Natural Gas Engineering Handbook Dr. Boyun Guo and Dr. AIi Ghalambor University of Louisiana at Lafayette Natural Gas Engineering Handbook Copyright © 2005 by Gulf Publishing Company, Houston, Texas. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the prior written permission of the publisher. HOUSTON, TX: Gulf Publishing Company 2 Greenway Plaza, Suite 1020 Houston, TX 77046 AUSTIN, TX: 427 Sterzing St., Suite 104 Austin, TX 78704 10 987654321 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Guo, Boyun. Natural gas engineering handbook / Boyun Guo, AIi Ghalambor. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-9765113-3-9 (acid-free paper) 1. Natural gas-Handbooks, manuals, etc. 2. Petroleum engineering-Handbooks, manuals, etc. I. Ghalambor, AIi. II. Title. TN88O.G86 2005 665.7-dc22 2OO5OO5O72 Printed in the United States of America Printed on acid-free paper. °° Text design and composition by TIPS Technical Publishing, Inc. This book is dedicated to the families of the authors for their understanding and encouragement that were as responsible as the experience and knowledge that have been inscribed herein. Preface It is well recognized that the nineteenth century was a century of coal that supported the initiation of industrial revolution in Europe. The twentieth century was the century of oil that was the primary energy source to sup- port the growth of global economy. The demand of the world's economy for energy is ever increasing. The energy disruptions should be a genuine concern. It will likely cause chronic energy shortage as early as 2010. It will eventually evolve into a serious energy crunch. The way to avoid such a crunch is to expand energy supply and move from oil to natural gas and, eventually, to hydrogen. Natural gas is the only fuel that is superior to other energy sources in economic attractiveness and environmental concerns. At the end of the last century, natural gas took over the position of coal as the number two energy source behind oil. In 2000, total world energy consumption was slightly below 400 quadrillion (10 15 ) Btu. Of this, oil accounted for 39 percent, while natural gas and coal provided 23 percent and 22 percent, respectively. It is a historical imperative that the transition from oil to natural must be made in the early twenty-first cen- tury. This is not only motivated by environmental considerations but also technological innovations and refinements. The consumption of natural gas in all end-use classifications (residential, commercial, industrial, and power generation) has increased rapidly since World War II. Natural gas is one of the major fossil energy sources. It provided close to 24 percent of U.S. energy sources over the three-year period of 2000 to 2002. There has been a huge disparity between "proven" reserves and potential reserves of natural gases. Even in the case of the highly mature and exploited United States, depending upon infor- mation sources, the potential remaining gas reserve estimates varies from 650 Tcf to 5,000 Tcf. Proved natural gas reserves in 2000 are about 1,050 Tcf in the Unites States and 170 Tcf in Canada. On the global scale, it is more difficult to give a good estimate of natural gas reserves. Major nat- ural gas reserves are found in the former Soviet Union, Middle East, Asia Pacific, Africa, North America, Southern and Central America, and Europe. Natural gas engineering has supported the natural gas industry since the birth of the industry. Although the principles of natural gas engineering have been documented in numerous books, most of them do not reflect the current practice in the natural gas industry where computer applica- tions play a crucial role in engineering design and analyses. This book fills the gap. This book is written primarily for natural gas production and processing engineers and college students of senior level. It is not the authors' inten- tion to simply duplicate general information that can be found in other books. This book also gathers the authors' experiences gained through years of teaching the course of natural gas engineering at universities. The mission of the book is to provide engineers a handy guideline to designing, analyzing, and optimizing natural gas production and pro- cessing systems. This book can also be used as a reference for college stu- dents of undergraduate and graduate levels in petroleum engineering. This book was intended to cover the full scope of natural gas production engineering. Following the sequence of natural gas production, this book presents its contents in twelve chapters. Chapter 1 presents a brief intro- duction to the natural gas industry. Chapter 2 documents properties of natural gases that are essential for designing and analyzing natural gas production and processing systems. Chapters 3 through 6 cover in detail the performance of gas wells. Chapter 7 focuses on the liquid separation process of natural gases. Chapter 8 describes dehydration processes of jiatural gases. Chapter 9 presents principles of gas compression and cooling. Chapter 10 describes gas-metering techniques. Chapter 11 pre- sents principles of gas transportation in pipelines. Chapter 12 deals with special problems in natural gas production operations. Appendix A pre- sents real gas pseudopressure charts for sweet natural gases. Appendix B provides charts for determining normalized pressures of sweet natural gases. Appendix C presents orifice meter tables for natural gases. Appendix D presents charts for the minimum gas production rates for water removal in gas wells and Appendix E presents charts for the min- imum gas production rates for condensate removal in gas wells. Because the substance of this book is virtually boundless, knowing what to omit was the greatest difficulty with its editing. The authors believe that it requires many books to describe the foundation of knowledge in natural gas engineering. To counter any deficiency that might arise from the limitations of space, we provide a reference list of books and papers at the end of each chapter so that readers should experience little difficulty in pursuing each topic beyond the presented scope. As regards presentation, this book focuses on presenting principles, cri- teria, basic data, and spreadsheet programs necessary to quickly perform engineering analyses. Derivation of mathematical models is beyond the scope of this book. Most example calculations are presented with com- puter spreadsheets. All the spreadsheet programs are included on the CD included with this book. This book is based on numerous documents including reports and papers accumulated through many years of work at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. The authors are grateful to the university for permission to publish the materials. Special thanks go to the ChevronTexaco and Amer- ican Petroleum Institute (API) for providing ChevronTexaco Professor- ship and API Professorship in Petroleum Engineering throughout the editing of this book. Last but not least, our thanks are due to friends and colleagues too numerous to mention, who encouraged, assessed, and made possible our editing this book. On the basis of their collective expe- rience, we expect this book to be of value to engineers in the natural gas industry. Dr. Boyun Guo ChevronTexaco Endowed Professor in Petroleum Engineering University of Louisiana at Lafayette Dr. AIi Ghalambor American Petroleum Institute Endowed Professor University of Louisiana at Lafayette List of Spreadsheet Programs Table 2-1 Results Given by MixingRule.xls 16 Table 2-2 Results Given by Carr-Kobayashi-Burrows Viscosity.xls 21 Table 2-3 Results Given by Brill-Beggs-Z.xls 23 Table 2-4 Results Given by Hall-Yarborogh-z.xls 25 Table 2-5 Input Data and Calculated Parameters Given by PseudoP.xls 29 Table 2-6 Partial Output Given by PseudoP.xls 31 Table 3-1 The First Section of Theoretical Deliverability.xls 37 Table 3-2 Results Given by Theoretical Deliverability.xls 38 Table 3-3 The First Section of Empirical Deliverability.xls 41 Table 3-4 Results Given by Empirical Deliverability.xls 41 Table 3-5 Input Data Given by Theoretical IPR.xls 44 Table 3-6 Solution Given by Theoretical IPR.xls 44 Table 3-7 Input Data and Solution Given by Empirical IPR.xls 47 Table 3-8 Results Given by Empirical IPR.xls 48 Table 4-1 Input Data and Results Given by AverageTZ.xls 55 Table 4-2 Input Data and Results Given by Cullender-Smith.xls 59 Table 4-3 Input Data and Results Sections for MistFlow.xls 62 Table 5-1 Solution Given by DryGasUpchoke.xls 75 Table 5-2 Solution Given by DryGasDownChoke.xls 77 Table 6-1 Input Data and Results Given by BottomHoleNodal.xls 84 Table 6-2 Input Data and Solution Given by WellheadNodal.xls 88 Table 6-3 Results Section of WellheadNodal.xls 89 Table 11-1 Input Data and Results Given by PipeCapacity.xls 215 Table 11-5 Input Data and Solution Given by Loopedl_ines.xls 230 Table 12-1 Turner Velocity and the Minimum Unloading Gas Flow Rate Given by Turnerl_oading.xls 246 Table 12-2 Input Data and Solution Given by GasWellLoading.xls 252 Table 12-4 Glycol Inhibition Input Data Given by Glycollnjection.xls 264 Table 12-5 Glycol Inhibition Calculations and Results Given by Glycollnjection.xls 264 Table 12-6 Methanol Inhibition Input Data and Calculations Given by Methanollnjection.xls 265 Spreadsheet Programs and Functions Spreadsheet Name 3 Function 4-PhaseFlow.xls Four-phase flow in tubing AverageTZ.xls Gas flow in tubing BHP-Gas Well.xls Bottom hole pressure in gas wells BottomHoleNodal.xls Nodal analysis with bottom hole node Brill-Beggs-z.xls Z-factor with Brill-Beggs correlation Carr-Kobayashi-Burrows Viscosity by Carr-Kobayashi-Burrows Viscosity.xls correlation ^ „ . ^ . x . , Tubing performance by Cullender-Smith Cullender-Smith.xls method DryGasDownChoke.xls Downstream choke pressure DryGasUpChoke.xls Upstream choke pressure Empirical Deliverability.xls Empirical reservoir deliverability Empirical IPR.xls Empirical IPR curve GasWellLoading.xls Gas well loading with Guo method Glycollnjection.xls Glycol requirement for hydrate prevention Hall-Yarborough-Z.xls Z-factor with Hall-Yarborough correlation . . Capacities of series, parallel, and looped Loopedl.ine.xls pipelines LP-Flash.xls Low-pressure flash Methanollnjection.xls Methanol requirement for hydrate prevention MistFlow.xls Mist flow in tubing MixingRule.xls Mixing rule for gas critical properties Nodal.xls Nodal analysis with average T and Z method NormPCharts.xls Normalized gas pressure PipelineCapacity.xls Single-pipeline capacity PseudoP.xls Real gas pseudopressure PseudoPCharts.xls Real gas pseudopressure chart Theoretical Deliverability.xls Theoretical reservoir deliverability Theoretical IPR.xls Theoretical IPR curve Turnerl_oading.xls Critical gas rate by Turner's method WellheadNodal.xls Nodal analysis with wellhead node a. All spreadsheet programs are on the CD attached to this book. List of Nomenclature cross-sectional area of flow path, in 2 the total firebox surface area, ft 2 gas formation volume factor, rb/scf parameter in IPR model in Mscf/d-psi ; choke flow coefficient drag coefficient clearance, fraction gas compressibility, psi water content of natural gas, lb m /MMscf orifice flow constant choke diameter, in pipe diameter, non-Darcy coefficient in d/Mscf diameter of the flow path, ft diameter of the flow path, in gas expansion factor, scf/ft 3 gas-specific kinetic energy, lbf-ft/ft kinetic energy required to hold liquid drops stationary, lbf-ft/ft 3 volumetric efficiency, fraction Moody friction factor orifice thermal expansion factor basic orifice factor, cfh specific gravity factor gauge location factor manometer factor for mercury meter pressure base factor supercompressibility factor Reynolds number factor temperature base factor flowing temperature factor 32.2 ft/sec 2 gravitational conversion factor = 32.17 lb m MbfSec 2 elevation above sea level, ft required theoretical compression power, hp/MMcfd total heat load on reboiler, Btu/h differential pressure in inches of water at 60 0 F pure inhibitor required, lb m /MMscf unit conversion coefficient permeability in md; specific heat ratio Hammerschmidt constant for inhibitor liquid-vapor equilibrium ratio of compound i measured depth in ft; latitude in degrees mechanical energy (loss of work) converted to heat, ft-lb f /lb m real gas pseudopressure, psi /cp apparent molecular weight molecular weight of component i parameter in IPR model, polytropic exponent number of components number of moles of fluid in the liquid phase Reynolds number number of stages required slip speed, rpm total operating speed, rpm number of moles of fluid in the vapor phase real gas normalized pressure pressure at depth, lb/ft 2 casing pressure, psia critical pressure of component i, psia absolute static pressure, psia pressure at surface, lb/ft pressure at surface, psia pressure at middepth, psia [...]... and Europe 1.5 Types of Natural Gas Resources The natural gases can be classified as conventional natural gas, gas in tight sands, gas in tight shales, coal-bed methane, gas in geopressured reservoirs, and gas in gas hydrates Conventional natural gas is either associated or nonassociated gas Associated or dissolved gas is found with crude oil Dissolved gas is that portion of the gas dissolved in the crude... oil wells Because natural gas is petroleum in a gaseous state, it is always accompanied by oil that is liquid petroleum There are three types of natural gases: nonassociated gas, associated gas, and gas condensate Nonassociated gas is from reservoirs with minimal oil Associated gas is the gas dissolved in oil under natural conditions in the oil reservoir Gas condensate refers to gas with high content... gas kinetic viscosity, cs Contents Preface ix List of Spreadsheet Programs xiii Spreadsheet Programs and Functions xiv List of Nomenclature xv 1 1 1.1 What Is Natural Gas? 1 1.2 Utilization of Natural Gas 2 1.3 Natural Gas Industry 4 1.4 Natural Gas Reserves 5 1.5 Types of Natural Gas Resources 6 1.6 2 Introduction Future of the Natural. .. traps gas molecules in its cavities (Sloan 1990) Gas hydrates contain about 170 times the natural gas by volume under standard conditions Because gas hydrate is a highly concentrated form of natural gas and extensive deposits of naturally occurring gas hydrates have been found in various regions of the world, they are considered as a future, unconventional resource of natural gas 1.6 Future of the Natural. .. reduced pressures and temperatures 1.2 Utilization of Natural Gas Natural gas is one of the major fossil energy sources When one standard cubic feet of natural gas is combusted, it generates 700 Btu to 1,600 Btu of heat, depending upon gas composition Natural gas provided close to 24 percent of U.S energy sources over the three-year period 2000-02 Natural gas is used as a source of energy in all sectors... This means that the natural gas share of the energy mix will increase from 23 percent to over 28 percent It is clear that natural gas is now becoming the premier fuel of choice for the world economy Other so-called alternative energy sources have little chance to compete with natural gas U.S Wet Natural Gas Production (Mcf) Ya er Wellhead Gas Price ($/Mcf) Figure 1-3 U.S natural gas production in the... Pseudopressures of Sweet Natural Gases 295 Appendix B: Normalized Pressures of Sweet Natural Gases 299 Appendix C: Orifice Meter Tables for Natural Gas 303 Appendix D: The Minimum Gas Production Rate for Water Removal in Gas Wells 339 Figure D-1 to Figure D-48 340 Figure D-49 to Figure D-100 364 Appendix E: The Minimum Gas Production Rate for Condensate Removal in Gas Wells ... in the crude oil and associated gas (sometimes called gas- cap gas) is free gas in contact with the crude oil All crude oil reservoirs contain dissolved gas and may or may not contain associated gas Nonassociated gas is found in a reservoir that contains a minimal quantity of crude oil Some gases are called gas condensates or simply condensates Although they occur as gases in underground reservoirs,... viscosity is not normally used in natural gas engineering Direct measurements of gas viscosity are preferred for a new gas If gas composition and viscosities of gas components are known, the mixing rule can be used for determining the viscosity of the gas mixture: (2.17) Gas viscosity is very often estimated with charts or correlations developed based on the charts The gas viscosity correlation of Carr,... of natural gas, LNG has many applications in its own right, particularly as a nonpolluting fuel for aircraft and ground vehicles Current production from conventional sources is not sufficient to satisfy all demands for natural gas 1.4 Natural Gas Reserves Two terms are frequently used to express natural gas reserves: proved reserves and potential resources Proved reserves are those quantities of gas . 1.1 What Is Natural Gas? 1 1.2 Utilization of Natural Gas 2 1.3 Natural Gas Industry 4 1.4 Natural Gas Reserves 5 1.5 Types of Natural Gas Resources 6 1.6 Future of the Natural Gas Industry. Natural Gas Engineering Handbook Dr. Boyun Guo and Dr. AIi Ghalambor University of Louisiana at Lafayette Natural Gas Engineering Handbook Copyright © 2005 by Gulf. Data Guo, Boyun. Natural gas engineering handbook / Boyun Guo, AIi Ghalambor. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-9765113-3-9 (acid-free paper) 1. Natural gas- Handbooks, manuals,