Volume 67

Experimental Study on Improving Production Efficiency of Gas Well by Plunger Lift Boke Yang

Abstract

Currently, China’s oil and gas resources are in a state of long-term shortage, and the technology for oil and gas exploration and development still lags behind that of developed countries. There is a need to intensify research on key technologies to enhance the development efficiency of oil and gas fields, especially those with remaining oil and gas resources. Plunger gas lift technology offers high economic efficiency in the mid-to-late stages of oil and gas reservoir development, but there is still considerable room for improvement in its application. Currently, the primary factors affecting the efficiency of this technology and their interrelationships remain unclear. To investigate the impact of various factors on the efficiency of plunger lift under identical conditions, and based on real physical conditions, not assumptions, a suit of indoor experiment equipment is designed that can measure weight changes of water which lifted from tubing every plunger lift period. According to the experimental data, it can be found that: Through this technology, the efficiency of water drainage and gas production in a single well can be increased from 82% to 90%; The efficiency of plunger lifting is nonlinearly related to the wellbore inclination angle, and there is a minimum efficiency point around 10 °; The average lifting efficiency of the plunger is highest when the diameter is 60mm; PRG has higher efficiency at smaller inclination angles (0 °~20 °).

Keywords Plunger lift, Lifting efficiency, indoor experiment