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Abstract An Oil reserve is discovered in a remote shallow water area offshore Africa, where the water depth is approximately 200 ft. The predicted production rate is approximately 500 BPD per well. The obtained oil samples indicate that the produced fluid has a high pour point (91°F) and a high wax appearance temperature (105°F). A dry tree completion is the planned option for this field. The wellhead flowing temperature (WHFT) is predicted to be below the wax appearance temperature (WAT) during normal flow without heating. Under certain specific field conditions, such as the development being considered, hot gas can be used as a means to maintain WHFT above the oil WAT and also be used as an artificial lift method to produce the low pressure / low temperature wells (LPLT). Economically, since the reserve is located remotely from gas market, the produced gas is "free." This paper describes the engineering evaluation of a hot gas lift design concept for a particular LPLT field. The hot gas lift method will avoid wax deposition, gelling and blockage problems in the wellbore. The wellbore thermal-hydraulic behavior is studied to optimize gas lift injection rates and temperature.
Fleyfel et al. (Sun,) studied this question.