Development of Hydraulic Flow Control Valve for Intelligent Gas Well

Intelligent gas wells are an important means to control water cut, gas production and efficient development for gas reservoirs with bottom water. The development of hydraulic flow control valve is the key for the core completion tool of intelligent gas wells. Compared with the hydraulic flow control valve of intelligent completion for oil and water wells, the tightness requirements between the flow trim and the sliding sleeve of the hydraulic flow control valve in intelligent gas well are higher, and the sliding sleeve positioning requires more precise. The development of hydraulic flow control valve for intelligent gas wells in this paper adopts adjustable locking mechanism that can realize accurately locate the position of the sliding sleeve by setting different numbers of springs and adjusting the elastic force of the springs to adjust the hydraulic unlocking force. The dual sealing structure of metal seal and O-ring seal is adopted between the flow trim and the sliding sleeve to solve the gas tightness of the tool. The combination of laboratory experiment and fluid simulation analysis was used to first time confirm the shape of the valve hole suitable for hydraulic flow control valve for gas wells. Through the self-developed intelligent completion simulation system experiment, it can be seen that the pressure equalization and production control effect are good in the double-segment for water control and gas production process, and the gas production of a single well is increased by 17.8%, which can be combined with the downhole hydraulic reversing control system to form a low-cost intelligent gas well system to use in gas wells above 3000m. The development of hydraulic flow control valve has filled the gaps in the research of Chinese intelligent gas wells, and it has great significance in the theoretical research and practical application.