Summary of Liquid Loading Law and Liquid Loading Prediction Model in Gas Well Wellbore

Abstract

Gas well wellbore effusion is one of the important problems to be solved in the process of gas well development. When the problem of effusion is serious, it will lead to gas well shutdown and water flooding. The key to solve this problem lies in whether the liquid accumulation can be accurately identified and predicted in the early stage of liquid accumulation. This paper summarizes the mainstream methods of liquid accumulation identification, which are mainly divided into droplet model and liquid film model. In terms of droplet model, researchers have proposed a variety of models to predict and identify liquid accumulation in gas wells based on the force balance of droplets in gas flow. The liquid film model analyzes the stability of the liquid film, the change of the thickness of the liquid film and other factors, and establishes a variety of models to predict whether the liquid film will return, so as to determine the location of the liquid loading point and the critical liquid carrying speed. These models are not only widely used in vertical wells, but also studied and applied in complex well types such as inclined wells and horizontal wells. With the advancement of computing technology and the deepening of theoretical research, the application effect of these technologies in predicting liquid loading in gas wells has been continuously improved, which provides important support and guidance for the safe production and operation efficiency of gas wells. At the same time, the challenges faced by the research in terms of data accuracy and method applicability are analyzed. Finally, the summary evaluation of several methods is comprehensively reviewed, and the prospect of future gas well effusion identification and effusion prediction research is discussed.