Performance of a gas-lifted oil production well at steady state

Abstract Although gas-lift is an established technology for improving the performances of oil production wells, simplicity, robustness and accuracy models remain to be fully resolved. As improvement on traditional practice, this paper proposes a new approach modelling performance gas-lifted wells at steady-state conditions. The conceptual framework splits wellbore into two segments. segments are unique characteristics, yet they hydraulically connected. While one segment controlled primarily by upstream reservoir-sandface conditions, dynamics second dominated lift-gas. This work results in four-phase model accompanying workflow analysing well. Using examples from fields operating under diverse conditions Niger Delta North Sea, validated against commercial simulator actual field results. yields average absolute deviation (AAD) 2.7 5.4% results, respectively. Notwithstanding its relative range AAD recorded attests applicability practice. In addition simple mathematical form, competitive feature proposed most other that it accounts four phases (gas, oil, water solid particulates) typically encountered mature brown fields.