Proposing a New Model for Estimation of Oil Rate Passing Through Wellhead Chokes in an Iranian Heavy Oil Field

One of the main duties of production engineers is to maintain the reservoir productivity and keep it at a desirable level during the production time by preventing extra production and controlling the production through wellhead chokes. Wellhead chokes are tools that are installed in flowing pipes to resist the pressure, limit and control the production, prevent water and gas coning, and control the pressure in order to maintain the wellhead equipment in good working order. Wellhead chokes, which are installed in well flow, are divided into two main groups: positive or fixed chokes and adjustable or variable chokes. Passing flow rate through wellhead chokes is a function of wellhead pressure, choke diameter, before choke temperature, and water production rate. The objective of this work is to propose a new model for the estimation of the oil rate passing through wellhead chokes. In this study, 180 actual tested data for 5 wells from a heavy crude oil field were used to develop a new model for estimating oil rate passing through wellhead chokes. The proposed model has an average relative error of about 5.8%.