Evaluation of Three New Methods

For Predicting Pressure Losses

In Vertical Oilwell Tubing
I. R. Vohra, SPE-AIME, U. of Tulsa
J. R. Robinson, SPE-AIME, U. of Tulsa
James P. Brill, SPE-AIME, U. of Tulsa

Introduction
Six of the several correlations available for predict-
ing pressure losses during simultaneous, continuous,
steady-state flow of oil, water, and gas in vertical pipes
were evaluated statistically by Lawson and Brill. 1
Three more promisillg correlations have recently been
published - those of Beggs and Brill,2 Aziz et at. s,
and Ch4erici et at. 4 The purpose of this paper is to
extend the work of Lawson and Brill to cover the
new correlations.
Details of the three new methods can be found in
the original sources listed in the references. The same
flowing pressure surveys and related data for 726
field and experimental wells were used as were re-
ported by Lawson and Brill. Fluid physical properties
were estimated using the· same correlations as em-
ployed by Lawson and Brill.
. Although every attempt was made by Lawson and
Brill to screen data in the data bank, no doubt some
questionable data have been included. In a study such
as this, the quality of the data is critical. It has been
found, for example, that small errors in measured gas
volumes and oil formation volume factors can signifi-
cantly affect the calculated results. A valid criticism
of the bank is that inadequate use was made of what
limited measured PVT data were available. Another
possible criticism is that many of the data used were
gas-water data with low gas/water ratios, a situation
seldom found in practice. No claim was made that
the gas-water data were meant to represent gas well
production. Rather, these data are extremely valu-
able because of the absence of mass transfer between
phases and the resulting improved accuracy of, for
example, predicted in-situ phase velocities.
All three of the correlations were developed from
two-phase flow data, one of the phases being gas. A
third phase (water) can be included if we assume that
its presence does not change the physical phenomena
of two-phase flow. Possible changes that could inva:li-
date results are slippage between oil and water, for-
mation of emulsions, and the influence of water on
gas bubble coalescence and the formation of gas slugs.
The degree to which such changes are present in the
three-'phase data is unknown. .
We applied the three correlations to all data, know-
ing full well that many of the data were beyond the
range of variables used to develop the correlations.
However, correlations are frequently used indiscrim-
inately beyond their stated ranges of validity. There-
fore a test of their performance over a broad range
of data is of value.
Validation of Programming
Pressure losses calculated by a computer program of
each method were compared with the corresponding
pressure losses reported by each author for identical
well cases. This comparison indicated the degree of
agreement between the results of the two programs.
Because of variations in the selection of fluid physical

The reliability and relative merits have been estimated for three recently published
multiphase-flow pressure-drop prediction correlations applicable to vertical tubing.
Data from 726 tests, embracing broad ranges of flow rate,. pipe size, API gravity,
gas/liquid ratio, and water/oil ratio were used in the evaluation. It was found that
no single correlation consistently performed best in every range.

AUGUST, 1974 829

 TABLE I-STATISTICAL RESULTS FOR property correlations, convergence techniques, and
ALL WELL TESTS
specified tolerances, exact duplication was not always
Average expected.
Percent Standard
Correlation Difference Deviation Beggs's calculated pressure gradients for 27 uphill
Beggs and Brill -17.8 27.6
and 27 downhill vertical flow cases 5 were reproduced
Aziz et al. + ·8.2 34.7 by the program of this study. The no-slip friction
Chierici et al. -42.8 43.9 factor was calculated using the Colebrook equation
rather than the smooth-pipe equation suggested by
Beggs and Brill.2
Aziz et aI.3 published their computer program to-
gether with calculated pressure traverses for 48 oilwell
cases, of which 38 were from the study of Espanol
et at. 6 Of the 726 well test data in this study, 44 were
taken from Ref. 6. The results of this program agreed
within 5 percent with the Aziz et aI. calculated pres-
sure gradients for the well tests of Ref. 6.
Considerable difficulty was encountered in match-
ing resuHs for the 31 well cases reported by Chierici
et at. 4 The major differences were for their Wells 11
through 13. If these three wells were excluded, an
average error and standard deviation of -1.63 and
6.02 percent, respectively, were calculated, compared
z
with +0.30 and 5.37 percent by Chierid et aI. for
o
;::::
the 28 wells.
« 40
G:;
o
Discussion of Results
~ 20 Por 'statistical evaluation of each pressure-loss corre-
«o lation, three numerical measures of reliability were
z
;:: used. These were the percent difference, (PD), aver-
Vl o L._ - - - ' _ - - - l L - - - - l L - - - - ' _ - - - '_ _--'_---l.--c--_--l
age of percent differences (APD), and standard devi-
1.049 1.38 1.61 1.995 2.376 2.441 2.992
1311 (1751 11401 (2281 (4\1 1601 (46) ation of percent difference values from the average
VALUES OF INSIDE TUBING DIAMETER, INCHES percent difference (SD).
(NUMBER OF WELL TESTS IN EACH GROUP IN PARENTHESESI
Fig. I-Statistical results for well data grouped
by internal tubing diameter.
PD = APm - APe X 100 percent
APm
n
40 :z PD.
APD = ...;.,i_=.....I_ _
.....
u
n
ifi 20 n
.....
0:::
u. :z (PD, - APD)2
u.
i = 1
SD=
~ 0 n- 1
z
.....
U
0:::
where
lt -20 APe = calculated pressure loss,
.....
o
<C o APm = measured pressure loss,
.....
0:::
• AZIZ
;;C -40
A. BEGGS n = number of cases.
o CHI ERICI Statistical results for the three correlations are pre-
lI'-60 sented in Table 1.
z Table 1 indicates that t4e Beggs and BrilF Corre-

tf~
0
i= lation yielded the lowest standard deviation of 27.6
<C 40
a.
Cl
Cl
0:::
<C
Cl
Z
20
•r
A.:
0'--::;
.~~
~t
•
percent, and the Aziz et at. 3 correlation gave the
lowest average error of + 8.2 percent. Of all the
methods analyzed in both this study and that of Ref.
1, only the Aziz et at. method yielded a positive aver-
<C
l-
age percent difference.
V>
0 Besides determining the cumqlative statistical
13-20 25-31 31-35 35-43 43-56 figures for the 726 well cases, we evaluated the three
(201 (54) (117) (52) (49)
correlations within specific ranges of important flow
RANGES OF PRODUCED OIL: API GRAVITY
(NUMBER OF WELL TESTS IN EAC.H GROUP IN PARENTHESES) variables. The five' variables used in Ref. 1 were
Fig, 2-Statistical results for well data' grouped selected and the performance of each method was
by produced-oil API gravity. tested within set limits of each variable. Pigs. 1
830 JOURNAL OF PETROLEUM TECHNOLOGY
through 5 show the resulting performance curves. 20
Fig. 1 shows that all three correlations followed the
same general trend with increasing pipe size and that ...
u
all the methods overpredicted pressure losses for well i5 0
cases in which the inside tubing diameter was between ...
De
u.
u.
2.6 and 3.2 in. Only five test cases had tubing diam- Cl -20
eters above 3.2 in. and therefore no reliabl~ estimates I-
i5
on performance could be determined for these larger ...
'-'
De

pipe sizes.
Performance curves for the 292 well cases in which
... -40
CL

<.!>
• AZiZ
there was no water production are plotted in Fig. 2 ...::c -60
<C
De
.to BEGGS
as a function of produced oil API gravity. For oils in o CHI ERI C1
0 __0

the range of 20° to 31 ° API gravity, all three corre-

lations underpredicted pressure losses. The Aziz et ai. !!f'. 60
method performed better for the heaviest (below 20° z
0
API) and lightest (above 43° API) oils, whereas the ;::
<C 40
Beggs and Brill method yielded better results for oils ~
of intermediate API gravity. . Cl
Cl
. Fig. 3 depicts the behavior of the statistical curves De
<C 20
Cl
as a function of the produced gas/liquid ratio. Both Z
<C
the Beggs and Brill and the Chierici et aU schemes l-
V>
0
overestimated calculated down-hole pressures in all o .004-.036 0.1-1.0 1.0-20 20-00
(292) (81 (91 (92) (3251
ranges of gas/liquid ratio. However, the Aziz et ai. RANGES OF PRODUCING WATER/OIL RATIO
correlation underpredicted pressure drops for gas / (NUMBER OF WELL TESTS IN EACH GROUP IN PARENTHESES I
liquid .ratios below 5,000 scf/STB; above 5,000 scf/ Fig. 4-Statistical results for well data grouped
STB, this correlation overestimated flowing bottom- by producing water/oil ratio.
hole pressur~s and exhibited the least scatter.
No general trend could be ascertained in the varia-
tion of performance with produced water / oil ratio
(Fig. 4). All three methods had the highest standard
deviation for well cases with no water phase present
and with water/oil ratios above 20. The lack of con-
sistency in the results of all three correlations could

20 . - - - - . - - - - . - - - - , - - - . - - - - - . . . ,
.....
30
___ e .----.
u
t5 10 •

-1/--0..----0
o a:::
~ 0

c
I-

u
t5
a:::
-20
U
~-10
z
UJ

a:::
~ -30 f-
0; .to

~ -40
.....
UJ

~
a:::
... /
0/
c.:l UJ
<C
a::: ;;;: -50
~-60 • AZIZ
<C e AZIZ
.to BEGGS .to BEGGS
'Ffl. -80 o CHIERICI z o CHIERICI
0
z i=
o <C 80
~ 60 o

:~o
~
/0_ c
~
~
c
c a::: -
---:::t~i~
0 / -e <C
40
~
<C
c
40
.lit
~l~.to~e c
Z
<C
l-
~ V') I

t;:; 20L---=c1...:-::-=--:c::-::--'=::-:----::-::c~=~=_=-=:__---' 0-.4 .4-LO LO-2.0 ) 2.0

5000-80,000 (219) (221) (154) (132)
(22m (2261 11671 (113) RANGES OF SUPERFICIAL VELOCITY OF PRODUCED
RANGES OF PRODUCING GAS/LIQUID RATIO L1QUI DS. FTISEC
(NUMBER OF WELL TESTS IN EACH GROUP IN PARENTHESES) (NUMBER OF WELL TESTS IN EACH GROUP IN PARENTHESES)
Fig. 3-Statistical results for well data grouped Fig. 5-Statistical results for well data grouped by
by producing gas/liquid ratio. superficial velocity of produced liquids.

AUGUST, 1974 831

be attributed to the possible formation of oil-water
einulsions. For such mixtures, averaging separate oil
and water properties does not yield appropriate values
for the various liquid properties required in each
correlation.
Analysis of Fig. 5 shows the steady improvement
in standard deviation with increasing superficial liquid
velocities at the wellhead. As stated by Lawson and
Brill/ "The poorer predictions at lower liquid super-
ficial velocities could be an indication of a more
cyclical or noncontinuous type of flow, which would
be expected to be more elusive of being predicted by
correlating techniques based on continuous flow."
Conclusions
The reliability and relative merits were estimated for
three recently published multiphase-flow pressure-
drop prediction correlations applicable to vertical
tubing. Well test data from several sources were
selected to embrace broad ranges of flow rate, pipe
size, API gravity, gas/liquid ratio, and water/oil ratio.
When applied to the entire data set of 726 tests,
the correlation of Beggs and Bri1l2 was found to yield
the least value of standard deviation. However, the
Aziz et at. 3 estimation technique resulted in the low-
est average difference between measured and calcu-
lated pressure drops.
Figs. 1 through 5 reveal in greater detail the selec-
832
tive performance of the various correlating schemes
within certain limitations of producing well flow pa-
rameters. No single method consistently performed
best in every range.
References
1. Lawson, J. D., and Brill, J. P.: "A Statistical Evaluation
of Methods Used To Predict Pressure Losses for Multi-
phase Flow in Vertical Oilwell Tubing," J. Pet. Tech.
(Aug. 1974) 903-914; Trans., AIME, 257.
2. Beggs, H. D., and Brill, J. P.: "A Study of Two-Phase
Flow in Inclined Pipes," J. Pet. Tech. (May 1973) 607-
617; Trans., AIME, 255.
3. Aziz, K., Govier, G. W., and Fogarasi, M.: "Pressure
Drop in Wells Producing Oil and Gas," J. Cdn. Pet.
Tech. (July-Sept. 1972) 38~48.
4. Chierici, G. L., Ciucci, G. M., and Sclocchi, G.: ''Two-
Phase Flow in Oil Wells-Prediction of Pressure Drop,"
J. Pet. Tech. (Aug. 1974) 927-937; Trans., AIME, 257.
5. Beggs, H. D.·: "An Experimental Study of Two-Phase
Flow in Inclined Pipes," PhD dissertation, U. of Tulsa,
Tulsa, Okla. (1972).
6. Espanol Herrera, J. H., Holmes; C. S., and Brown, K. E.:
"A Comparison of Existing Multiphase Flow Methods for
the Calculation of Pressure Drop in Vertical Wells,"
paper SPE 2553 presented at the SPE-AIME 44th Annual
Fall Meeting, Denver, Colo., Sept. 28-0ct. 1, 1969.
JPT
Original manuscript received in Society of Petroleum Engineers
office July 19, 1973. Revised manuscript received June 18, 1974.
Paper (SPE 4689) was first presented at the SPE·AIME 48th
Annual Fall Meeting, held in Las Vegas, Nev., Sept. 30·0ct. 3,
1973. © Copyright 1974 American Institute of Mining, Metal-
lurgical, and Petroleum Engineers, Inc.
JOURNAL OF PETROLEUM TECHNOLOGY