Optimization Method of Plunger Gas Lift

Process Based on Olga Software

Jun-liang Li1,2 , Wei-ming Huang1,2,3(B) , Nan Zhang1,2 , Jing-qin Wang1,2 ,

Guang-yun Xu1,2 , and Di Yang4
1 Daqing Oil Field Production Engineering Research Institute, Daqing 163453, Heilongjiang,
China
312214620@qq.com
2 Heilongjiang Oil and Gas Reservoir Yield Increasing Key Points Laboratory, Daqing 163453,
Heilongjiang, China
3 School of Mechanical Science and Engineering, Northeast Petroleum University,
Daqing 163318, Heilongjiang, China
4 Daqing Oilfield Oil Testing and Production Branch, Daqing 163453, Heilongjiang, China

Abstract. At present, the design of the gas well plunger gas lift process mainly
adopts the empirical calculation method. The working conditions of gas wells are
excessively simplified by using empirical calculation method, which affects the
effect of process design. In this paper, the international multiphase flow simula-
tion standard software Olga is applied, taking the gas well of Xushen gas field in
Daqing as an example. The transient multiphase flow calculation method is inno-
vatively adopted to establish the plunger dynamic simulation model to accurately
simulate the formation flow dynamics and the gas-liquid flow law in the wellbore.
It realizes the accurate design of plunger gas lift process, and increases the gas
well production by 24% before the application of the design method. The suc-
cessful application of this design method shows that the dynamic characteristics
of gas-liquid flow directly affect the effect of plunger drainage gas production. In
the process of plunger drainage gas production, the well opening time increases
and the gas well productivity is easy to play, but the recovery degree of forma-
tion pressure decreases. With the reduction of well opening time, the gas supply
capacity of the formation can be further improved, but the gas supply time of the

Copyright 2022, IFEDC Organizing Committee.

This paper was prepared for presentation at the 2022 International Field Exploration and
Development Conference in Xi’an, China, 16–18 November 2022.
This paper was selected for presentation by the IFEDC Committee following review of information
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Papers presented at the Conference are subject to publication review by Professional Team of
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of IFEDC. Contact email: paper@ifedc.org.

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023
J. Lin (Ed.): IFEDC 2022, SSGG, pp. 3265–3273, 2023.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-1964-2_279
3266 J. Li et al.

gas well is shortened, and the overall gas production is affected. It is necessary
to excavate the best well opening and closing system according to the production
performance of the plunger process.

Keywords: OLGA · Plunger gas lift · Daqing Xushen Gas Field · Transient
Multiphase Flow · Dynamic mode

1 Introduction
In recent years, the plunger gas lift process has gradually become one of the main
processes for drainage and gas production in major water producing gas fields [1], and
plays a sealing role by providing a solid interface between gas and liquid [2]. Due to
its periodic up and down operation process, at present, the conventional plunger needs
to cooperate with the surface shut in to achieve formation energy recovery and ensure
the drainage effect [3]. Therefore, the key problem to realize its high-efficiency liquid
drainage is to reasonably optimize the plunger gas lift system, that is, to formulate an
effective well switching cycle [4]. The optimization model of plunger gas lift system
is represented by the empirical model of FOSS and Gaul [5]. Because the model is
relatively simple, it has been widely used. However, this method uses a static model,
which greatly simplifies the flow of fluid in the actual wellbore and formation [6], so
the actual effect is not ideal. Subsequent scholars gradually carried out dynamic model
research. Wangxianjun [7] first put forward the optimal design dynamic model for gas
well plunger lifting and gas production. He Shunli [8] et al. proposed a new plunger
gas lift dynamic model, taking into account the change of gas pressure. Although these
methods can quantitatively describe the wellhead pressure change and the dynamic
characteristics of the plunger [9], the static exponential IPR equation is used for gas well
production, which can not describe the gas-liquid flow in the near well formation and the
reaction of wellbore fluid flow to the near well formation [10], The complex changes of
gas-liquid two-phase flow in the wellbore are not considered in the description of plunger
operation performance, that is, the influence of wellbore and reservoir conditions on
plunger technology is not considered enough.
Based on the transient simulation software Olga, the author combines the motion
characteristic description of plunger operation, transient simulation of wellbore multi-
phase pipe flow and near well reservoir seepage, and realizes the accurate description of
plunger gas lift drainage process. Through the comparison of drainage and production
effects under various plunger operation systems, a new optimization method of system
operation system is formed.

2 Plunger Gas Lift Dynamic Model

2.1 Plunger Motion Model
The wall friction generated by the contact between the plunger and the pipe wall is given
by the following equation [6]:
    
Fw = max 0, F0 − fw Up  · sgn Up (1)
 Optimization Method of Plunger Gas Lift Process Based on Olga Software 3267

where: F 0 - static friction, [N]; fw - wall friction coefficient, [Ns/m]; U p - plunger speed,
[m/s].
With the increase of the plunger velocity, the wall friction coefficient decreases with
the decrease of the contact between the plunger and the tube wall.
When a plunger starts to move, viscous friction is generated by the movement of the
fluid film around the plunger. This force is given by the following equation [16]:
 
Fv = f1 Up + f2 Up Up  (2)

where: f1 - linear friction coefficient, [Ns/m]; f2 - secondary friction coefficient,

[Ns2 /m2 ].

2.2 Wellbore and Near Wellbore Formation Coupling Model

Bendiksen [7] and others have given a detailed model for the wellbore part, and the three-
dimensional and two-phase gas reservoir simulation model is also relatively mature. So
the coupling process between the wellbore and the near wellbore formation is mainly
described.
In the simulation process, the wellbore model provides wellbore pressure to the
reservoir model, and the reservoir model calculates the velocity of each phase at the
interface. The method of implicit coupling is as follows:
First, assume that the model has been integrated into time step n, and the wellbore
model begins to be integrated into time step n + 1. The method is to require the reservoir
model to calculate the sensitivity coefficients ∂pn and bnp , and use them in this relationship
[8]:

Mpn+1 = ∂pn Ppn+1 + bnp (3)

where PP is the pressure in the wellbore, MP is the mass flow of each phase, and the
subscript p is the given phase, i.e. gas, oil or water.
The wellbore model uses the above relationship as the boundary condition and solves
the whole wellbore. The wellbore model has now completed time step n + 1 and sent
Ppn+1 and Mpn+1 to the reservoir model.
The reservoir model uses the boundary conditions provided by the wellbore model
to complete the calculation of its time step n + 1.
The sensitivity factor ∂pn is calculated by the following formula:

dMPn
∂pn = (4)
dPPn

It can be analytically obtained from the reservoir model equation. bnp can be simply set
as:

bnP = MPn − ∂Pn PPn (5)

Through this implicit coupling, the coupled model can run the simulation in a relatively
long time step while maintaining numerical stability.
3268 J. Li et al.

3 Numerical Simulation of Plunger Gas Lift Process

Based on Olga software, a transient plunger gas lift model considering the coupling
between wellbore and near well formation is established. According to one of the com-
monly used plunger operation systems on site, i.e. 4 h of well opening and 2 h of well
closing, the specific parameters are selected from well XSB of Daqing Xushen gas field,
as shown in Table 1 (Figs. 1 and 2).

Table 1. Basic data of XSB well

Index Numerical value

Well depth 3838 m
Formation pressure 26 MPa
Formation temperature 134 °C
Permeability 0.07 mD
tubing outer diameter 73 mm
Casing outer diameter 139.7 mm
Well control radius 250 m
Well depth 3838 m

Fig. 1. Transient plunger gas lift model considering the coupling between wellbore and near
wellbore formation
 Optimization Method of Plunger Gas Lift Process Based on Olga Software 3269

Fig. 2. Formation gas saturation model

3.1 Analysis of Plunger Dynamic Characteristics

The running speed and position of the plunger in each operating cycle can be accurately
given by using the model. In the three operating cycles, the plunger can reach the wellhead
position. In the first cycle, the running speed of the plunger is faster, reaching 2.65 m/s,
and then the plunger speed gradually decreases and remains stable. It is analyzed that
the reason is that the gas production of the formation is relatively high at the initial stage
of simulation, and the formation produced water has just entered the lower part of the
tubing shoe in the wellbore, There is less water in the upper part of the plunger, and the
mass of the plunger lifting liquid is less in this cycle (Figs. 3 and 4).

Fig. 3. Relation curve between plunger running speed and time

3.2 Analysis on Production Characteristics of Plunger Gas Lift

It can be seen from the comparison curve of instantaneous gas and water production
in the process of gas lift that the gas and water production in a single cycle of plunger
lifting are at two peaks. According to the analysis of the relationship between the well
opening and closing and the plunger and the liquid level, the first peak of gas and water
production is that the gas in the tubing is discharged at a high speed at the moment of
well opening, which has a certain liquid carrying effect. The second peak is that after the
plunger reaches the wellhead, The sudden increase of gas volume caused by the release
process of the lower high-pressure gas (Figs. 5 and 6).
3270 J. Li et al.

Fig. 4. Relationship curve between plunger position and time

Fig. 5. Relation curve between gas production and time in plunger gas lift process

Fig. 6. Relation curve between water production and time in plunger gas lift process

3.3 Analysis of Plunger Gas Lift Drainage Characteristics

The gas-liquid distribution in the third period of the plunger liquid discharge process
is simulated. The three-dimensional display is shown in Fig. 7. At the initial stage of
plunger startup, the liquid column in the upper part of the plunger is high. With the
 Optimization Method of Plunger Gas Lift Process Based on Olga Software 3271

extension of well opening time, the carrying effect of gas on the liquid and the leakage
effect of the plunger, the volume of the upper liquid decreases, and most of the lower
part of the plunger stays in the well. After the plunger reaches the wellhead catcher, it
completes the liquid discharge once, It is consistent with the analysis results of plunger
gas lift production characteristics.

Fig. 7. Three dimensional display of wellbore drainage process in the second cycle of plunger
gas lift

4 Optimization of Working System of Plunger Gas Lift

4.1 Optimization Method of Plunger Gas Lift System

For the conventional plunger gas lift process, the problem of working system optimiza-
tion is how to establish a reasonable well opening and closing system. If the well opening
time is too long, there will be too much fluid at the bottom of the well and insufficient
production during the well opening process; If the well is shut in for a long time, the
formation energy can be fully recovered, but the total production will be reduced due
to the low rate of well opening. For gas production, the most critical indicator is the
production of gas wells. Conduct the simulation again after 2 h of well opening and 2 h
of well closing, and the result curve is shown in Fig. 8. Due to the change of well switch-
ing frequency, the formation energy recovery and gas supply conditions will inevitably
change accordingly during operation, and the shape of gas water production curve will
change.
Using the established model, a series of cumulative production curves are obtained
through the calculation of daily production under different well opening and closing time
systems, as shown in Fig. 9. It can be seen that a relatively higher daily production of
3272 J. Li et al.

Fig. 8. Relation curve between gas and water production and time in plunger gas lift process

2.22 × 104 m3 /d can be obtained by using the plunger operation system of opening the
well for 2 h and closing the well for 1 h, which can preliminarily realize the optimization
of plunger operation system.

Fig. 9. Simulation curve of cumulative gas production under different operating cycle of plunger
gas lift

4.2 Application Effect Analysis

The field application of plunger gas lift was carried out in XSB well in December, 2021.
Before the implementation of the process, the average daily gas production was only
1.96 × 104 m3 , due to the fluid accumulation in the wellbore daily water output was
0.13 m3 . After removing the accumulated liquid in the wellbore by gas lift, the plunger
was operated according to the principle of opening the well for 2 h and closing the well
for 1 h. At present, the daily liquid discharge is 2.85 m3 , and the average daily gas output
is 2.43 × 104 m3 , which verifies the reliability of the method and realizes the purpose
of high-efficiency drainage and production improvement (Fig. 10).
 Optimization Method of Plunger Gas Lift Process Based on Olga Software 3273

Fig. 10. Production variation curve before and after the implementation of plunger gas lift process

5 Conclusions
(1) The dynamic characteristics and effect of plunger lifting are affected by the charac-
teristics of near well formation and wellbore multiphase flow. Through the coupling
analysis of plunger dynamic model, wellbore multiphase flow model and near well
formation model, the transient calculation of gas and water from near well forma-
tion to wellhead can be realized, which can accurately describe the plunger drainage
process.
(2) Based on the transient simulation results of the coupling between wellbore and near
wellbore formation under different plunger operation regimes, a new optimization
method of plunger operation regime is formed.

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