Reasonable Pumping Depth for Drainage and Gas Recovery of Shale Gas Wells

Abstract

For shale gas wells, in the initial production stage, the liquid production is large, and the lifting process is needed to assist the drainage. However, for gas wells, especially shale gas wells, the ultimate purpose is different from that of oil wells, and the current design method of pumping depth cannot meet the field requirements. Starting from the production characteristics of liquid-producing gas wells, this paper analyzed the gas well productivity, wellbore pressure distribution and critical liquid-carrying flow, and adopted the node analysis method to propose a design method for the pumping depth of shale gas wells during drainage and gas recovery. Then, the proposed method was applied to optimize the design of the jet pump of well A in Block JY, according to the design results, the pump was started for production; after the wellbore liquid level was raised to the designed depth, the gas well can conduct annulus space liquid-carrying production, and the production effect of well A showed that, the proposed method can be applied as a method for optimizing the technological parameters of shale gas wells.