A method for preventing hydrates from blocking flow during deep-water gas well testing

Based on the research of the formation mechanism and evolution rule of hydrate flow obstacle during deep-water gas well testing, a new method for the prevention of hydrate flow obstacle based on safety testing window is proposed by changing the previous idea of “preventing formation” to the idea of “allowing formation, preventing plugging”. The results show that the effective inner diameter of the testing tubing and the wellhead pressure decrease gradually with the formation and precipitation of hydrates during deep-water gas well testing, and it presents three typical processes of slow, fast and sudden changes. There is a safety testing window during deep-water gas well testing. The safety testing window of deep-water gas well testing decreases first and then increases with the increase of gas production rate, and increases with the increase of hydrate inhibitor concentrations. In the case with different testing production rates, a reasonable testing order with alternate low and high gas production rates has been proposed to further reduce the dosage of hydrate inhibitor and even avoid the use of hydrate inhibitors considering the decomposition and fall-off of hydrates. Compared with the traditional methods, the new method based on safety testing window can reduce the dosage of hydrate inhibitor by more than 50%.