Trapped annular pressure caused by thermal expansion in oil and gas wells: A review of prediction approaches, risk assessment and mitigation strategies

Annular pressure buildup (APB) is induced by high‐temperature tubing fluid heating the trapped annular fluid, which leads to liquid thermal expansion at the production stage in deepwater wells. Casing would be burst or collapsed without APB mitigation. A novel recovery relief method was adopted to mitigate APB through the principle of differential pressure. To assess the application effect of the method, APB prediction model and pressure relief threshold determination method were proposed, where the transient heat transfer and volume and pressure coupling were involved. The laboratory test of the principle prototype was conducted so that the feasibility of the recovery relief method was validated. The numerical APB mitigation effect was simulated by the field example. The production simulation results indicated that the high‐temperature‐induced APB caused casing failure. The simulation of APB mitigation with both inward and outward directions demonstrated that the casings using outward mitigation method were safer with lower safe factor. Besides, comparing the mitigating effect to the rupture disk, the recovery relief method had more maximum allowable APB of annulus A. Additionally, compared to other 11 ordinary mitigation methods with the qualities of engineering reliability, technology feasibility, and economy, the recovery relief method had best mitigation performance. Therefore, the recovery relief method was recommended for APB mitigating practice.

Section: Comparison Of Pressure Relief Effect With Other Mitigationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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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

Self Cite

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.