What is Well Performance?
Well performance is the discipline that aims at maximizing the production of a well. It involves the understanding of the well production mechanisms known as the well inflow and the well outflow.
What is the well inflow / What is the well outflow ?
The well inflow describes the laws that drive the flow of hydrocarbons from the reservoir to the bottom of the well.
The well outflow describes the laws that drive the flow of hydrocarbons from the bottom of the well to the surface.
What is Nodal Analysis?
Both mechanisms are part of what is called the nodal analysis. Nodal analysis studies the evolution of the pressure between two nodes of a system.
Applied to well production the system usually starts with a node in the reservoir and finishes with a node in the surface tank or production separator. Fluid movement from one node to the other will trigger an evolution of the hydrostatic pressure and of the frictions (or pressure losses). The change of these 2 pressures (hydrostatic & frictions) will be equal to the difference of pressure between both nodes of the system.
By measuring the pressure at a specific node (for instance using a pressure gauge installed in the production separator) and using nodal analysis, the pressure in another node of the system can then be calculated and used to decide of specific action aiming at increasing the well production.
