Production Optimization of Liquid Loading

Gas Condensate Wells: A Case Study

G. COS,KUNER, T. STROCEN (BOGDAN)
Husky Oil Operations Limited

Abstract
Liquid production can be a serious problem in gas condensate
wells nearing the end of their production life. As the pressure in
the drainage area is depleted, the gas velocity in the production
tubing falls below the critical rate resulting in inadequate energy
to lift all the condensate out of the wellbore. The condensate
migrates down the tubing and collects at the bottom of the completion increasing the bottom hole flowing pressure and, in
many cases, killing the well. A similar liquid loading problem
can be also encountered in low productivity gas condensate
wells.
This paper investigates the behaviour of gas condensate wells
in a deep basin fractured sandstone reservoir in Alberta.
Regardless of the initial well productivity, sooner or later,
declining reservoir pressures and/or poor productivity cause
wells to liquid load. The first and the cheapest solution is to produce these wells intermittently. Although such wells continue to
flow, the liquid fallback still tends to increase the average flowing bottom hole pressure, thus reducing the production rate. The
paper discusses the process of selecting the best candidates
among such wells for the next level of intervention, which is the
installation of plunger lift systems. As a result, 19 wells were
equipped with plunger lifts and a significant production increase
has been observed. The project has been a technical and economic success so far and is now being extended to the rest of the
field.

Introduction
The presence of a liquid phase during gas production has long
been recognized as detrimental to well flow. In gas condensate
reservoirs, as the gas in the reservoir travels towards the wellbore,
it encounters decreasing pressures and as a result, a liquid hydrocarbon phase (condensate) is formed below the dew point
pressure(1). Furthermore, as the gas travels to the surface, the pressure and temperature decreases causing more liquid to drop out of
the gas phase.
As long as the gas flow rate is sufficiently high to maintain
annular mist flow, these liquids are lifted out of the well.
However, when the tubing velocity becomes too small to maintain
steady flow conditions, liquid accumulation in the well becomes a
problem. The problem can be attributed to a low gas production
rate due to low bottom hole pressure in a mature reservoir and/or
low gas relative permeability for given conditions(1). The flow
regime in the wellbore switches from annular mist flow to churning or slug flow and the liquid lifting capacity of the gas decreases

dramatically. The flow rate for this switch is called the critical
flow rate(2, 3).
Below the critical flow rate, liquids tend to migrate down the
tubing and start to collect at the bottom. For a while, the well will
be able to unload small slugs on its own. The well will eventually
stop flowing continuously and the fluid is produced in small
heads with spikes of gas. If no remedial measures are taken, the
problem will worsen as the liquids continue to accumulate in the
tubing and the production rate continually decreases(4, 5). Finally,
at a certain fluid level, the liquid accumulation can load up and
kill the well due to the backpressure exerted on the formation
and the reduced gas relative permeability in the vicinity of the
perforations(1, 6).
Various technologies are available to deal with liquid loading
in gas wells(7). They include sucker rod pump, additional compression, plunger lift, siphon string, gas lift, intermittent production, and velocity strings. Correct selection of the artificial lift
method is important to the long-term profitability of a given well.
A poor choice can reduce production and increase operating costs.
For low rate gas reservoirs, the capital investment and operating
cost associated with the solution must be minimal. For instance,
sucker rod pumps are too costly to install in these reservoirs
unless they are very shallow.

Intermittent Well Production

One of the lowest cost solutions is to sustain the natural flow of
the well by alternate flow and shut-in periods. This can be done
manually or can be automated by installing a controller and intermitter at the well head. No downhole modifications are needed.
The well is shut in for specific periods of time so that enough
energy can be built up to lift the liquids out of the wellbore.
Accumulated gas in the casing tubing annulus essentially blows
the liquid to the surface. However, intermittent well production is
only a temporary solution as there are several problems that cause
the daily production time, hence the gas rate, to gradually
decrease.
The condensate is lifted from the well in the form of a slug.
Among other factors, the size and length of the tubing also influences the slug recovery efficiency. As the slug moves towards the
surface, the tubing walls exert a certain amount of friction. This
creates drag on the outer perimeter of the slug while the central
core moves with a higher velocity. At the same time, the gas
underneath attempts to break through. In addition, each produced
slug wets the tubing walls as it is being produced. This wetting
film, together with the portion of the slug that is bypassed due to
the friction, cause what is known as fallback.

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40

Journal of Canadian Petroleum Technology

cycle frequency may result in some additional production for a

period of time.

Production With Plunger Lift

FIGURE 1: Typical gas well production decline curve(5).

The severity of the fallback is a function of the slug velocity,

which in turn, is a function of the pressure difference between the
bottom hole and the wellhead. Depending on this pressure difference, the lifting efficiency can range from 60% to as low as 30%.
A lack of efficiency also creates an unnecessarily heavy flowing
gradient in the tubing causing higher flowing bottom hole pressures and reduced drawdown. The reduced drawdown results in
less inflow from the formation.
In an intermittent producing well, there is a minimum liquid
column height (submergence) necessary for a beginning slug to
achieve an acceptable recovery at the surface. The portion of the
slug lost as fallback increases with depth, thus, the deeper the
well, the higher the submergence necessary for acceptable recovery. Intermittent well production cannot be used once the bottom
hole pressure decreases below that necessary to support the
required liquid column height.
The inflow from the formation is reduced due to the backpressure exerted by an increasing hydrostatic column. The higher
columns require longer build-up times. The gas inflow is higher at
the beginning of the cycle, therefore, there is a distinct advantage
to working with smaller liquid slugs. Consequently, increasing the

FIGURE 2: Required submergence in a low pressure intermittent

gas well(5).
November 2003, Volume 42, No. 11

This method is an artificial lift technique that uses a free piston

or plunger to lift the fluids to the surface using the reservoir energy stored in the gas. Installation of a plunger eliminates or drastically reduces all of the problems associated with intermittent well
production by acting as a mechanical interface between the lift gas
and the condensate(4, 5, 8-10). The efficiency of the lift now increases dramatically to almost 100%.
The results are the reduced flowing gradients in the tubing and
lower flowing bottom hole pressures leading to higher gas production rates. It can be expected that a gas well will re-establish a
normal decline as shown in Figure 1 if loading can be prevented.
However, it has also been observed in many instances that the rate
of decline changes after a plunger installation, thereby extending
the life of the well significantly and adding reserves(11). Finally,
reduced need for submergence allows for deeper and lower pressure wells to be lifted as shown in Figure 2. The plunger also has
the secondary benefit of preventing the build-up of paraffin
deposits in the tubing.
In general, plunger lifts are used in high gas liquid ratio wells,
therefore, they are ideally suited to gas condensate reservoirs. An
advantage over other lift methods is the relatively small initial
cost and low operating costs. A typical plunger lift installation
consists of a stop and spring set at the bottom of the tubing string,
and a lubricator and a catcher on the surface acting as a shock
absorber at the upper end of the plunger travel (Figure 3). The
system is completed with the addition of a controller and a motor
valve with the ability to open and close the flow line.
Operation of the system is initiated by closing the flow line and
allowing the formation gas to accumulate in the casing annulus
through natural separation. The annulus acts primarily as a reservoir for storage of this gas. After pressure builds up in the casing
to a certain value, the flow line is opened. The transfer of gas
from the casing to the tubing, in addition to the flow of gas from
the formation, creates a high instantaneous velocity that causes a

FIGURE 3: Conventional plunger lift installation(8).

41

Ansell Gas Condensate Field

Ansell gas condensate field is located 15 km southwest of
Edson in the deep gas basin of Western Alberta. The Cretaceous
Cardium formation that makes up the gas pool is comprised of
texturally mature, fine to coarse grained sandstone. The Cardium
within the Ansell area has a gross average isopach value between
10 m and 35 m and consists of widespread stacked shallow marine
and shoreline cycles deposited on trends which project to the
northwest/southeast. The shallow marine and shoreline deposits of
the Cardium were subsequently buried and deeper marine shales
acted as a hydrocarbon source. The average reservoir depth is
2,300 m and log porosities of 9 12% are common.
Permeabilities of less than 0.1 mD are generally encountered with
an average matrix permeability in the order of 0.01 mD 0.1 mD.
Subsequent Laramide compression tectonics have resulted in
areas of thrust faulting in the Cardium at Ansell. Thrust faulting
produces fracture networks within the Cardium which serve to
increase permeability near the overthrust section. Although targeting areas of potential faulting, and thus fracturing, is advantageous to the Cardium Sandstone play at Ansell and other adjacent
areas, it is not mandatory for success. Having a thrust fault nearby
does increase the potential that the drilled well will be successful
economically. However, there are also successful wells in nonfaulted Cardium settings.
The average reservoir pressure is 21 MPa and the temperature
is 82 C. The reservoir has a gas condensate fluid which yields
170 m3/E6m3 (30 bbl/mmscf) of free liquids at the well head, and
further processing yields another 280 m3/E6m3 (50 bbl/mmscf) of
liquids for a total liquid content of 450 m3/E6m3 (80 bbl/mmscf).
The initial reservoir pressure is very close to the dew point
pressure.

100

Predicted Rate Increase, %

pressure drop across the plunger and the liquid. The plunger then
moves upwards, pushing all of the liquids in the tubing before it.
Upon the arrival of the plunger at the surface, the tubing string
is completely free of liquids. At this point, the formation encounters the least resistance to flow. Depending on the productivity of
the well, high flow rates can be maintained for some incremental
time by leaving the flow line open. This period is called the afterflow. The well is shut in when loading is evidenced again, allowing the plunger to fall and the cycle is repeated.

80

60

40

20

0
0

20

40

60

80

100

Observed Rate Increase, %

FIGURE 4: Incremental gas rate prediction.

The liquid-to-gas ratios are determined using current

production data. Since the liquid is not removed from a well on a
consistent basis, it is important to have a few months of liquid-togas ratios so that a reliable estimate can be made. The information
for this paper was obtained from a database with daily production
data. The current gas production rate was determined using a 14day average.
Having obtained the above data, it is possible to calculate the
inflow performance of the well and overlay the tubing performance curve on it. The operating points before and after the
plunger lift installation yield the expected gas flow rate increase
upon the plunger lift installation. A comparison of the predicted
vs. actual increase in gas flow rates is shown in Figure 4 for the
wells where a plunger lift was installed in 2001 and 2002. A perfect match would have been the 45-degree line shown on this plot
and the dashed lines indicate a variation of 10% from it. It can
be concluded that the increase in rate can be estimated using the
above technique with reasonable confidence for the majority of
the wells. Therefore, wells can be prioritized for plunger installation using the aforementioned technique. That is, wells with, highest incremental gas rate are given priority.

Well Performances

The first step in identifying plunger lift candidates is to inspect

the difference between the tubing head pressure and the casing
head pressure. Wells with large differential pressure between the
casing and tubing, which indicates liquid loading, are considered
prime candidates for plunger lift installations.
The second step is to estimate the potential flow rate increase
with the plunger lift. Naturally, wells with the largest impact are
given priority for plunger lift installation. The estimation of a
wells performance with the plunger lift requires at least two
important pieces of information. These are the current reservoir
pressure and the producing liquid-to-gas ratio for the well under
consideration.
The current reservoir pressure is obtained using the gas material balance equation. The material balance requires the original
reservoir pressure and the original gas in place (OGIP). These values are then plotted on a graph of P/Z vs. cumulative gas
produced. The original reservoir pressure is usually constant
throughout the area. The OGIP, or the reserves available to the
well within its drainage area, is determined by analyzing the gas
rate vs. time and extrapolating the decline curve to the economic
limit. Once the original reservoir pressure and OGIP are known,
the current reservoir pressure is determined from the material balance equation using the cumulative gas produced to date.
42

When the wells are put on production, the initial drawdown

causes liquids to drop out in the reservoir and the gas relative permeability decreases rapidly, resulting in steep production
declines(1,12). After a certain period of time (three to 12 months), a
semi steady state is reached and the rate of production decline is
reduced. The decline rates and time to reach semi steady state
flow is controlled by the permeability of the drainage area as well
as the amount of the drawdown applied at the well.
A typical well is shown in Figure 5 where the initial rapid
decline occurs over the first nine months of production. This
10,000
Plunger Lift Installed

Gas Rate (mcf/cd)

Identification of Plunger Lift

Candidate Wells

1,000

100
0

10

20

30

40

50

60

Months

FIGURE 5: Well 1 production decline.

Journal of Canadian Petroleum Technology

1,000

1,200

Plunger Lift Installed

Plunger Lift Installed

Gas Rate (mcf/cd)

Gas Rate (mcf/cd)

1,000
800
600
400
200
0
0

200000

400000

600000

800000

1000000

1200000 1400000

100

10

10

20

Gas Rate (mcf/cd)

FIGURE 6: Well 1 cumulative gas production.

500
450
400
350
300
250
200
150
100
50
0

40

50

60

FIGURE 7: Well 2 production decline.

Plunger Lift Installed

30

Months

Cumulative Gas Produced (mcf)

100000 200000 300000 400000 500000 600000 700000 800000 900000

Cumulative Gas Produced (mcf)

plunger lift installation, the reserves increased by 197% to 21.8

E6m3 (0.772 bcf). Note that the decline assumed by the well after
the plunger lift installation was significantly less than that established during the initial semi steady state that lasted between
months four to 18 for this particular well.
It should be noted that, although most of the wells follow a
similar trend to the two discussed above, there were some exceptions. In some wells, the increased rate of production decline prior
to the plunger lift installation was not very prominent. In other
wells, the semi steady state was attained very quickly and there
was only one long production decline period prior to the accelerated decline that happens due to liquid loading.

FIGURE 8: Well 2 cumulative gas production.

period is followed by relatively mild decline when the semi steady

state is reached. An intermitter was installed at 23 months as flow
rates declined to the point where liquids were not being lifted efficiently. The intermitter worked well for another year. However,
when pressures declined further so that the liquid submergence
could not be handled by the gas production, then the rate of production decline increased significantly. Longer and longer buildup times were needed to lift the liquid column.
The higher production declines started at 35 months in this well
and continued until a plunger lift was installed at 47 months.
Initial variation in the gas flow rate reflects the efforts to optimize
the plunger operation while a new semi steady state was being
established. Based on the 11 months of production after the
plunger lift was installed, a clear production decline trend has not
been established yet. A conservative estimate would be a decline
similar to the decline established during the initial semi steady
state flow between the months nine to 34, which is shown on this
plot.
The reserves associated with this well can be calculated based
on the exponential production decline before and after the installation of the plunger lift. This is shown in Figure 6. The well would
have produced 23.4 E6m3 (0.827 bcf) of gas without the plunger
lift. The installation of the plunger lift increased the reserves by
50% to 35.0 E6m3 (1.237 bcf).
Another example of the well behaviour in the Ansell field is
shown in Figures 7 and 8. In this case, an intermitter was installed
at 19 months and the plunger lift was installed at 29 months.
Based on the performance of the well for 21 months after the

Results
Plunger lifts were installed in one well in 1997, two wells in
1999, two wells in 2000, and fourteen wells in 2001. There were
three additional wells in 2002, but their performance history with
the plunger lift has been brief and, hence, are not included in the
performance analysis here. Reserves additions attributed to the
plunger lift for the pre-2001 wells are shown in Table 1, and for
year-2001 wells in Table 2.
Incremental reserves are 231.4 E6m3 (8.171 bcf) for the wells
shown in Table 1 and 176.4 E6m3 (6.229 bcf) for the wells shown
in Table 2. If one includes the associated liquids with these incremental reserves, then the cost of adding reserves were 0.126 $/m3
oil equivalent (0.02 $/boe) and 0.315 $/m3 oil equivalent (0.05
$/boe) for the wells shown in Tables 1 and 2, respectively. The
wells paid out the investment in plunger lifts in two to four
months. Therefore, the project is considered to be a technical and
economic success. Currently, Husky Oil Operations Limited have
an active work plan to extend the plunger lifts installations to the
rest of the field where it is warranted.
TABLE 2: Plunger lift installations during 2001.

Well

Reserves
(bcf)
Prior P/L
0.827
4.003
1.920
0.915
0.736
0.223
0.378
1.202
0.596
0.991
0.503
0.790
1.071
0.736

1.237
5.310
2.696
1.502
2.115
0.299
0.396
1.879
0.703
1.150
0.968
0.823
1.177
0.864

0.410
1.307
0.776
0.586
1.379
0.076
0.018
0.677
0.107
0.159
0.466
0.033
0.107
0.128

49.6%
32.6%
40.4%
64.1%
187.5%
34.1%
04.7%
56.3%
18.0%
16.0%
92.6%
04.2%
10.0%
17.3%

14.890

21.118

6.229

44.8%

Well

Reserves
(bcf)
Prior P/L

2
3
4
5
6

0.262
0.363
1.904
0.809
0.271

0.772
0.573
7.760
0.475
2.710

0.509
0.210
5.857
-0.334
2.439

194.1%
57.8%
307.6%
-41.2%
899.8%

1
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19

Total

3.609

12.290

8.171

306.0%

Total

TABLE 1: Plunger lift installations before 2001.

Reserves Incremental Incremental
(bcf)
Reserves
Reserves
Post P/L
(bcf)
(%)

November 2003, Volume 42, No. 11

Reserves Incremental Incremental

(bcf)
Reserves
Reserves
Post P/L
(bcf)
(%)

43

Summary and Conclusions

Regardless of initial well productivity, wells in the Ansell gas
condensate field eventually liquid load due to declining reservoir
pressure and/or low gas permeability. The problem can be temporarily remedied by producing the wells intermittently. However,
intermitting is inefficient and cannot be used once the bottomhole
pressure decreases below that necessary to support the required
liquid column height. Installation of a plunger lift eliminates the
liquid fallback problem associated with intermittent well production. Consequently, the production can be restored with decline
rates equal to or below previous levels.
The application of the plunger lift technology in Ansell resulted
in total incremental gas reserves of 14.400 bcf. These reserves
were added at an average cost of 0.03 $/boe. The initial project is
considered to be a technical and economic success and is now
being extended to the rest of the field.
Conversion Factor
1 m3 = 35.31 ft3

REFERENCES
1. COS,KUNER, G., Performance Prediction in Gas Condensate
Reservoirs; Distinguished Author Series, Journal of Canadian
Petroleum Technology, Vol. 38, No. 8, pp. 32-36, August 1999.
2. TURNER, R.G., HUBBARD, M.G., and DUKLER, A.E., Analysis
and Prediction of Minimum Flow Rate for the Continuous Removal
of Liquids From Gas Wells; Journal of Petroleum Technology, pp.
1475-1482, November 1969.
3. COLEMAN, S.B., CLAY, H.B., MCCURDY, D.G., and NORRIS,
H.L., A New Look at Predicting Gas Well Load Up; Journal of
Petroleum Technology, pp. 329-333, March 1991.
4. BEAUREGARD, E. and FERGUSON, P.L., Introduction to Plunger
Lift: Applications, Advantages, and Limitations; presented at the
Southwestern Petroleum Short Course, Department of Petroleum
Engineering, Texas Tech. University, Lubbock, TX, April 23 24,
1981.
5. FERGUSON, P.L. and BEUREGARD, E., Will Plunger Lift Work
in My Well?; presented at the Southwestern Petroleum Short
Course, Department of Petroleum Engineering, Texas Tech.
University, Lubbock, TX, April 27 28, 1983.
6. YAMAMOTO, H. and CHRISTIANSEN, R.L., Enhancing Liquid
Lift From Low Pressure Gas Reservoirs; paper SPE 55625, presented at the SPE Rocky Mountain Regional Meeting, Gillette, WY, May
15 18, 1999.
7. CLEGG, J.D., BUCARAM, S.M., and HEIN, N.W.,
Recommendations and Comparisons for Selecting Artificial Lift
Methods; Journal of Petroleum Technology, pp. 1128-1131, pp.
1163-1167, December 1993.
8. WIGGINS, M.L., NGUYEN, S.H., and GASBARRI, S., Optimizing
Plunger Lift Operations in Oil and Gas Wells; paper SPE 52119,
presented at the SPE Mid-Continent Operations Symposium,
Oklahoma City, OK, March 28 31, 1999.
9. AVERY, D.J and EVANS, R.D., Design Optimization of Plunger
Lift Systems; paper SPE 17585, presented at the SPE International
Meeting on Petroleum Engineering, Tianjin, China, November 1 4,
1988.
10. NEVES, T.R. and BRIMHALL, R.M., Elimination of Liquid
Loading in Low Productivity Gas Wells; paper SPE 18833, presented at the SPE Production Operations Symposium, Oklahoma City,
OK, March 13 14, 1989.
11. FERGUSON, P.L. and BEAUREGARD, E., Extending Economic
Limits and Reducing Lifting Costs: Plungers Prove to be Long-Term
Solutions; presented at the Southwestern Petroleum Short Course,
Department of Petroleum Engineering, Texas Tech. University,
Lubbock, TX, April 20 21, 1988.
12. COS,KUNER, G., Microvisual Study of Multiphase Gas Condensate
Flow in Porous Media; Transport in Porous Media, Vol. 28, pp. 118, 1997.

44

ProvenanceOriginal Petroleum Society manuscript,

Production Optimization of Liquid Loading Gas Condensate
Wells: A Case Study (2002-107) first presented at the Canadian
International Petroleum Conference (the 53rd Annual Technical
Meeting of the Petroleum Society) June 11-13, 2002, in Calgary,
Alberta. Abstract submitted for review December 17, 2001; editorial comments sent to the author(s) June 24, 2003; revised manuscript received July 25, 2003; paper approved for pre-press
September 25, 2003, final approval November 6, 2003.

Authors Biographies
Gkhan Cos, kuner is an engineering
specialist with Husky Oil Operations
Limited. He is involved in projects ranging
from gas storage to offshore field
delineation and development. Prior to
joining Husky Oil, he worked for Agip as a
reservoir engineering advisor; Scientific
Software Intercomp as a senior consulting
associate; and, at Imperial Oil, Shell
Canada, and the Petroleum Recovery
Institute in various research capacities. He
holds a B.Sc. degree from the Middle East Technical University,
Turkey, and M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of
Alberta, Canada, all in petroleum engineering.
Taryn Strocen (Bogdan) is an
Exploitation Engineer at Husky Energy in
Calgary, Alberta. She graduated with a
Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical
engineering from the University of
Saskatchewan in 2001. Taryn is also a
member of APEGGA.

Journal of Canadian Petroleum Technology