dynamic simulation of liquid loading in deviated gas condensate wells: study the effect of gas injection and wellhead pressure on the well unloading

Liquid loading can damage the productivity of gas condensate wells, especially at the latest periods of their life# as the reservoir pressure depletes and condensate accumulates at the bottom hole, the gas velocity becomes insufficient to bring condensates up to the surface# as a result, the bottom hole pressure increases, the gas rate reduces, and in the worst case, it may kill the well# this paper aimed to investigate the transient flow behavior of liquid loading in a low-pressure and deviated gas condensate wells and study the effect of gas injection and wellhead pressure reduction as mitigation methods# the simulation results showed that the condensate volume increases in the wellbore, and after sometimes, it caused to stop the gas flow# by injecting the gas into the end of the well tubing, observed that due to decreasing the critical gas liquid loading rate, the gas flow stabilized, and the accumulated condensate removed from the wellbore# it also observed that decreasing the wellbore pressure leads to a decrease in the accumulation of condensate by decreasing the back pressure on the well# however, the trend of condensate accumulation was still increasing# in conclusion, the injection of gas seems to be a suitable mitigation method for long-term production in gas condensate wells, while the wellhead pressure reduction can also be used to delay the onset point of liquid loading# investigation of the transient behavior of fluid flow in gas condensate wells helps us to predict possible future problems like liquid loading in these wells#