniques such as pumps (i.e., Line Shaft Pump and Electrical Submersible Pump) and gas lifting are the widely known methods for enhancing the production performance of wells. Due to the high-temperature working environment and the well's inclination, pumps might be inconvenient for geothermal wells. Continuous injection of gases such as nitrogen (N2) and carbon dioxide (CO2) serving as gas lifting might be the appropriate method to enhance production from geothermal wells suffering from low gas content and reservoir pressure. This study investigates production enhancement with gas lifting in a geothermal field in Turkiye. The study aims to fill the gap of gas lifting in the geothermal industry as an alternative to downhole pumps such as ESP and LSP. The sensitivity analyses were performed on the design parameters such as injection depth, rates, tubing size, number of valves, and injectate gas type influencing the production performance of gas lifting. The study found that gas lifting is an optimization problem that needs to be solved by considering gas sources, infrastructure sizes, wellbore geometry, and operating parameters.