Deliverability of wells in carbonate gas condensate reservoirs and the capillary number effect

With the development of the Tazhong No.1 carbonate gas condensate reservoir in China, it has become more and more important to study the characteristics of gas condensate well deliverability. A single-well radial simulator for dual-permeability reservoirs was established to study the influences of fluid properties, permeability, and pressure drawdown on well deliverability with and without the capillary number effect. The simulation shows that well deliverability basically maintains its initial value and is not affected by the capillary number when the formation pressure is higher than dew-point pressure. However, well deliverability drops rapidly when the formation pressure is lower than dew-point pressure. Even if the condensate dropout is very low, well deliverability without the capillary number effect reduces to 50 percent of its initial value when reservoir pressure declines to 95 percent of dew-point pressure, but well deliverability is significantly improved if the capillary number effect exists. The capillary number effect is most significant when reservoir pressure is just lower than dew point pressure, then the effect decreases; the reduction of well deliverability is mainly caused by the reduction of gas relative permeability of the matrix system near the wellbore.