Prediction of natural gas hydrate formation region in wellbore during deep-water gas well testing

Abstract

Wellbore temperature field equations are established with considerations of the enthalpy changes of the natural gas during the deep-water gas well testing. A prediction method for the natural gas hydrate formation region during the deep-water gas well testing is proposed, which combines the wellbore temperature field equations, the phase equilibrium conditions of the natural gas hydrate formation and the calculation methods for the pressure field. Through the sensitivity analysis of the parameters that affect the hydrate formation region, it can be concluded that during the deep-water gas well testing, with the reduction of the gas production rate and the decrease of the geothermal gradient, along with the increase of the depth of water, the hydrate formation region in the wellbore enlarges, the hydrate formation regions differ with different component contents of natural gases, as compared with the pure methane gas, with the increase of ethane and propane, the hydrate formation region expands, the admixture of inhibitors, the type and the concentrations of which can be optimized through the method proposed in the paper, will reduce the hydrate formation region, the throttling effect will lead to the abrupt changes of temperature and pressure, which results in a variation of the hydrate formation region, if the throttling occurs in the shallow part of the wellbore, the temperature will drop too much, which enlarges the hydrate formation region, otherwise, if the throttling occurs in the deep part of the wellbore, the hydrate formation region will be reduced due to the decrease of the pressure.