ACTIVE CONTROL STRATEGY FOR DENSITY-WAVE IN GAS-LIFTED WELLS

Abstract We focus on the control of gas-lifted wells in the context of instable flows. Two cases are considered: casing-heading and density-wave. While it is known that active control can stabilize the casing-heading phenomenon, (passive) hardware upgrading solutions are sometimes preferred. In this paper, we advocate active control solutions in contrast to these strategies. Our aim is to stress that density-wave, which is a complicated issue not addressed by hardware solutions yet, can also be stabilized by the same simple control strategies that proved successful against casing-headings.