A Modified Model to Predict Liquid Loading in Horizontal Gas Wells

Liquid loading is inevitable during mature gas-well production, leading the liquids to accumulate at the bottomhole and additional pressure loss. Accurately predicting the liquid-loading initiation is crucial to gas-well production optimization. Significant efforts have been made to model liquid-loading behavior. However, few mechanistic models are capable of easily and accurately tackling the complicated non-uniform liquid-film distribution in the slanted section of horizontal wells. Based on liquid-film inversion, this study developed a simple and comprehensive model to calculate liquid-loading initiation for horizontal gas wells. First, the models for film thickness and critical velocity in the vertical pipe are developed. Then, considering the effect of inclination and velocity difference in liquid-film thickness and liquid-holdup distribution between vertical and inclined pipes, the relationship in vertical and inclined pipes between liquid holdup, liquid-film thickness, and angle correction term is established based on the liquid-holdup correlation for horizontal and inclined pipes described in the empirical model developed by Beggs and Brill, so that the thickness of the film and the corresponding critical velocity at any inclination can be calculated. Finally, the new modified model has been evaluated against both experimental and field-measured data set. In comparison to the Luo et al.’s model, the proposed model has been proven to be simple, accurate, and well-performed in predicting the liquid-accumulation initiation in horizontal wells.