Evaluation and analysis of nitrogen gas injected into deepwater wells to mitigate annular pressure caused by thermal expansion

Zhang, Bo; Xu, Zhijia; Guan, Zhichuan; Li, Cheng; Liu, Hongtao; Xie, Junfeng; Hasan, A. Rashid; Wang, Qing

doi:10.1016/j.petrol.2019.05.040

Cited by 17 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…As a result, the temperature of the annular liquid increases and the TAP increases due to the thermal expansion of the annular fluid. The volume consistence law can explain the basic mechanism of the TAP [25,26]. The trapped annulus has very limited volume to accommodate all of the thermal-expanded annular liquid, so the pressure increases to compress the annular liquid in order to keep the volumes of the trapped annulus and the annular liquid equal.…”

Section: The Tap Caused By the Thermal Expansion 221 Calculation Of T...mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Modeling analysis of the temperature profile and trapped annular pressure induced by thermal-expanded liquid in a deep gas well

Zhang¹,

Zheng²,

Deng³

et al. 2022

Front. Phys.

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The trapped annular pressure (TAP) caused by thermal expansion is one of the serious challenges for the safe production of a deep gas well. Therefore, this article proposes a model to calculate the temperature profile of the deep gas well based on the heat transfer process and the gas properties. With the help of the temperature model, the TAP in the tubing–casing annulus is analyzed according to the annular fluid distribution and the volume consistence law. The results indicate that the temperature inside the tubing string decreases faster under higher bottom hole pressure. When the tubing–casing annulus is totally filled with the annular protection liquid, the TAP continues increasing with the production rate. Considering the high production rate, the TAP is inevitable and high enough to damage the integrity of the deep gas well. The nitrogen gas mitigates the TAP by reducing the annular liquid volume and providing the extra space to accommodate the thermal-expanded annular liquid. A good mitigation performance can be achieved no matter how large the production rate is. The mitigation performance can be divided into the fast-decreasing stage, the efficient control stage, and the stable stage. These three stages occur as the nitrogen gas column length increases. The compression of the nitrogen gas volume plays a major role in the fast decrease stage while the reduction of the annular liquid plays a major role in the stable stage. For the best cost-effectiveness, the nitrogen gas column is recommended in the efficient control stage and should not exceed 15%.

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Section: The Tap Caused By the Thermal Expansion 221 Calculation Of T...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Secondly, the nitrogen gas is easy to compress by the high pressure, so some extra space is available to accommodate the thermal-expanded annular liquid, which is called the volume compensation effect [26], as expressed by Eqs. 23, 24.…”

Section: Mitigation Of the Tapmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modeling analysis of the temperature profile and trapped annular pressure induced by thermal-expanded liquid in a deep gas well

Zhang¹,

Zheng²,

Deng³

et al. 2022

Front. Phys.

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“…The volume change of the fluid is mainly caused by isobaric thermal expansion and isothermal compression. 12,13,19 When annuli are open, the outflow or inflow of the fluid could cause the mass change and compression or expansion of the remaining fluid accordindly. 8,9 The total volume change of the liquid in annuli can be achieved as follows:…”

Section: Apb Prediction Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It is concluded that APB could be controlled by injecting 5%-15% gas into annuli. 12,13 Zhang et al analyzed the effect of APB on the cement sheath integrity and established a model to evaluate the safety factor of cement sheath. 14 Ai et al established a critical production model to determine the critical production rate based on analysis of APB and casing safety.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Most scholars studied APB without considering the effect of the cement and treated the annulus as a sealed zone without mass change of annular fluid. 10,12,13,15,16 However, the presence of cement has a nonignorable effect on casing deformation and affects APB indirectly, including the influence on annular temperature and casing pressure. Moreover, some wells with APB adopt a wellbore structure that makes the TOC below the previous casing shoe, 8,19,28 which is called "cement shortfall."…”

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Study on annular pressure buildup phenomenon in subsea wells considering the effect of cement

Wang

Zhang

Jun

et al. 2021

Energy Science & Engineering

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Marine petroleum is important fossil energy that accounts for about 34% of the total global petroleum resource. With the improvement of the exploitation technology, the production of the marine fossil resource become one of the main sources of world oil and gas production growth. Studying the engineering problems in the production of marine petroleum is of great economic significance. In the development of marine oil and gas, annular pressure buildup (APB) is an important problem that has received extensive attention. 1 In the production of the offshore oil field, the wellbore structure is constructed with casings and cement. Annuli between the casings are isolated and sealed in most wells, as is shown in Figure 1. The fluid remaining in annuli is heated when the oil and steam

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Measurement of wellbore leakage in high‐pressure gas well based on the multiple physical signals and history data: Method, technology, and application

Zhang,

Pan,

Cao

et al. 2023

Energy Science & Engineering

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Leakage is one of the most serious challenges for the safe production of high‐pressure gas wells for its high risks, including abnormal annular pressure, natural gas accumulation, and environment pollution, but available methods can hardly accurately measure the leakage type and depth, which are the key parameters for the rigless leakage repair and risk assessment. Therefore, this paper proposes a method to measure the leakage based on the characteristics, which combines qualitative and quantitative measurement together. Qualitative measurement considers the annular pressure, tubing pressure, liquid level, cement quality, and workover history. Quantitative measurement is determined by noise logging, electromagnetic logging, pressure logging, and temperature logging. The logging should be optimized according to the qualitative measurement. The method was successfully applied in high‐pressure gas well belonging to Tarim Oilfield. Two potential leakage types are provided based on the annular pressure, liquid level, cement quality, and workover history, including tubing leakage and linger hanger leakage. Based on the potential leakage types, the pressure difference, logging devices string, stopping length, and time are optimized to make the engineering logging reliable. Through measurement, two leakage points are found in tubing string. One is tubing body crack at the depth of 2724 m and the other is tubing thread leakage at the depth of 5211.7 m, which well matches the production data.

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Evaluation and analysis of nitrogen gas injected into deepwater wells to mitigate annular pressure caused by thermal expansion

Cited by 17 publications

References 23 publications

Modeling analysis of the temperature profile and trapped annular pressure induced by thermal-expanded liquid in a deep gas well

Modeling analysis of the temperature profile and trapped annular pressure induced by thermal-expanded liquid in a deep gas well

Study on annular pressure buildup phenomenon in subsea wells considering the effect of cement

Measurement of wellbore leakage in high‐pressure gas well based on the multiple physical signals and history data: Method, technology, and application

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