Gas lift optimization employing data obtained from surface mounted sensors

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10012059-B2
Application number	US-201514796862-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 10, 2015
Priority date	Aug 21, 2014
Publication date	Jul 3, 2018
Grant date	Jul 3, 2018

Abstract

A method of optimizing the operation of a gas lift well including the steps of: collecting data from at least one surface mounted sensor, the at least one surface mounted sensor including a skin-mounted temperature sensor, the at least one surface mounted sensor mounted to the gas lift well's surface equipment; collecting ambient temperature data; and determining gas lift performance from data so obtained. A system and field test kits for optimizing the operation of a gas lift well.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method of optimizing the operation of a gas lift well, comprising the steps of:
providing a wellhead on a gas lift well, the wellhead for receiving a produced fluid stream from the gas lift well;
providing a produced fluid flow conduit for conveying a produced fluid stream away from the wellhead;
providing a gas lift injection conduit for conveying gas lift gas into an annulus of the gas lift well;
providing an adjustable choke on at least one of the produced fluid flow conduit, the gas lift injection conduit, and the wellhead, for controlling at least one of a gas lift gas injection rate and a produced fluid production rate;
providing a skin mounted temperature sensor on an exterior surface of the produced-fluid flow conduit;
providing an ambient temperature sensor to monitor ambient temperature proximate to the skin mounted temperature sensor;
providing apparatus for:
(a) collecting skin temperature data from the skin mounted temperature sensor at a first time period while producing fluids from the gas lift well;
(b) collecting ambient temperature data from the ambient temperature sensor at the first time period;
(c) determining a choke position setting at the first time period;
(d) adjusting the choke position setting to another choke position at another time period and repeating steps (a)-(c);
normalizing the ambient temperature data collected during the first time period with the ambient temperature data collected during the another time period;
comparing the skin temperature data collected at step (a) for the first time period with the skin temperature data collected at step (a) for the another time period, to determine which choke position setting produced the highest normalized skin temperature; and
operating the first production well based upon the highest normalized skin temperature, by at least one of;
(i) positioning the choke setting at at least one of the first choke setting, the another choke setting, and yet still another choke setting; and
(ii) adjusting a rate of injection of gas lift gas into the gas lift well; and
(iii) combinations thereof.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising a skin mounted acoustic sensor and a skin mounted vibration sensor, on the produced fluid flow conduit.

3. The method of claim 2 , further comprising compensating the temperature data collected from the skin mounted temperature sensor for the collected ambient temperature.

4. The method of claim 3 , further comprising the step of varying the gas lift rate of the first gas lift well for a determined data gathering period and repeating steps (a)-(c).

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the step of determining gas lift performance includes qualitatively determining the rate of gas lift well liquids produced.

6. The method of claim 5 , further comprising the step of (e) adjusting gas lift parameters to maximize the rate of gas lift well liquids produced from the first gas lift well.

7. The method of claim 6 , further comprising the step of combining the information collected in steps (a)-(e) with quantitative well test information to create a database of gas lift injection gas rate versus expected produced fluid flow rates.

8. The method of claim 6 , further comprising the step of repeating steps (a)-(e) at a second gas lift well, the second gas lift well sharing a reservoir with the first gas lift well and comparing the production of the second gas lift well to the production of the first gas lift well.

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising using on the produced fluid conduit and collecting data from at least one of a skin mounted acoustic sensor and a skin mounted vibration sensor.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the skin mounted acoustic sensor comprises a piezoelectric acoustic emission sensor.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the adjustable choke is adjusted automatically, manually, or either selectively automatically and manually.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the gas lift well produces fluids comprising gas and liquids at flowline conditions within the produced fluid conduit.

13. A system for optimizing the operation of a gas lift well, comprising:
a wellhead on a gas lift well, the wellhead for receiving a produced fluid stream from the gas-lift well;
a produced fluid flow conduit for conveying a produced fluid stream away from the wellhead;
a gas lift injection conduit for conveying gas lift gas into an annulus of the gas lift well;
an adjustable choke on at least one of the produced fluid flow conduit, the gas lift injection conduit, and the wellhead, for controlling at least one of gas lift gas injection rate and produced fluid production rate;
a skin-mounted temperature sensor on an exterior surface of the produced-fluid flow conduit;
an ambient temperature sensor to monitor ambient temperature proximate to the skin-mounted temperature sensor;
apparatus to:
(a) collect skin-temperature data from the skin-mounted temperature sensor at a first time period while producing fluids from the gas lift well;
(b) collect ambient temperature data from the ambient temperature sensor at the first time period; and
(c) determine the choke position setting at the first time period;
adjusting the choke position setting to another choke position setting at another time period and repeating steps (a)-(c);
a computer comprising data storage and a processor for;
(i) normalizing the ambient temperature data collected during the first time period with the ambient temperature data collected during the another time period; and
(ii) comparing the skin-temperature data collected at step (a) for the first time period with the skin-temperature data collected at step (a) for the another time period, to determine which choke position setting produced the highest normalized skin temperature; and
(iii) operating the gas lift well based upon the highest normalized skin temperature of the produced fluid flow conduit, by at least one of;
(A) positioning the choke setting at at least one of the first choke setting, the another choke setting, and yet still another choke setting; and
(B) adjusting a rate of injecting the gas lift gas into the gas lift well; and
(C) combinations thereof.

14. The system of claim 13 , further comprising a skin-mounted acoustic sensor and a skin-mounted vibration sensor, on the produced fluid flow conduit.

15. The system of claim 14 , wherein the computer is programmed to adjust the data obtained from the skin-mounted temperature sensor for ambient temperature.

16. The system of claim 15 , wherein the computer is programmed to process data obtained over a plurality of gas lift gas injection rates.

17. The system of claim 16 , wherein the computer is programmed to qualitatively determine the rate of gas lift well liquids produced with respect to another rate of gas lift well liquids produced.

18. The system of claim 17 , wherein the data obtained from the at least one surface mounted sensor and the ambient temperature sensor is combined with information obtained during well testing to create a database of measurements as a function of expected flow rates, the data stored in the storage means of the computer.

19. The system of claim 13 , wherein the at least one surface mounted sensor includes a plurality of surface mounted sensors include a skin-mounted temperature sensor, a skin-mounted acoustic sensor and a skin-mounted vibration sensor.

20. The system of claim 19 , wherein the skin-mounted acoustic sensor comprises a

Assignees

• Romer Michael C
• Long Ted A
• Hord Tony W
• Johnson Michael K
• Exxonmobil Upstream Res Co

Inventors

• Romer Michael C
• Long Ted A
• Hord Tony W
• Johnson Michael K

Classifications

• F04F1/08 Primary

  specially adapted for raising liquids from great depths, e.g. in wells · CPC title

• E21B43/122 Primary

  Gas lift · CPC title

• E21B41/0092

  Fixed Constructions · mapped topic

• E21B47/06

  Measuring temperature or pressure · CPC title

• E21B43/123 Primary

  Gas lift valves · CPC title