Increasing Well Productivity in Gas Condensate Wells in Qatar's North Field

Abstract

Condensate blockage negatively impacts large natural gas condensate reservoirs all over the world; examples include Arun Field in Indonesia, Karachaganak Field in Kazakhstan, Cupiagua Field in Colombia,Shtokmanovskoye Field in Russian Barents Sea, and North Field in Qatar. The main focus of this thesis is to evaluate condensate blockage problems in the North Field, Qatar, and then propose solutions to increase well productivity in these gas condensate wells. The first step of the study involved gathering North Field reservoir data from previously published papers. A commercial simulator was then used to carry out numerical reservoir simulation of fluid flow in the North Field. Once an accurate model was obtained, the following three solutions to increasing productivity in the North Field are presented; namely wettability alteration, horizontal wells, and reduced Non Darcy flow. Results of this study show that wettability alteration can increase well productivity in the North Field by adding significant value to a single well. Horizontal wells can successfully increase well productivity in the North Field because they have a smaller pressure drawdown (compared to vertical wells). Horizontal wells delay condensate formation, and increase the well productivity index by reducing condensate blockage in the near wellbore region. Non Darcy flow effects were found to be negligible in multilateral wells due to a decrease in fluid velocity. Therefore, drilling multilateral wells decreases gas velocity around the wellbore, decreases Non Darcy flow effects to a negligible level, and increases well productivity in the North Field.