Application of a Simulation Approach to Develop Erosional Velocity Correlation for Wells in Oil Rim Reservoirs in the Niger Delta

Abstract

Erosion is a major issue that could be encountered in the oil and gas production and transportation facilities. Oil and gas companies have always tried to develop proper methods to limit erosion to an acceptable level. For many years now, many oil and gas field operators have adopted the America Petroleum Institute recommended practice 14E (API RP 14E) equation to estimate the erosional velocity. Unfortunately, the C-factors in the API RP 14E equation has been generalized, even to conditions and applications where it was invalid, resulting to varying degree of success. In this work, thousands of well performance simulations were carried out to generate stable operating production rates using data from vertical wells in oil rim reservoirs in the Niger Delta. Approximate model was then developed for erosional velocity calculation using the least square regression method. Furthermore, the developed model was compared with other existing erosional velocity correlations. The new model can be helpful for the design of production facilities for oil rim reservoirs.