PRESSURE DROP IN WELLS PRODUCING OIL AND GAS.

Abstract

A simple, mechanistically based scheme for the calculation of the pressure drop in wells producing oil and gas in the single-phase liquid, bubble and slug flow patterns is described and checked with independent field data. The scheme is based on an identification of the flow pattern through a modification of the flow pattern map of Govier, Radford and Dunn and the application of the mechanical energy balance in a form appropriate for the flow pattern as suggested by Govier and Aziz. The proposed method gives results at least as good as any of the others, is more soundly based on the mechanism of flow and is independent of the data with which it is confirmed.