TY - THES

T1 - Artificial lift methods and additional potential of Wellhead Compression

AU - Jazbec, Luka

N1 - embargoed until 03-10-2017

PY - 2016

Y1 - 2016

N2 - Natural gas compression is a mechanical process whereby a volume of gas at an existing pressure is compressed to a desired higher pressure. Most natural gas compression applications involve compressing gas for its delivery from one point to another. Low pressure or aging natural gas wells require compression for delivery of produced gas into higher pressured gas gathering of pipeline systems. Compression at the wellhead is required because, over the life of an oil or gas well, natural reservoir pressure typically declines as reserves are produced. As the natural reservoir pressure of the well declines below the line pressure of the gas gathering or pipeline system used to transport the gas to market, gas no longer naturally flows into the pipeline. Compression equipment is applied in both field and gathering systems to boost the well’s pressure levels allowing gas to be brought to market. Typically, compression is required several times during the natural gas production cycle: at the wellhead, at the gathering lines, into and out of gas processing facilities, into and out of storage facilities and through the pipeline. During the production phase, compression is used to boost the pressure of natural gas from the wellhead so that natural gas can flow into the gathering system or pipeline for transmission to end-users. Commonly, these applications require portable, low to mid-range horsepower compression equipment located at or near the wellhead. The continually dropping pressure levels in natural gas fields require periodic modification and variation of on-site compression equipment. This thesis will focus mainly on onshore application of Wellhead Compression as a state of the art artificial lift method.

AB - Natural gas compression is a mechanical process whereby a volume of gas at an existing pressure is compressed to a desired higher pressure. Most natural gas compression applications involve compressing gas for its delivery from one point to another. Low pressure or aging natural gas wells require compression for delivery of produced gas into higher pressured gas gathering of pipeline systems. Compression at the wellhead is required because, over the life of an oil or gas well, natural reservoir pressure typically declines as reserves are produced. As the natural reservoir pressure of the well declines below the line pressure of the gas gathering or pipeline system used to transport the gas to market, gas no longer naturally flows into the pipeline. Compression equipment is applied in both field and gathering systems to boost the well’s pressure levels allowing gas to be brought to market. Typically, compression is required several times during the natural gas production cycle: at the wellhead, at the gathering lines, into and out of gas processing facilities, into and out of storage facilities and through the pipeline. During the production phase, compression is used to boost the pressure of natural gas from the wellhead so that natural gas can flow into the gathering system or pipeline for transmission to end-users. Commonly, these applications require portable, low to mid-range horsepower compression equipment located at or near the wellhead. The continually dropping pressure levels in natural gas fields require periodic modification and variation of on-site compression equipment. This thesis will focus mainly on onshore application of Wellhead Compression as a state of the art artificial lift method.

KW - Artificial lift methods

KW - Natural

KW - gas

KW - compression

KW - pressure

KW - volume

KW - wellhead

KW - Erdgaskompression

KW - Volumen

KW - Gas

KW - Druck

KW - Erdgas Gasbohrungen

KW - Bohrlochkopf

KW - Feld

M3 - Master's Thesis

ER -