Choke Performance

Sohail Nawab
Lecturer
Institute of Petroleum and Natural Gas Engineering
Mehran UET, Jamshoro
sohail.nawab@faculty.muet.edu.pk
Chokes

1. Wellhead choke
2. Bottomhole choke
1. Wellhead choke

 Wellhead chokes are used:

 to limit production rates for regulations,
 protect surface equipment from slugging,
 avoid sand problems due to high drawdown,
 and control flow rate to avoid water or gas coning.

 Chokes are widely used in oil fields as comparison to gas wells. WHY ?
Several reasons in installing chokes are to

 It is a safety device for pressure control

 To regulate production rate or obeying regulatory bodies
 To produce the reservoir at the most efficient rate
 To protect surface equipments from slugging or protecting surface
equipment from pressure surge
 To avoid sand problem due too high drawdown, or maintaining sufficient
back pressure to avoid sand production
 To control flowrate in order to avoid water or gas coning.
Types of chokes

 There are two types of wellhead choke that are commonly used,
 Positive chokes
 A positive choke has a fixed size in diameter so that it must be
replaced to regulate production

 Adjustable chokes.
 Adjustable choke permits gradual changes in the size of the
opening.
 Placing a choke at the wellhead can mean fixing the wellhead pressure
and thus flowing bottomhole pressure and production rate.
 For a given wellhead pressure, by calculating pressure loss in the tubing, the
flowing bottomhole pressure can be determined.
 If reservoir pressure and productivity index of the well are known, the
flowrate can then be determined using:

Qo Qo
J= =
PR − Pwf ∆P
or
Qo = J(PR − Pwf )
  The rate of oil flowing through a choke (orifice or nozzle) depends upon:
 pressure drop in the choke,
 the inside diameters of pipe and choke,
 and density of the oil.

 For incompressible fluids, the Equation may be used to estimate the

flowrate of oil:

𝑄𝑂 = 10,285 𝑪 𝐴
∆𝑃 Pus  Pds
𝛾𝑜
 where 𝑄𝑂 =oil rate in bbl/day
BY GRAPH  C = flow coefficient as function of diameter ratio and Reynolds number or
choke discharge coefficient
 A = cross-sectional area of choke in2
 ΔP = pressure drop across the choke in psi
 𝛾𝑜 = oil specific weight in lb/ft 3
 In installing a choke, the downstream pressure of the choke is usually 0.55 of
the upstream pressure, or even less to ensure no change in flowrate or
upstream pressure.
 This condition is called a sonic flow.
(Pdownstream <= 0.5−0.55 Pupstream)

 A subsonic flow occurs when the upstream pressure or flowrate is affected

by a change in downstream pressure.
 where poutlet is the pressure at choke outlet, pup is the
upstream pressure, and k ¼ Cp=Cv is the specific
heat ratio. The value of the k is about 1.28 for
natural gas. Thus, the critical pressure ratio is
about 0.55 for natural gas. A similar constant is
used for oil flow.

A typical choke performance curve.

Problem 1
∆𝑃
𝑄𝑂 = 10,285 𝐶 𝐴
𝛾𝑜

Find out the Flowrate in bbl/day if

 d1= 3.5 in
 d2 = 2 in
 A= 0.2 in2
 ΔP = 700 psi
 𝛾𝑜 = 0.7 lb/ft 3 where 𝑄𝑂 =oil rate in bbl/day
 Reynolds number = 20,000 C = flow coefficient as function of
diameter ratio and Reynolds number
A = cross-sectional area of choke in2
ΔP = pressure drop across the choke in psi
𝛾𝑜 = oil specific weight in lb/ft 3
Problem 2 (Determination of oil inflow performance.)

 Suppose two flowrates are conducted on an oil well. The results are as
follows:

TEST 1 TEST 2
𝐐𝐨 200 400
𝐏𝐰𝐟 2400 1800

 Pr=3000psi
 Gas/oil ratios are very small. Estimate productivity index of the well, and
also determine the maximum flowrate.
Step 1: Plot the two data points on a Cartesian graph paper (Qo versus
Pwf),
Draw a straight line through these two points, the intersection with
ordinate is the estimated reservoir pressure which is about 3000 psi.

FOR RESEVOIR PRESSURE

3000

2500

2000
Pwf

1500

1000

500

0
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450 500
Qo
 Step 2: The productivity index is:
Qo Qo
J= =
PR − Pwf ∆P
200
J= = 0.333 STB/D/psi
3000−2400

 Step 3: The theoretical maximum flow rate is:

Qo,max = J(PR − Pwf )
Qo,max = 0.333(3000 − 0)
=1000 STB/D
 Also it can be calculated through graph
Pwf vs Qo
3000

2500

2000
Pwf

1500

1000

500

0
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000
Qo
Two-phase critical flow
Problem 3

 The well is producing 400 STB/D of oil with a gas-liquid ratio of 600 Scf/STB.
Estimate the flowing wellhead pressure for a choke size of 12/64 in. with
Gilbert’s choke equation.
Gilbert correlation

 The equation developed to estimate a parameter of fluid flow through the

orifice is:

435R0.546 Q
Pwh =
d1.89
 where 𝑃𝑤ℎ = wellhead pressure in psig
 R = gas/liquid ratio in Mscf/stb
 Q = gross liquid rate in stb/d
 d = choke (bean) size in 1/64 in.
 Choke Adjustment

If THP =
Pwf Open the choke

If THP =
Reduce the the
choke

q
2. Subsurface choke or bottomhole
choke
 Subsurface restrictions can be a tubing safety valve, a bottomhole choke,
or a check valve.
 A tubing safety valve functions to stop flowstream whenever the surface
control equipment is damaged or completely removed.
 A bottomhole choke is installed if low wellhead pressure is required or
freezing of surface control equipment and lines is expected.
 A check valve is installed to prevent backflow of an injection well.