Coal Particles Cleanout Technology in Coal Bed Methane Wells

Abstract

Coal particles cleanout which is regarded as the key technology in the operation of coal bed methane (CBM) wells, play an important part in making steady production. In oil wells, Sand cleanout is operated by circulating a liquid or a multiphase fluid into the wellbore to bring sand particles to the surface. Although the sand cleanout operations have been applied successfully in most wells with high efficiency and negligible leakage, it would leak working fluid into coal bed formation, destroy the structure of coal bed and jam the formed channel of gas production. In this paper, a new continuous vacuum cleanout technology has been developed to effectively remove coal particles in CBM wells by employing a jet pump. The Concentric Tubing String (CTS) which is assembled by 3.5 inch tubing and 1.5 inch tubing is also introduced in, because there is no CCT technology in China at the moment. Detailed structure and principle of the coal particles cleanout technology system are described, while a theoretical model is formulated to optimally design the system based on the coal particles settling experimental data and jet pumping theory. It has been shown from field applications that the coal particles cleanout technology makes significant improvements in achieving high efficiency and preventing leakage in CBM wells. Moreover, the new technology reduces the skin damage and increase the production compared to non-vacuum CBM wells.