Flow management system and method

Abstract

A monitoring tool is provided for monitoring wells for flow anomalies. The temperatures of flowing well fluid and ambient temperature are monitored and various methods applied to indicate if a well is flowing as expected, is flowing less than expected and, therefore, at risk of flow stoppage, not flowing or calculation of flow rate when the well is flowing less than expected. Approaches are described for determining trending indicators from actual flow temperatures compared to a normal flow relationship for establishing the presence of flow anomalies. Temperature sensors, onsite processors and communications upload data for display of well status flags on a mapping module enabling pro-active detection and preventative action by operators.

The embodiments of the invention for which an exclusive property or privilege is claimed are defined as follows: 
     
         1 . A method for calculating flow rate of fluid from a well, the method comprising:
 establishing a relation between characteristics of the fluid and a surface component through which the fluid is flowing for deriving a heat balance for the surface component;   establishing a relation between a temperature of the surface component and ambient temperature;   measuring the temperature of the surface component and measuring the ambient temperature around the well; and   for a given instance of time;
 calculating the flow rate of the fluid based on the measured temperature of the surface component, the heat balance and the measured ambient temperature. 
   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the characteristics of the fluid comprise a temperature of the fluid or a rate of flow of the fluid or specific gravity of the fluid or any combination thereof. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising establishing a normal flow temperature for the fluid during normal flow rate from historical actual flow temperatures from the well and ambient temperatures and wherein the measured temperature is between the normal temperature and the measured ambient temperature. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising optimizing calculation of the flow rate by identifying factors influencing the heat balance. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 4 , wherein the identified factors comprise wellbore characteristics or wellhead characteristics or any combination thereof. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising calculating the flow rate using computer modelling. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising identifying the well as a non-flowing well, having a flow rate of substantially zero, if the measured temperature of the surface component is substantially identical to the measured ambient temperature. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising identifying the well as as having the normal flow rate if the measured temperature of the surface component trends towards the established normal flow temperature. 
     
     
         9 . A system for calculating flow rate of fluid from a well, the system comprising:
 a processing equipment for:
 establishing a relation between characteristics of the fluid and a surface component through which the fluid is flowing for deriving a heat balance for the surface component; 
 establishing a relation between the temperature of the surface component and ambient temperature; 
   at least one temperature sensor for measuring the temperature of the surface component and measuring the ambient temperature; and   communicating equipment coupled to the at least one temperature sensor and the processing equipment for relaying the measured temperature of the surface component and the ambient temperature to the processing equipment, wherein
 for a given instance of time, the processing equipment,
 calculates the flow rate of the fluid based on the established relations between the measured temperature of the surface component, the heat balance and the measured ambient temperature.