Wellbore heat-transfer modeling and applications

Fluid temperature enters into a variety of petroleum production–operations calculations, including well drilling and completions, production facility design, controlling solid deposition, and analyzing pressure-transient test data. In the past, these diverse situations were tackled independently, using empirical correlations with limited generality. In this review paper, we discuss a unified approach for modeling heat transfer in various situations that result in physically sound solutions. This modeling approach depends on many common elements, such as temperature profiles surrounding the wellbore and any series of resistances for the various elements in the wellbore. We show diverse field examples illustrating this unified modeling approach in solving many routine production–operations problems.