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C H A P T E R 8

GAS WELL PERFORMANCE

Determination of the flow capacity of a gas well requires a relation-

ship between the inflow gas rate and the sand face pressure or flowing
bottom-hole pressure. This inflow performance relationship may be
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established by the proper solution of Darcy’s equation. Solution of
Darcy’s Law depends on the conditions of the flow existing in the reser-
voir or the flow regime.
When a gas well is first produced after being shut-in for a period of
time, the gas flow in the reservoir follows an unsteady-state behavior
until the pressure drops at the drainage boundary of the well. Then the
flow behavior passes through a short transition period, after which it
attains a steady-state or semisteady (pseudosteady)-state condition. The
objective of this chapter is to describe the empirical as well as analytical
expressions that can be used to establish the inflow performance relation-
ships under the pseudosteady-state flow condition.

VERTICAL GAS WELL PERFORMANCE

The exact solution to the differential form of Darcy’s equation for

compressible fluids under the pseudosteady-state flow condition was
given previously by Equation 6-150 as:

kh ⎡⎣ ψ r − ψ wf ⎤⎦
Qg = (8-1)
1422 T ⎡ ln ⎛ e ⎞ − 0.75 + s ⎤
r
⎢⎣ ⎝ rw ⎠ ⎥⎦

© 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Doi: 10.1016/C2009-0-30429-8

546
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Gas Well Performance 547

where Qg = gas flow rate, Mscf/day

k = permeability, md
– = average reservoir real gas pseudopressure, psi2/cp
ψ r
T = temperature, °R
s = skin factor
h = thickness
re = drainage radius
rw = wellbore radius

The productivity index J for a gas well can be written analogous to

that for oil wells as:

Qg kh
J= = (8-2)
ψ r − ψ wf 1422 T ⎡ ln ⎛ re ⎞ − 0.75 + s ⎤
⎢⎣ ⎝ rw ⎠ ⎥⎦
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or

Q g = J (ψ r − ψ wf ) (8-3)

with the absolute open flow potential (AOF), i.e., maximum gas flow
rate (Qg)max, as calculated by:

(Q g )max = J ψ r (8-4)
where J = productivity index, Mscf/day/psi2/cp

(Qg)max = AOF

Equation 8-3 can be expressed in a linear relationship as:

ψ wf = ψ r − ⎛ Q g
1
⎝J ) (8-5)

Equation 8-5 indicates that a plot of ψwf vs. Qg would produce a

– , as shown in Figure
straight line with a slope of (1/J) and intercept of ψr
8-1. If two different stabilized flow rates are available, the line can be
extrapolated and the slope is determined to estimate AOF, J, and ψ –.
r
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548 Reservoir Engineering Handbook

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Figure 8-1. Steady-state gas well flow.

Equation 8-1 can be alternatively written in the following integral

form:

pr
kh ⎛ 2p ⎞
Qg = ∫ ⎜⎝ μ z ⎟⎠ dp (8-6)
1422 T ⎡ ln ⎛ e ⎞ − 0.75 + s ⎤
r p wf g
⎢⎣ ⎝ rw ⎠ ⎥⎦

Note that (p/μg z) is directly proportional to (1/μg Bg) where Bg is the

gas formation volume factor and defined as:

zT
Bg = 0.00504 (8-7)
p
where Bg = gas formation volume factor, bbl/scf
z = gas compressibility factor
T = temperature, °R
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Gas Well Performance 549

Equation 8-6 can then be written in terms of Bg as:

⎡ ⎤
⎢ 7.08 (10 −6 ) kh ⎥
pr
⎛ 1 ⎞
Qg = ⎢ ⎥ ∫ ⎜⎝ μ B ⎟⎠ dp (8-8)
⎢ ln ⎛ e ⎞ − 0.75 + s ⎥
r p wf g g
⎣ ⎝ rw ⎠ ⎦

where Qg = gas flow rate, Mscf/day

μg = gas viscosity, cp
k = permeability, md

Figure 8-2 shows a typical plot of the gas pressure functions (2p/μgz)
and (1/μg Bg ) versus pressure. The integral in Equations 8-6 and 8-8 rep-
resents the area under the curve between –pr and pwf.
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As illustrated in Figure 8-2, the pressure function exhibits the follow-
ing three distinct pressure application regions.

Region III. High-Pressure Region

When both pwf and –pr are higher than 3,000 psi, the pressure functions
(2p/μgz) and (1/μg Bg ) are nearly constants. This observation suggests
that the pressure term (1/μg Bg ) in Equation 8-8 can be treated as a con-
stant and removed outside the integral, to give the following approxima-
tion to Equation 8-6:

7.08 (10 −6 ) kh ( pr − p wf )
Qg = (8-99)
( μ g Bg )avg ⎡ ln ⎛ e ⎞ − 0.75 + s ⎤
r
⎢⎣ ⎝ rw ⎠ ⎥⎦

where Qg = gas flow rate , Mscf/day

Bg = gas formation volume factor, bbl/scf
k = permeability, md

The gas viscosity μg and formation volume factor Bg should be evalu-

ated at the average pressure pavg as given by:

p r + p wf
pavg = (8-10)
2
 Chapter extract

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