1/6/2025 Dr. Mai Cao Lan, Dept.

of Drilling & Production Engineering, GEOPET, HCMUT 10

Chapter Outline

 Petroleum Production System: Basic concepts and

definitions
 Fundamentals of NODAL analysis method
 Applications of NODAL analysis method

1/6/2025 Dr. Mai Cao Lan, Dept. of Drilling & Production Engineering, GEOPET, HCMUT 11
 Petroleum Production System
Gas Sales
Flowing Wellhead
Pressure Horizontal Flowline
Separator

Stock Tank

Vertical or Inclined
Tubing

Intake
Flow Through
Porus Media
P, K, IPR

1/6/2025 Dr. Mai Cao Lan, Dept. of Drilling & Production Engineering, GEOPET, HCMUT 12
System Analysis for Petroleum
Production Systems

• Analyze the performance of the system taking into account

ALL of its components

• Figure out potential problems associated with the

production system

• Analyze the behavior of the system in response to any

changes of a component

1/6/2025 Dr. Mai Cao Lan, Dept. of Drilling & Production Engineering, GEOPET, HCMUT 13
NODAL Analysis (NA) Method

• NODAL Analysis belongs to System Analysis Methods

applied in Petro Eng.

• The method allows production engineers to analyze

the performance of a petroleum production system

• The method help production engineers to select

optimal system parameters

1/6/2025 Dr. Mai Cao Lan, Dept. of Drilling & Production Engineering, GEOPET, HCMUT 14
 Fundamentals of the NA Method

• Always consider a component in the relationships with

the others

• Pressure Losses across different components of the

system are of primary interests

• The performance of a system can be analyzed via one or

more NODEs

1/6/2025 Dr. Mai Cao Lan, Dept. of Drilling & Production Engineering, GEOPET, HCMUT 15
 Typical Pressure Losses
Pwh P8 Gas Sales

P6
Separator

P5 Psep
PDSV Stock Tank

P4

PUSV P1 = (Pr - Pwfs) = Loss in Porus Medium

P2 = (Pwfs - Pwf) = Loss across Completion
P3 = (P UR - P DR) = Loss across Restriction
P7 P4 = (P USV - P DSV) = Loss across Safety Valve
P5 = (Pwh - P DSC) = Loss across Surface Choke
P6 = (P DSC - Psep) = Loss in Flowline
P7 = (Pwf - Pwh) = Total Loss in Tubing
PDR P8 = (Pwh - Psep) = Total Loss in Flowline
P3

PUR

Pwf Pwfs Pr
P2
P1

1/6/2025 Dr. Mai Cao Lan, Dept. of Drilling & Production Engineering, GEOPET, HCMUT 16
 Possible Node Locations
3 2 1A

1
4
1B

Node Location Remarks

1 Separator
2 Surface Choke Functional
3 Wellhead
4 Safety Valve Functional
5 5 Restriction Functional
6 Pwf
7 Pwfs
8 Pr
1A Gas Sales
1B Stock Tank

6 7 8

1/6/2025 Dr. Mai Cao Lan, Dept. of Drilling & Production Engineering, GEOPET, HCMUT 17
Typical Nodes for System Analysis

1/6/2025 Dr. Mai Cao Lan, Dept. of Drilling & Production Engineering, GEOPET, HCMUT 18
 The Underlying Idea of NA

Node of Interest
Downstream

Upstream

1/6/2025 Dr. Mai Cao Lan, Dept. of Drilling & Production Engineering, GEOPET, HCMUT 19
 The Underlying Idea (cont’d)
Upstream
pr  pupstream  pnode  f (q )
Downstream
psep  pdownstream  pnode  g (q )
At any point in time t during the production process,
the average reservoir pressure and the separator
pressure are given as constants.
1/6/2025 Dr. Mai Cao Lan, Dept. of Drilling & Production Engineering, GEOPET, HCMUT 20
 The Two Essential Principles
• There is ONLY ONE value of pressure at a node (physical
point);

• The flow rate coming into a node is equal to the flow rate
going out of that node (mass conservation).

1/6/2025 Dr. Mai Cao Lan, Dept. of Drilling & Production Engineering, GEOPET, HCMUT 21
 Graphical Representation of NA
Outflow Curve
p (Downstream)

Inflow Curve
(Upstream)

pop

Operating Point

qop q

1/6/2025 Dr. Mai Cao Lan, Dept. of Drilling & Production Engineering, GEOPET, HCMUT 22
NA Applications – System Analysis

Steep Outflow Curve (Bottle

Neck)
p

Expected Outflow
Curve

1/6/2025 Dr. Mai Cao Lan, Dept. of Drilling & Production Engineering, GEOPET, HCMUT 23
NA Applications – Sensitivity Analysis
Outflow Curve with
tubing diameter Outflow Curve with
p d3<d1 tubing diameter d1

Outflow Curve with

tubing diameter
d2>d1

q3 q1 q2 q

1/6/2025 Dr. Mai Cao Lan, Dept. of Drilling & Production Engineering, GEOPET, HCMUT 24
NA Application – Production Optimization

q
q4
q5
q2
q1

q3
Using a TRIAL-AND-ERROR approach, the
optimal tubing diameter can be found
where the flow rate reaches the
maximum value

d3 d1 d2 d4 d5 d

1/6/2025 Dr. Mai Cao Lan, Dept. of Drilling & Production Engineering, GEOPET, HCMUT 25