Use of Solvents To Improve the Productivity of Gas Condensate Wells

Experiments have been done with a retrograde gas condensate fluid to measure the decrease in gas relative permeability due to liquid dropout below the dew point and to evaluate the use of methanol to restore the gas relative permeability. The methanol was found to increase the end-point gas relative permeability by a factor of 1.2 to 2.5 depending on the initial water saturation. A likely reason for the increased gas permeability is the miscible displacement of the condensate and water phases by the methanol. The use of an inexpensive solvent such as methanol to improve the productivity of gas wells that have been damaged by production below the dew point due to condensate and/or water blocking presents an attractive approach deserving further investigation.