Laura Garzon

Abstract:

At the beginning of the production of an oil field, the energy may be high enough to be able of continuing the production only with natural motive force, so at this stage, there is no need for artificial lift. After several years of oil production, the oil reservoir pressure will be depleted, so in this stage, an artificial driving force is needed to continue production. Gas lifting is one of the most effective and cheapest methods of artificial lift techniques that are used to reduce the oil density by mixing the oil with the gas which is injected at the lower part of the production string. This artificial gas lift method uses an external source of high-pressure gas to supplement the formation gas to lift the wellbore fluids. In the gas lift operation, the injection and production wells will be unique, which means that in a single well, the gas will be injected into the oil zone through the tubing, while the oil will be produced through the annulus. This article discusses the gas lift method and its effects on oil production from an oil well.