The Recent Applications of Jet Pump Technology to Enhance Production from Tight Oil and Gas Fields

Abstract

Abstract Production from many oil and gas fields becomes restricted as the reservoir pressure drops. The situation becomes worse for fragmented reservoirs and tight reservoirs, when water-cut also increases. In order to maintain production at an economical rate, and also to increase total recovery from the field, a production boosting system is always required. Jet pumps are simple passive devices which use a high pressure (HP) fluid as the motive flow to boost the pressure of produced gas and liquid phases. For producing wells; it enables the flowing wellhead pressure (FWHP) to be reduced in order to increase production, whilst meeting the downstream production pressure requirements. The applications include also revival of the liquid loaded wells. In recent years the industry has become more aware of their applications and benefits. This paper covers their applications, including; boosting production from selected oil and gas wells, boosting the pressure of low pressure gas, prevent flaring very low pressure gas, eliminate the need for intermediate compressors, de-bottlenecking compressors, prevent HP wells backing out LP wells, and revival of liquid loaded wells. In addition to referring to recent field examples, issues such as performance, ranges of operation, key features of the system and solutions for gas or oil production applications are described. Key operation issues are also addressed. The paper addresses the economic aspects shown by typical pay-back periods for recovery of the capital from the benefits gained such as added revenue.