Automatic well test system and method of operating the same
First Claim
1. An automatic well test system for determining the volume of respective components that are separated from a component mixture forming a wellhead production material, comprising:
- means responsive to receipt of a wellhead production component mixture for separating said mixture into respective components thereof;
means for filling said separating means with said production component mixture to a fill level that permits said separating means to separate said wellhead production component mixture into respective components thereof, and for draining liquid components of said production component mixture from said separating means to a drain level, said liquid components including an oil component and a water component;
means for measuring a fluid density value and a mass flow rate value of each of said oil component and said water component as said draining means drains said liquid components from said separating means to arrive at said drain level;
means for correcting said measured fluid density value of said oil component by adjusting the same for water-cut within said oil component to provide a corrected oil component fluid density value, wherein said correcting means uses said fluid density value of said water component to correct said measured fluid density value of said oil component; and
means for calculating a volumetric flow rate with respect to said oil component using said corrected oil component fluid density value.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An automatic well test system (20) utilizes a Coriolis flowmeter (68) that functions as a mass flowmeter and densitometer in combination with a water-cut monitor (66) to calculate volumetric flow rates and densities of materials draining from a test separator (24) in a combined or two-phase production stream. An oil-phase density value is corrected to eliminate the effect of its water content, and divided into the mass flow rate reading to obtain a net oil flow rate. System operations are governed by an automated controller (86) that utilizes a gas blanket system (28) to prevent low pressures from liberating gas from the liquids within the test separator.
169 Citations
15 Claims
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1. An automatic well test system for determining the volume of respective components that are separated from a component mixture forming a wellhead production material, comprising:
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means responsive to receipt of a wellhead production component mixture for separating said mixture into respective components thereof; means for filling said separating means with said production component mixture to a fill level that permits said separating means to separate said wellhead production component mixture into respective components thereof, and for draining liquid components of said production component mixture from said separating means to a drain level, said liquid components including an oil component and a water component; means for measuring a fluid density value and a mass flow rate value of each of said oil component and said water component as said draining means drains said liquid components from said separating means to arrive at said drain level; means for correcting said measured fluid density value of said oil component by adjusting the same for water-cut within said oil component to provide a corrected oil component fluid density value, wherein said correcting means uses said fluid density value of said water component to correct said measured fluid density value of said oil component; and means for calculating a volumetric flow rate with respect to said oil component using said corrected oil component fluid density value. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. A method of operating an automatic well test system to measure the volume and density of respective components that are separated from a component mixture forming a wellhead production material, said method comprising the steps of:
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supplying a wellhead production component mixture for use in a separator; filling said separator with said production component mixture to a fill level for separation of said wellhead production component mixture by said separator, said production component mixture including a water component and an oil component; draining liquid components of said production component mixture from said separator to a drain level; measuring a fluid density value, a mass flow rate, ahd a water-cut value respectively of said liquid components after said draining means drains said liquid components from said separating means to arrive at said drain level; correcting said fluid density value measured on said oil component by adjusting the same for water-cut within said oil component to provide a corrected oil component fluid density value, where said fluid density value of said water component is used to correct said measured fluid density value of said oil component; and using said corrected oil component fluid density value and said mass flow rate to calculate a volumetric flow rate with respect to said oil component.
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9. A method of operating an automatic Well test system to measure the volume and density of respective components that are separated from a component mixture forming a wellhead production material, said method comprising the steps of:
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supplying a wellhead production component mixture for use in a separator; filling said separator with said production component mixture to a fill level for separation of said wellhead production component mixture by said separator, said production component mixture including a water component and an oil component; draining liquid components of said production component mixture from said separator to a drain level; measuring a fluid density value, a mass flow rate, and a water-cut value respectively of said liquid components after said draining means drains said liquid components from said separating means to arrive at said drain level; correcting said fluid density value measured on said oil component by adjusting the same for water-cut within said oil component to provide a corrected oil component fluid density value; and using said corrected oil component fluid density value and said mass flow rate to calculate a volumetric flow rate with respect to said oil component, said correcting step including correction according to a formula
space="preserve" listing-type="equation">ρ
.sub.o,T =(ρ
.sub.t -ρ
.sub.w,T WC)/(1-WC),wherein ρ
o is said corrected oil component fluid density value at a temperature T;
ρ
t is a total density of the segregated oil component including residual water as measured by said densitometer at temperature T;
ρ
w,T is the density of the water component as measured by said densitometer on a segregated water phase; and
WC is the water-cut of the segregated oil component including residual water expressed as a volumetric fraction of water in the segregated oil component.
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10. A method of operating an automatic well test system to measure the volume and density of respective components that are separated from a component mixture forming a wellhead production material, said method comprising the steps of:
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supplying a wellhead production component mixture for use in a separator; filling said separator with said production component mixture to a fill level for separation of said wellhead production component mixture by said separator, said production component mixture including a water component and an oil component; draining liquid components of said production component mixture from said separator to a drain level; measuring a fluid density value, a mass flow rate, and a water-cut value respectively of said liquid components after said draining means drains said liquid components from said separating means to arrive at said drain level; correcting said fluid density value measured on said oil component by adjusting the same for water-cut within said oil component to provide a corrected oil component fluid density value, where said fluid density value of said water component is used to correct said measured fluid density value of said oil component; and using said corrected oil component fluid density value and said mass flow rate to calculate a volumetric flow rate with respect to said oil component, wherein said draining step includes providing a pressurized gas blanket over the materials within said separator to prevent flashing said materials when said liquid components are being drained from said separator. - View Dependent Claims (11)
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12. An automatic well test system for determining the volume of respective components that are separated from a component mixture forming a wellhead production material, comprising:
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means responsive to receipt of a wellhead production component mixture for separating said mixture into respective components thereof; means for filling said separating means with said production component mixture to a fill level that permits said separating means to separate said wellhead production component mixture into respective components thereof, and for draining liquid components of said production component mixture from said separating means to a drain level, said liquid components including an oil component and a water component; means for measuring a fluid density value and a mass flow rate value of each of said oil component and said water component as said draining means drains said liquid components from said separating means to arrive at said drain level; means for correcting said measured fluid density value of said oil component by adjusting the same for water-cut within said oil component to provide a corrected oil component fluid density value; and means for calculating a volumetric flow rate with respect to said oil component using said corrected oil component fluid density value, said measuring means including a mass flowmeter and a densitometer for providing said mass flow rate values and said fluid density values, said correcting means including a control program providing means for calculating according to a formula
space="preserve" listing-type="equation">ρ
.sub.o,T =(ρ
.sub.t -ρ
.sub.w,T WC)/(1-WC),wherein ρ
o is said corrected oil component fluid density value at a temperature T;
ρ
t is a total density of the segregated oil component including residual water as measured by said densitometer at temperature T;
ρ
w,T is the density of the water component as measured by said densitometer on a segregated water phase; and
WC is the water-cut of the segregated oil component including residual water expressed as a volumetric fraction of water in the segregated oil component. - View Dependent Claims (13)
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14. An automatic well test system for determining the volume of respective components that are separated from a component mixture forming a wellhead production material, comprising:
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means responsive to receipt of a wellhead production component mixture for separating said mixture into respective components thereof; means for filling said separating means with said production component mixture to a fill level that permits said separating means to separate said wellhead production component mixture into respective components thereof, and for draining liquid components of said production component mixture from said separating means to a drain level, said liquid components including an oil component and a water component; means for measuring a fluid density value and a mass flow rate value of each of said oil component and said water component as said draining means drains said liquid components from said separating means to arrive at said drain level; means for correcting said measured fluid density value of said oil component by adjusting the same for water-cut within said oil component to provide a corrected oil component fluid density value, where said fluid density value of said water component is used to correct said measured fluid density value of said oil component; and means for calculating a volumetric flow rate with respect to said oil component using said corrected oil component fluid density value; and wherein said separating means includes means for preventing flash-removal of a gas component from said wellhead production fluid when said draining means is draining liquid components from said separator. - View Dependent Claims (15)
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Specification