Predicting Liquid Production from a Mixed Well Stream

Production Scenario

Five gas condensates are mixed and produced through a two stage separator train operating at the following conditions:

Separator 1: P = 80 bara , T = 60°C
Separator 2: P = 1.01 bara , T = 15°C

Well no. 1 produces the leanest condensate and well no. 5 the richest. The separator train has a capacity of 10,000 kg/hour. The input mass flow rate to the separator train is therefore kept constant at 10,000 kg/hour, independently of the number of wells being online. An initial test of the system performance is performed where the wells are put online in the following order:

A Common EoS model is used to characterize the well streams. This common EoS model has been developed in PVTsim and exported in the .json format. The video below shows the simulated variation in the total liquid production from the separator train as the wells are turned on and off during the test.

Simulating the standard liquid production rate is done using Calsep’s Cloud Flash API. The Python code sample below shows how simple it is to set up a sequential separator train simulation, where the liquid from the first separator is sent to the second separator and flashed to standard conditions.

The standard liquid production rate is calculated based on the separator phase splits and the molar volume of the standard liquid.

Python Code Example

def processCall(client, cachedFluidResponse, feed_comp, total_flow):
    from pycalsep.flash_result import FlashPhase
    from pycalsep.common import FLASH_MODE, FLASH_OUTPUT_MODE, PHASE_TYPE
    import numpy

    # Save incoming feed_comp in new variable "liquidComposition"
    liquidComposition = feed_comp

    # Initialise list to hold liquid fractions from flash calculations
    liquidMolePercent = []

    # Process conditions
    # Process is a simple two-stage separator train.
    # Liquid from stage 1 is sent into stage 2.
    pressure = [8000000.0, 101325.0]
    temp = [333.15, 288.15]

    i = 0
    # Run "len(pressure)" sequential flash calculations
    while i < len(pressure):
        # Use the runFlashWithId() method of Calsep's SDK to call the flash API
        flashResponse = client.runFlashWithId(
            FLASH_MODE.FlashModePt,
            pressure[i],
            temp[i],
            cachedFluidResponse.result.id,
            componentAmounts=liquidComposition,
        )

        if flashResponse.isError:
            print(flashResponse.error.errorCode)
            print(flashResponse.error.message)

        else:
            liquidPhase: FlashPhase = next(
                x
                for x in flashResponse.result.phases
                if x.properties.phaseType == PHASE_TYPE.Liquid
            )
            liquidComposition = list(
                map(lambda s: s.molePercent, liquidPhase.components)
            )
            liquidMolePercent.append(liquidPhase.properties.molePercent / 100)
            i = 1

    # Calculate volumetric flow rate out of separator 2
    volumeRate = (
        total_flow * numpy.prod(liquidMolePercent) * liquidPhase.properties.molarVolume
    )

    return volumeRate

The shown example uses Calsep’s Cloud service, which offers access to the Flash API on Calsep hosted servers in Microsoft Azure. The servers are fast and robust and scale performance depending on the number of flash calculations required. The Flash API follows best practices on implementation and security for authentication and authorization of the user accessing the API.  The Flash API can be accessed using the provided samples in Calsep’s SDKs for Python or C# or directly using an HTTPS library.