Development of differential pressure flowmeter and its application in coalbed methane wells

Abstract

Coalbed methane (CBM) is an increasingly important unconventional natural gas. Production logging can provide important information about the production status of each layer in a CBM well, which is crucial for developing and adjusting development plans. However, currently, only open-hole logging is done for CBM wells, and there is no mature technology for production testing of wells that produce low amounts of gas. To address this issue, a new method has been proposed in this paper for measuring the production profile of CBM wells. This method is based on the pressure difference method and measures the gas–liquid two-phase flow in a 125 mm vertical rising circular tube. The researchers established a simulation model of the CBM wellbore pressure difference method and obtained four flow patterns: bubble flow, slug flow, churn flow, and annular flow. We studied the relationship between the pressure difference and gas and water flow rates at different positions and spacing between measuring points in the wellbore. A differential pressure flowmeter without a throttling device was developed, and gas–liquid dynamic experiments were carried out through a simulation experiment platform to verify the feasibility of the flowmeter. Two well field tests were conducted in Shanxi CBM fields using differential pressure flowmeters, which accurately and quantitatively measured the stratified gas production of CBM wells. This technology can help improve the productivity and development efficiency of CBM wells.