‫المعهد الجزائري للبترول‬

INSTITUT ALGERIEN DU PETROLE

School of Boumerdes
UFR: Drilling and Production

NODAL ANALYSIS
PRODUCTION OPTIMIZATION

PRESENTED BY:

SAFOUANE SAIDI
 CHAPTER I:INTRODUCTION
PRINCIPAL OF NODAL
ANALYSIS
2
INTRODUCTION
 Most of problems that occur during the life of
the well especially ones that need
intervention (which means stopping
production, cost of the operation and
risks),are generally the results of a bad
design of the well completion.

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INTRODUCTION
 A good estimation of completion design ,and
an optimal productivity (rate) can reduce
these risks.
 Designing a completion should not only take

in consideration current suitable design ,but

should guess possible future problems that
might occur during the well life.

4
BAD COMPLETION Production Reservoir
DESIGN problems
embedment

Production
failure

WELL
INTERVENTION $
DOWN TIME $ 5
PRODUCTION OPTIMIZATION
 Production optimization is the principal role
of petroleum engineers :
 Choose the best design for a well to
maximize its production with a minimum
damage
 Predict future problems
 Lower cost

o Nodal analysis is the tool that we use to help

production optimization .
6
PRODUCTION SYSTEM

Surface
equipment

Well

Reservoir

7
QUESTION
 What is the most important thing that
govern the flow of the fluids in the
system?

----------------------------------------------

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PRODUCTION SYSTEM
 Movement or Transport of reservoir fluid from
reservoir to surface requires energy to
overcome the frictional losses or the pressure
drop
 The pressure drop in the total system at any

time will be the initial fluid pressure minus

the final pressure

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PRODUCTION SYSTEM

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THE RESERVOIR
 The reservoir is the source of fluids for the
production system. It is the porous,
permeable media in which the reservoir
fluids are stored and through which the fluids
will flow to the wellbore. It also furnishes the
primary energy for the production system

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THE WELLBORE
 The wellbore serves as the conduit for access
to the reservoir from the surface. It is
composed of the drilled wellbore, which
normally has been cemented and cased. The
cased wellbore houses the tubing and
associated subsurface production equipment,
such as packers. The tubing serves as the
primary conduit for fluid flow from the
reservoir to the surface, although fluids also
may be transportedthrough the tubing-casing
annulus.
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SURFACE EQUIPMENTS
 The wellhead, flowlines, and processing
equipment represent the surface mechanical
equipment required to control and process
reservoir fluids at the surface and prepare
them for transfer to a purchaser. Surface
mechanical equipment includes the wellhead
equipment and associated valves, chokes,
manifolds, flowlines , separators, treatment
equipment, metering devices, and storage
vessels.

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SYSTEM ANALYSIS
 Design of a production systems never be
separated into reservoir and piping systems
 The amount of Oil and Gas flowing into the

well from reservoir depends on pressure drop

in the piping system
 Piping system pressure drop depends on

amount of the fluid flowing through it

 Therefore, entire production systems

must be analyzed as a unit

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SYSTEM ANALYSIS
 Deliverability of a well can be severely
restricted by the performance of only one
component in the system
o If the effect of each component on the total
system performance can be isolated, the
system performance can be optimized in
more economic way

15
PRINCIPAL OF NODAL ANALYSIS
 In system analysis we use a method where
we consider whole production system as a
single unit. Then we choose a point with in
the unit where input and output pressure are
same.

 This is Nodal Analysis

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PRINCIPAL

Surface
equipment

Well

Reservoir

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NODAL ANALYSIS
 Node is a point where :

 Flow into the node equals flow out of

the node

 only one pressure exist in the node

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Upstream of node is called inflow
 Down stream of node is called outflow

inflow Outflow

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 If we take this point
anywhere between
the reservoir and
the separator :
Outflow
 Inflow to the node

inflow
 Outflow from the
node

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OUTFLOW VS INFLOW

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OUTFLOW VS INFLOW
 The intersection point (called the operating
point) is the only point that satisfies the two
conditions (of inflow and outflow)”point de
fonctionnement in French”
 At this point ,we have only one pressure

for one rate.

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SHIFTING CURVES
 If any change is made anywhere in the inflow
or outflow then only that curves will be
shifted and the other will be same .
 If we change both conditions the two curves

will change.
 At any change the intersection point will be

changed too.

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NODE AT THE WELL HEAD
 If the Node is at the
well head : Outflow

 Inflow to Node

inflow
 Outflow from Node

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 If tubing size
increases- which will
give less pressure
drop so the inflow
curve move upward

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 If flow line diameter
increases then the
out flow curve will
shift downward

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NODE SELECTION
 Node can be select anywhere in the
production system :
 1. Separator ( Sales or Stock tank)

 2. Surface Choke

 3. Wellhead

 4. Safety Valve

 5. Restriction

 6. Bore hole Pwf

 7. Sand Face Pwfs

 8. Reservoir
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NODE SELECTION

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NODE AT BORE HOLE PWF
 The best place to choose a node is at the
bottom hole ,to separate the inflow and
outflow cuves as folows:
 Inflow curve deals with the flow in the

reservoir ,and governed by the equations in

porous media.
 Outflow deals with the flow from bottom hole

in to well head and governed by equations of

flow in a tube.

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IPR VS VLP

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IPR CURVE
 Inflow Performance Relationship : this curve
deals with The pressure drop which occurs
across within the reservoir.
 This curve is independent from the flow in

the tubing.

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IPR CURVE

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VLP CURVE
 Vertical lift performance curve deals with
pressure drops that occur in tubing string it is
also called tubing performance curve
 This curve is independent from flow

within the reservoir

 Until we take into account the reservoir

behavior, this curve also tells us almost

nothing about the rate at which the well will
produce.

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VLP CURVE

34
IPR VS VLP
 When we graph these two curves on the
same graph, we refer to this as the “system
graph”. The intersection of the inflow curve
and the outflow curve gives the one unique
flow rate at which the well will produce for a
specified set of reservoir and wellbore
properties.
 The point of intersection will also give the

unique bottomhole pressure at which

this rate will occur.

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INTERSECTION

36
INTERSECTION
 In This example , the flowing bottom hole
pressure PWf is 1957.1 psi and the flowing
rate is 2111 STB/D,

 if we do a well test or a DST pressure and

rate measured at this point must be 1957.1
psi and 2111 STB/D

37
NODE AT WELL HEAD
 What if the solution node again is at the well
head ?
 the inflow curve represents the combined

performance of the reservoir and tubing

system.
 the outflow curve is horizontal in to the

flowline – But ,this time we have fixed the

wellhead pressure at 500 psi.

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WELL HEAD

39
BOTTOM HOLE (THE MOST USED)

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SENSITIVITIES ON BOTH VLP AND IPR
 Let’s forget about other nodes ,and
concentrate only on the tubing bottom hole
node.

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EFFECT OF TUBING SIZE

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MORE INCREASE IN TUBING SIZE

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MORE INCREASE IN TUBING SIZE
 If tubing is too large ,the fluid moving up the
tubing may be too low to effectively lift the
liquids to the surface.

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EFFECT OF GAS LIFT

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EFFECT OF GAS LIFT
 Gas lift will reduce the density of fluid when it
becomes heavy and the oil can not go up to
surface
 Excessive gas lift injection will lead to an

increase in the friction loses across the

tubing

Hydrosta
tic loses

Friction
loses 46
EFFECT OF PERFORATION

47
EFFECT OF PERFORATION
 At a certain point pressure ,pressure drop
due to perforation will be negligible,
increasing perforation density will be useless.

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CONCLUSION
 Nodal analysis is the tool that we use to
realize production optimization .

 Nodal analysis principal: choosing a node

where inflow conditions = outflow conditions.

 The intersection of outflow and inflow curve

is called the operating point.

 When the node is at the bottom hole we call

inflow :IPR and Outflow: VLP. 49