Estimated Shut-In Time on Cyclic Well Using Earlougher Equation

Abstract

This paper present a method to estimate shut-in time that needed for cyclic well. Cyclic well is a simple method for producing on a gas wells with accumulated liquid problem.

X Company is an Oil and Gas company which has operated in East Kalimantan, Indonesia, since 1968, It has hundreds of wells and mostly are mature gas wells. The most prominent problem affecting production in gas wells is liquid loading. One method that can solve this problem is the Alternate Shut-in/flow. This method has been applied in X Company since 1998 and now there are many wells applying with this method. Therefore it is necessary to determine an equation to calculate estimated shut-in time on cyclic well without waiting for days even for months. The study on this paper is to estimate shut-in time on the cyclic well. The equation used in this study is to calculate estimation of time of the transient flow period suggested by Earlougher (1977). The Earlougher equation can be develope and use as a method to determine the time period of shut-in for a cyclic well. So in the future, this method can be use and is expected to increase the production rate. After some analysis and calculation, the result by using field data for rate of the entire field in one month is 78.12 MSCF. In the other hand, the result by using the Earlougher equation is 2714.31 MSCF. From these two results, the disparity in rate is considerable. It is hoped that if this equation is developed, then the profit earned is much greater.