到目前为止，模拟多相井流动主要基于富液与伴生气的流动，而不是气体与液体的流动，从而抑制了气藏产量的最大化。

现在，Upwing Energy改进了一种模拟工具，能够预测多相行为并优化相变、液体滴出、井筒几何形状和人工举升泵放置的影响。 

Upwing 于 8 月 10 日宣布其增强型生产模拟器 (EPS) 取得了重大进展，可以更深入地了解多相行为及其对气井性能的影响。这种理解是通过访问数据以及从公司的地下压缩系统 (SCS) 在客户油井中的部署中获得的经验而获得的。EPS 模拟器工具与 SCS 人工举升解决方案结合使用，可提高天然气产量和可采性。

Upwing Energy 技术现场运营总监 David Biddick 告诉 Hart Energy 数据已插入该公司的储层和压缩机模型中。

“两者之间缺少的部分是井眼模型，”他说。“井筒模型是我们真正完善这些知识并改进将油藏信息转化为实际生产的基准代码的地方。”

简而言之，他说，EPS 是“油藏模型、压缩机模型”和井口数据之间的握手。EPS 输出的一部分是针对相关油井的定制 SCS 设计。

他说，通过模拟，Upwing 正在微调多相基准矩阵，以更好地与油井数据保持一致。他表示，SCS 于 2016 年开始进行现场试验，在开发初期，该公司更多地关注该工具，但重点已转移到了解整个系统。

“从水库一直到生产设施，”他说。“我们开始研究整个系统，以及如何最大限度地提高产量，同时从一开始就简化如何高效、正确地卸载油井。”

因此，在每次 SCS 部署中，Upwing 都会使用冗余传感器、仪表、永久井下仪表和内存仪表来“提供比传统上需要的更多的工具”，以提高对多相行为的理解，并最终通过 EPS 完成模拟。

“这是一个普遍的误解，”多年来，这种情况一直存在于石油领域。为什么天然气这么难？”比迪克说。“原因是我们没有太多这方面的案例历史，无论是在油井本身还是在研究行业。随着时间的推移，这种情况正在改善，但它仍然不是历史上许多多相物理学的主要焦点。”

但能够做到这一点很重要，因为它可以使一口井恢复活力。

“实际上，液体负载井可能会随着时间的推移而完全消失，我们可以预测需要开发哪种压缩机，以便在启动时最初使其脱液，并在整个生命周期内不断使其脱液“安装了压缩机的井的情况，”他说。

Upwing Energy 已经在使用 EPS 的设计来切割金属。Biddick 表示，我们的目标是能够在三到六个月内记录客户油井并为该油井安装定制 SCS。展望未来，该公司将继续完善其数据库并简化设计和生产阶段。

EPS 适用于在煤层气井、非常规井以及条件变化很大的油田（无论是陆上还是海上）放置 SCS。Biddick 表示，改变井口压力将是一种应用。 

“这可能是一个有很多油井同时生产的主要油田，我们可以在几口油井之间平衡生产。如果您在一个油田中放置多个这样的井，则可以同时维持总管压力，并且相邻的井不会杀死低压井，这意味着您可以延长油田的总体寿命，并且可以在油田寿命期内，水库的抽水量会显着增加。”

Until now, simulating multiphase well flow has largely been based on liquid-rich flow with associated gas, rather than gas flow with liquids, inhibiting the maximization of production in gas reservoirs.

Now, Upwing Energy has improved a simulation tool able to predict multiphase behavior and optimize the effects of phase change, liquid drop out, wellbore geometry and placement of artificial lift pumps. 

Upwing announced on Aug. 10 significant advancements to its Enhanced Production Simulator (EPS) allowing for a deeper understanding of multiphase behavior and its impact on gas well performance. That understanding came through access to data and learnings from deployments of the company’s Subsurface Compression System (SCS) in customer wells. The EPS simulator tool is used in conjunction with the SCS artificial lift solution that increases natural gas production and recoverability.

David Biddick, director of technical field operations for Upwing Energy, told Hart Energy data is plugged into the company’s reservoir and compressor models.

“The missing piece in between the two has been the wellbore model,” he said. “The wellbore model is where we're really refining this knowledge and improving the benchmark code that's translating the reservoir information to actual production.”

In short, he said, the EPS is “a handshake between the reservoir model, the compressor model,” and data from the wellhead. And part of the EPS output is a custom SCS design for the well in question.

Using simulations, Upwing is fine-tuning the benchmark matrix for multi-phase to better align with data from the wells, he said. Early in the development of the SCS, which started field trials in 2016, the company was focused more on the tool, but focus has shifted to understanding the whole system, he said.

“That goes from the reservoir all the way to the production facility,” he said. “We’ve started to get engaged with that system as a whole and how best to maximize both production, but also streamline how to unload a well efficiently and correctly from the beginning.”

As such, with every SCS deployment, Upwing is “instrumenting more than you would traditionally need to” with redundant sensors, gauges, permanent downhole gauges and memory gauges to improve the understanding of multiphase behavior and ultimately the simulations done through EPS.

“There's a general misunderstanding of, ‘this has been done for years for oil. Why is it so difficult for gas?’” Biddick said. “The reason is we just don't have a lot of case history for this, whether it be actually in the wells themselves or in the research industry. That is improving with time, but it's still not the main focus of a lot of the multi-phase physics that has been done historically.”

But being able to do so is important because it can revive a well.

“We can actually have a liquid loaded well that's completely killed itself off over time, and we can predict what compressor needs to be developed in order to both deliquify it initially when we do the startup, as well as continually deliquify it over the life of the well with that compressor installed,” he said.

Upwing Energy is already using designs from the EPS to cut metal. The aim, Biddick said, is to be able to log a client well and install a custom SCS for that well in three to six months. Moving forward, the company will continue refining its database and streamlining the design and production phases.

The EPS is applicable for placement of SCSs in coalbed methane wells, unconventional wells and in fields with wildly varying conditions, whether onshore or offshore. Biddick said varying wellhead pressure would be one application. 

“It could be a major field that has a lot of wells producing at the same time, we can equalize that across several wells. If you put several of these in a field, you can maintain that header pressure at the same time, and you don't have neighboring wells killing off lower pressure wells, which means you can extend the life of the field in general and you can draw down the reservoir significantly more over the life of the field.”