A Passive Flow Control Nozzle for Water Choking Application

Abstract

Reducing water production is the primary problem in the oil and gas industry. There are a few flow control technologies with moving parts available on the market to choke back water. However, the main issue with those technologies is the potential of plugging and scaling. In this paper, we will introduce a novel passive flow control nozzle, which has no moving part inside. All the choking is implemented through its internal geometry. Therefore, the risk of plugging and scaling will be significantly mitigated. In this paper, a passive flow control nozzle designed specifically for water choking will be presented. Design philosophy in fluid mechanics will be introduced in detail. The results of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and physical flow loop testing will be shown to evaluate the performance of the technology. It is shown that a passive choking nozzle can choke back more than 40% of water compared to an orifice while maintaining oil production rates. We will also perform simulation case studies to compare conventional slotted liner completions with the completions equipped with a passive choking nozzle (PCN). We will show that the nozzle can effectively choke back water and promote oil production in a long horizontal well. Finally, we will briefly discuss how the passive nozzle can mitigate well-known issues such as scaling and plugging.