Prediction of liquid surge volumes and flow rates for gas wells using machine learning

Liquid surge refers to an excessive liquid inflow to a slug catcher or a separator and is one of the main issues in flow assurance. The wellhead choke valves of gas wells must be adjusted to maintain the target flow rate as the reservoir pressure drops. The wellhead choke opening can be determined by conducting multiphase pipeline transient flow simulations to achieve the target flow rate and avoid liquid surges. However, it is not financially and computationally practical to conduct many multiphase transient pipeline flow simulations simultaneously for hundreds of wells. We found that flow rates and maximum liquid surge volumes for gas wells can be predicted accurately using simple machine learning models when the wellhead choke valve is adjusted. The machine learning models provided accurate predictions (R 2 > 0.99) regarding flow rates and maximum liquid surge volumes for different we…