Title: Effects Of Surfactant Concentration On Critical Gas Velocity In Liquid Loaded Gas Wells
Authors: Isaac Eze Ihua-Maduenyi, Ndidi Emeka Uzoigwe , Godloves Tondie Nonju
Volume: 9
Issue: 2
Pages: 22-30
Publication Date: 2025/02/28
Abstract:
The amount of liquid produced by most gas well is either condensate or water. At high rates, the gas is able to entrain liquid to the surface; however, as gas well depletes, the liquid drops back in a gas well (called liquid loading) creating a back pressure on the reservoir formation. In this work, the impact of surfactant concentrations on turner and no-slip velocity to unload liquid was evaluated. A simulation based approach was adopted and PROSPER was used for the model development. A based model was initially developed and remodelled for different surfactant concentrations of 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4 and 0.5 mass percent. The model was run to evaluate well performance, liquid loading tendency, turner velocity and no-slip velocity. Result shows that the critical turner velocity was lower than the total no-slip velocity without surfactant injection. With surfactant injection, several methods have been proposed for mitigation of liquid loading, among which surfactant injection is the most used. Result reveals that the critical turner velocity was lower than the total no-slip velocity for both with and without surfactant injection and increase in Surfactant concentrations decreases critical turner velocity. Also, furyher results reveal that increase in the surfactant concentration decreases the critical turner velocity and increases the no-slip velocity.