Chapter 5 Tubing Well Performance, Heat Transfer and Sizing

Publisher Summary This chapter illustrates the importance and role of tubing well performance, transfer of heat, and parameters like sizing. There are many aspects of completion design where understanding the physical properties of hydrocarbons is fundamental. Much of the hydrocarbon phase behavior is concerned with either reservoir or facility issues. On the other hand, being able to accurately predict the pressure drops in the tubing during flowing or injection conditions is a core skill for any completion engineer. Most well performance calculations are now performed using computer software, and it is easy (and dangerous) to blindly use this software without fully understanding the limitations and critical data inputs needed. Temperature prediction of production or injection fluids and the surrounding tubing/casing is a critical skill for a number of completion applications. These applications include tubing stress analysis, material selection (metals and elastomers), production chemistry and flow assurance and well performance prediction. Once the effects of heat transfer are integrated in to tubing performance predictions, the overall well performance can be calculated. This is commonly referred to as system or NODAL analysis (NODAL is the trademark of Schlumberger) and is a common technique in electrical circuit design.

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