THERMAL FIELD IN A HORIZONTAL WELL APPLIED TO THE DETERMINATION OF FLUID FLOW BY ACTIVE THERMOMETRY

Abstract

Today, in the context of falling oil production and increasing water cut, the importance of geophysical control over field development is increasing. A promising method of production logging is active thermometry, it is based on the creation of a thermal disturbance area in the wellbore, for example, due to induction heating of a section of a metal pipe (liner or casing, depending on the design of the well). As a result of heat exchange with a locally heated pipe section, heat marks are formed in the liquid, moving along the wellbore. The article presents the results of physical modeling of thermal processes during local induction heating of a section of a horizontal well. It has been experimentally established that with an induction heater power of about 1 kW and flow rates in the pipe up to 50 m3/day, the heating of the pipe wall reaches 12 K. As part of the experimental studies, the movement of heat marks was monitored using two modules of temperature sensors distributed over the pipe cross section. It is shown that the nature of temperature change in time is determined by the position of the temperature sensor in the pipe section. The greatest thermal anomalies are noted for sensors pressed against the pipe in its upper part, the smallest - for sensors located in the lower part of the pipe. The fluid flow rate in the pipe was estimated from the rate of passage of the heat mark between the temperature modules. It is shown that the calculated flow rate is overestimated relative to the actual one due to the influence of natural thermal convection, which causes the occurrence of a natural convective fluid flow in addition to the forced movement with a given flow rate. A new analytical solution has been obtained for calculating the dynamics of the pipe temperature in the induction heating section, a comparison of the results of calculations using the analytical model with the experimental results showed good agreement. The results of experimental studies can be used in interpreting the results of field logging wells using active thermometry, in particular, the sensitivity of the pipe temperature in the induction heating section to the flow rate can be used to solve inverse problems of estimating the flow rate in a pipe by measuring its surface temperature using the obtained analytical solution.