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Description:
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This project is a research into the effect of gas condensate damage in hydraulically fractured wells . It is the result of a problem encountered in producing a low permeability formation from a well in South Texas owned by the El Paso Production Company . The well was producing a gas condensate reservoir and questions were raised about how much drop in flowing bottomhole pressure below dewpoint would be appropriate . Condensate damage in the hydraulic fracture was expected to be of significant effect .
Previous attempts to answer these questions have been from the perspective of a radial model . Condensate builds up in the reservoir as the reservoir pressure drops below the dewpoint pressure . As a result , the gas moving to the wellbore becomes leaner . With respect to the study by El -Banbi and McCain , the gas production rate may stabilize , or possibly increase , after the period of initial decline . This is controlled primarily by the condensate saturation near the wellbore . This current work has a totally different approach . The effects of reservoir depletion are minimized by introduction of an injector well with fluid composition the same as the original reservoir fluid . It also assumes an infinite conductivity hydraulic fracture and uses a linear model .
During the research , gas condensate simulations were performed using a commercial simulator (CMG ) . The results of this research are a step forward in helping to improve the management of gas condensate reservoirs by understanding the mechanics of liquid build -up . It also provides methodology for quantifying the condensate damage that impairs linear flow of gas into the hydraulic fracture . |