Deliverability Of Gas-Condensate Reservoirs - Field Experiences and Prediction Techniques

Jairam Kamath, Chevron

Predicting and assuring well deliverability often are important concerns when developing gas-condensate reservoirs. Many gas-condensate projects are in deep, hot, low-permeability reservoirs for which well costs are a significant part of the project economics. It is well known that the deliverability of gas-condensate wells can be impaired by the formation of a condensate bank once the bottomhole pressure drops below the dewpoint. This paper outlines the five steps—appropriate laboratory measurements, fitting laboratory data to relative permeability models, use of spreadsheet tools, single-well models, full-field models (FFMs)—to predict deliverability loss caused by condensate banking. It then discusses integrated laboratory/simulation field studies used to validate these steps. Finally, options
to improve well deliverability are explored.

SPE 103433 - Distinguished Author Series as published in JPT.

Jairam Kamath, SPE, is Team Leader of Well Performance and Recovery Mechanisms, Chevron Energy Technology Co. He holds a PhD degree from the U. of Michigan and has been with Chevron since 1985. Kamath specializes in the application of fundamental flow physics to solve practical problems, and has worked on gas condensates, naturally fractured reservoirs, miscible flooding and waterflooding of heterogeneous carbonates, low-permeability reservoirs, and well deliverability.