Paper: Gas Control In Producing Wells

In the past decade, gas control in producing oil well reservoirs with gas caps has become one of the major problems facing the oil and gas producer. This problem has gained in significance insofar as the oil producer is concerned, since Regulatory Bodies have increased their activity in curbing unnecessary wasting of reservoir energy. Evidence of this fact is shown by the downward trend in permissible gas-oil ratios for many fields in the state of Texas. The Railroad Commission of Texas, normally requires a general gas-oil survey one each year on all producing oil wells in the field. The result of these surveys are studied, and the gas limit for each well is set; therefore, the penalized allowable is that amount of oil that can be produced with the daily gas limit. As an example, we will consider a well in a reservoir that has a limiting gas-oil ratios of 2,000 to 1. We will assume that this well has allowable of 60 barrels of oil per day; therefore the daily gas limit for well will be 60 times 2,000 for 120,000 cubic feet per day. If the well has a allowable gas-oil ratio of 6,000 to 1, the penalized allowable will be 120,000 divided by 6000, or 20 barrels of oil per day.