AVALON

NODAL ANALYSIS SYSTEM

USER’S GUIDE AND

REFERENCE
Version 2000.01

By
James L. Buchwalter, Ph.D.

Gemini Solutions, Inc.

Houston, Texas
United States of America
Phone: (281) 759-4200
Limits of liability:

Gemini Solutions, Inc. reserves the right to revise its software and publications with no
obligation of Gemini Solutions, Inc. to notify any person or any organization of such revision.
In no event shall Gemini Solutions, Inc. be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial
damage, including but not limited to special, consequential, or other damages.

Information in this document is subject to change without notice and does not represent a
commitment on the part of Gemini Solutions, Inc. The software described in this document is
furnished under a license agreement or nondisclosure agreement. The may be used or copied
only in accordance with the terms of the agreement. It is against the law to copy the software
on any medium except as specifically allowed in the license or nondisclosure agreement.

Copyright Notice:

©1996 Gemini Solutions, Inc. All rights reserved. This manual is protected by federal
copyright law. No part of this manual may be copied or distributed, transmitted, transcribed,
stored in a retrieval system or translated into any human or computer language, in any form
or by any means, electronic, mechanical, magnetic, manual, photographic, photocopy,
scanning, or otherwise, or disclosed to third parties without the express written permission of
Gemini Solutions, Inc.

Trademarks:

AVALON is a trademark of Gemini Solutions, Inc.

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 Microsoft, MS, MS-DOS, Microsoft Excel, Visual Basic are trademarks of Microsoft
Corporation.

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Printing:
1st Edition, 1rd Printing
Printed in the United States of America.

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iv
v
 Contents

Contents
Limits of liability:______________________________________________________________ i

Copyright Notice: ______________________________________________________________ i

Trademarks: __________________________________________________________________ i

Acknowledgments ______________________________________________________________ 8

1___________________________________________________INTRODUCTION 9

1.1 - What Does AVALON Do ? ____________________________________________________ 9

1.2 - Setting Up _______________________________________________________________ 10

1.2.1 - Check the Hardware and System Requirements__________________________________ 10

1.3 _________________________________________________________________ Installation 10

1.4 ________________________________________________________ Uninstalling AVALON 12

1.5 ________________________________________ Using AVALON on Two or More Machines 12

1.6 ____________________________________________________________________ Backups 12

1.7 ___________________________________________________________________ Networks 12

1.8 - How To Use This Manual ___________________________________________________ 13

2___________________________________________________ USING AVALON 14

2.1 __________________________________________________________________ The Basics 14

5
Contents

2.2 ________________________________________________ AVALON Menus and Commands 15

2.4 ____________________________________________________________Printing Graphics 16

2.5 - Exporting Pictures and Forms to Other Window Programs _______________________ 16

2.6 - Using Online Help_________________________________________________________ 17

2.6.1 - Help Contents __________________________________________________________ 17
2.6.2 - Help Index_____________________________________________________________ 17

3_____________________________________________ AVALON- THE BASICS 19

3.1 - Introduction______________________________________________________________ 19

3.2 – NODAL ANALYSIS DESIGN – the basics ______________________________________ 20

3.3 – Creating a Report _________________________________________________________ 27

3.4 – Plots Available ___________________________________________________________ 29

3.4.1 – Gas reservoir with surface pressure fixed _____________________________________ 30
3.4.2 – Gas reservoir with bottom hole pressure fixed__________________________________ 31
3.4.3 – Oil reservoir with surface pressure fixed and reservoir curves ______________________ 32
3.4.4 – Tubing curves with sensitivities _____________________________________________ 33

4.1 - Introduction______________________________________________________________ 35

4.2 – Linking to a Merlin File ___________________________________________________ 35

4.2.1 – The basics_____________________________________________________________ 35
4.2.2 - Interactively Designing Surface Facilities _____________________________________ 36

4.3 – Using Merlin With Tubing Curves____________________________________________ 38

4.2.1 – History Matching Historical Well Flowing Pressure Data _________________________ 39

INDEX ___________________________________________________________2

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Contents

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Contents

Acknowledgments

In the development and preparation of AVALON and this documentation, I have received
support and constructive suggestions from more people than I could ever adequately
acknowledge. To these people we would like to express our sincerest appreciation. There are
those, however, who have assisted us to such an extent that they must be acknowledged.

I would like to thank my father for imparting to me the humility to understand that for
everything we know, there is far more that we do not know, as well as the realization that only
by remarkable chance , have I been given the opportunities afforded to me in life.

I would also like to thank the women in my life - my wife, mother and sister for their
endless love, encouragement and support. In particular I would like to thank my mother for
keeping me along a straight and narrow line until I realized that was the proper line to follow,
and my beautiful wife for her hard work and countless personal sacrifices in the background
that has helped make Gemini Solutions a success.

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 Chapter 1: Introduction

1
Introduction

1.1 - What Does AVALON Do ?

AVALON is an advanced, nodal

analysis program that can generate
nodal analysis curves for
determining the deliverability of oil
and gas wells under different
produced fluid and reservoir
compositions, for different well bore
and pipeline arrangements.

AVALON can be used as a stand

alone application where well bore
hydraulic and average reservoir
performance curves can determine
fluid deliverabilities at various
stages.

AVALON also brings some

unique abilities that are not contained in most nodal analysis packages. AVALON has a
transparent link to the MERLIN simulator which allows horizontal flow lines to be interactively
designed using the well locations in MERLIN. These nodal curves can then be automatically
linked to various wells in the simulator, allowing Merlin to use the nodal curves to optimize

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Chapter 1: Introduction

reservoir performance with accuracies not possible in AVALON alone. For example the simple
reservoir pressure drop equations used in AVALON’s reservoir module calculations are
replaced by the sophisticated reservoir model in MERLIN. With this link AVALON has the
ability to optimize well tubing designs not only on an average well design basis, but on an
individual well basis in a complicated reservoir with many heterogeneities.

1.2 - Setting Up

1.2.1 - Check the Hardware and System Requirements

Before you install AVALON, make sure that your computer meets the minimum
requirements and that your AVALON package contains the required items. The system
requirements include:

• Any IBM-compatible machine with pentium processor or higher.

• A 3 1/2" floppy drive.

• A CD ROM Drive

• Windows 95, 98, or Windows NT.

• Twenty megabytes of free disk space for installation.

• Thirty two megabytes of random access memory (128 megabytes recommended).

• A mouse.

1.3 Installation

To install AVALON perform the following steps:

1. Install the HASP: The HASP is a hard lock providing security to the GSI software
packages. It must be in place before any GSI software will work. Look on the back of the
computer and locate the parallel port. You may have your printer, a zip drive, or other
peripheral already plugged into it. If nothing is currently connected to the port, simply
plug the HASP directly into the port. It does not need to be terminated.

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 Chapter 1: Introduction

If other peripherals are currently connected, you may have several options. The HASP may
be installed anywhere in the chain of peripherals. It may be installed directly into the
computer and then the other peripherals may be plugged into the HASP or it may be
installed further down the chain. For instance, if (as I do) you have a parallel zip drive and
then a printer plugged into the zip, you may plug the zip directly into the printer and then
put the HASP between the zip and the printer. If you have HASP’s for other programs, you
may install them in any order by plugging them into each other.
2. Install the drivers:
Follow the instructions on the inset of the installation CD or:
a) Select the folder named Avalon. It will normally be installed under
C:\Gemini\Program Files\Merlin. Alternatively if Avalon has not yet been
installed select the \Drivers\ folder on the CD.
b) Double click the Setdrivs.bat file
c) When you get a message indicating that the drivers were installed successfully you
will need to Reboot the computer.

3. Install the programs:

4. Close all other applications running in Windows. This includes programs such as MS Office
which may load automatically at startup. If you get the following error during startup, it
means you do have another program running that is interfering with the installation
process.

a) Insert Installation Disk into the CD Drive

b) Double click the Setup.exe file to install the program
c) Answer all questions.
d) Complete the driver installation described in step 2 and reboot the computer.

AVALON is now installed and active and ready to use.

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Chapter 1: Introduction

1.4 Uninstalling AVALON

Avalon installs in it’s own directory. To uninstall, use the install programs procedure
provided by Microsoft for Windows. To do this select the Control Panel option and then
Add/Remove Programs to uninstall Avalon.

1.5 Using AVALON on Two or More Machines

A single copy of AVALON may be used on only one machine at a time. If you have two
machines, perhaps a desktop at work and at home, or a desktop at work and a portable for
field work, you can install AVALON on both machines and then move the HASP between them
as needed.

1.6 Backups

Backups may be made of the installation disks. These disks may even be maintained on a
network to allow multiple users to always access the current installation.

1.7 Networks

AVALON must be installed on the machine on which it is to be used. It is not designed to

be a network program, though, if your system has the capability, you data sets may reside
anywhere.

It may be possible to obtain a true network copy with multiple users. It was not available at
the time of this printing. Please contact GSI about this option.

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 Chapter 1: Introduction

1.8 - How To Use This Manual

The chapters in this manual are organized to follow the work path you will use. In addition the
samples directory under the AVALON installation folder contains several oil and gas example
problems

It is strongly recommended that all users take a basic Apprentice/Merlin school to

learn how to use the simulation and geostatistics software. This manual will not teach you how
to use these products - only how to use the tools.

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Chapter 2: Using Avalon

2
Using AVALON

2.1 The Basics

When you click the AVALON icon the last file that was opened will be read and appear on
the home form.

The AVALON interface consists

of menu bars and toolbox. The menu
bar displays the commands that you
use to complete many tasks. This
chapter shows you some basics for
using AVALON.

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 Chapter 2: Using AVALON

2.2 AVALON Menus and Commands

Choosing a command tells AVALON what to do

next – create a new file, open a Merlin file, and so on.
Commands that carry out similar actions are grouped
on a menu. For example, the File menu contains
commands you use to open, save, and delete your
nodal files. The menus are listed on the menu bar at
the top of the interface window.

You use the mouse or the keyboard to display the

commands on each menu. To open the menus and
browse through the commands, click the menu item
with the mouse, or press the ALT key, and then press
the underlined letter in the name of the menu you
want to open.

For example, opening the File menu in Digitizing

tool displays these commands.

Some commands are unavailable and appear

dimmed on a menu until another selection is made.

AVALON carries out some commands right away.

If more information is needed to complete a command, AVALON displays a dialog box or
another form. You select options in the dialog box to control how the command is carried out.
For calculation commands, AVALON displays a message asking you to wait. No action should
be taken until the calculation is finished.

Choosing Commands

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Chapter 2: Using Avalon

You can choose commands from the menus or press the shortcut key assigned to commonly
used commands. On the menus, the shortcut key is shown to the right of the commands. To
choose a command from a menu:

1 Point to a menu name and click the left mouse button for a right handed mouse.

2 Point to a command name and click the left mouse button.

-Or-

1 Press the ALT key to activate the menu bar.

2 Press the underlined letter in the menu name.

3 Press the underlined letter in a command name.

If a command name is followed by an ellipsis (...), a dialog box appears so you can set the
options you want.

2.4 Printing Graphics

Avalon contains a report option to build a standard report in a Rich Text format. The Rich Text
format (RTF) can be imported directly into most word processors including Microsoft Word.
The graphics for the RTF report are written in both Bit Map (BMP) and Meta File formats
(WMF). The graphics are only maintained for the current nodal analysis file and are located
under the Program Files\Gemini\Avalon\XFiles\Bitmaps folder or wherever AVALON was
installed. The graphics included in the RTF files are in the BMP format. Upon importing the
RTF file into a word processor the user may wish to replace the Bit Map graphics with the
Meta File graphics located in the graphics folder.

2.5 - Exporting Pictures and Forms to Other Window Programs

It is often convenient to export the other pictures and/or forms in AVALON to other
window programs. To accomplish this highlight the form, and simultaneously hold the Alt and

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 Chapter 2: Using AVALON

Print Scrn keys down to copy the picture to the clipboard. Now paste the captured screen to
the destination windows application. Most users find this the preferred way to print pictures -
maps can easily be integrated into word processor documents. This feature supplements the
graphics created in the previous section

2.6 - Using Online Help

The online Help system references nearly all aspects of AVALON. It contains extensive
information on the basics for using Avalon beyond what is found in this manual. You can
access online Help through the Help menu Content command, search for specific topics with
the Help Search tool, or press F1 to get context-sensitive Help.

2.6.1 - Help Contents

For information on Help topics, choose Contents from

the Help menu or press F1 and click the Contents button.
You can use the Contents screen to jump to topics that tell
you how to use APPRENTICE, or to get quick access to key
reference topics.

2.6.2 - Help Index

The fastest way to find a particular topic in Help is to

use the Help Topics dialog box below.

To display the Help Topics dialog box, you can

either choose Index from the Help menu or click the
Search button on any Help topic screen. Search topics are given as green text that is solidly
underlined.

To search Help

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Chapter 2: Using Avalon

1. In the Help menu, choose Index. (you

can also click the Search button from
any Help topic window.)

2. In the search dialog box, type a word, or

select one from the list by scrolling up or
down. Press ENTER or choose Show
Topics to display a list of topics related
to the word you specified.

3. Select a topic name, and press ENTER

or choose Go To to view the topic.

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 Chapter 3: Avalon the Basics

3
AVALON- the basics
3.1 - Introduction

The AVALON nodal analysis program can be used for 3 fundamental tasks. The first task
is basic tubing curve design with an option to include simple radial flow equations for
representing the reservoir. The second task is basic tubing curve design including two
sensitivity variables. Lastly tubing curves can be calculated and assigned to the Merlin
reservoir simulator automatically. Lets look at each of these tasks in detail.

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Chapter 3: Avalon the Basics

3.2 – NODAL ANALYSIS DESIGN – the basics

This section will provide a cookbook approach for creating standalone nodal analysis
curves. These curves represent the oil, water and gas deliverabilities under different plumbing,
bottom hole and surface pressure conditions. Engineers can use these curves to design
acceptable tubular’s to meet the anticipated reservoir production rates. In conjunction with
the Merlin simulator as will be seen later the optimal plumbing can be estimated for each
reservoir produced.

The following recipe provides an acceptable work path for creating AVALON tubing curves,
and creating a report of the results.

1 Select New Nodal File under the File

menu. Type a file name in the dialog box
that appears. The extension NOD is used
for all nodal file.

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 Chapter 3: Avalon the Basics

2 Fill in a description of
the reservoir followed
and click the Oil/Gas box
under the Description
frame.

3. Under Calculation Desired

clicked either Gemini Nodal
Analysis Tables for
generating Merlin tubing
curves or Nodal Analysis
Sensitivity Studies for
generating standard nodal
analysis tables. If Gemini
Nodal Analysis Tables is
selected then the Pressure
Calculated At box will not
appear because by default
the pressure is calculated at
bottom hole conditions for known surface pressures.

4. Under the Nodal menu click General

Options. A series of folders will appear
with general items to fill out for the nodal
analysis calculations.

5. Under Case Study Variable(s) select

what 2 variables you wish to vary. In the
selection here the effect of both pipe
roughness and vertical tubing size will be
analyzed. Pipe roughness varies from 0
(smooth) to 0.1 (rough), and tubing size
varies from 2 to 4 inches in one inch
increments. The case study variables are
applied to all tubing segments if more
than one node exists for a well. If less than

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Chapter 3: Avalon the Basics

2 case study intervals are desired set the number of intervals to one.

6. Under PVT fill out the

appropriate boxes. Correlations
are provided for many of the fields
– data can either be entered if
known or calculated from a
correlation if unknown.

7. Under Options – Setup an inactive gas lift design button is present. Gas lift
calculations were not included in this release.

8. Under Correlations the

vertical pipe, horizontal flow
line, PVT, and reservoir
correlations can be chosen. If
these values are not chosen
default correlations will be
used.

9. Under General a variety of

general parameters are
required for the nodal
calculations are given. These
variables include the number
of vertical and horizontal
pipe segments used in the
iterative nodal analysis
calculations, pipe roughness,

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 Chapter 3: Avalon the Basics

and separator and wellhead conditions.

10. If a reservoir module is present under the

Nodal home form menu select Reservoir
and Well Options. This menu is only
selected if the user wishes to include
approximate reservoir performance curves in
his nodal analysis calculations. These curves
will never be used by Merlin, since Merlin
provides the reservoir module for these cases.

The various wells can be selected and

appropriate well test information can be
included to improve the accuracy of the
reservoir performance curves. If reservoir
performance curves are calculated they are
included in all graphics. On the other hand if
the reservoir module is ignored these curves will be absent from the plots made later.

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Chapter 3: Avalon the Basics

11. Select Define Nodes, Calculate

under the Nodal menu on the
home form. The Nodal Setup
form that is used to design
tubing layout, calculate tubing
curves, and display the results
should now be visible. This form
is divided into five different
areas by bounding frames.

The first frame is described

as the Node Description frame,
and contains all of the
information for the currently
selected nodal analysis well.
Different segments can be
selected – for example,
horizontal, vertical, choke, or
safety valve. The vertical node can be used for either vertical or inclined segments
below the surface.

As different segments are added to a well the picture of the well in the picture box
changes. For example in the well shown in this picture box there are 2 vertical
segments and one horizontal segment. The segment selected is node number 1 which
corresponds to the horizontal flow line segments that is 400 feet long. The surface
pressures specified (or calculated for a well with surface pressures calculated)
corresponds the surface pressure at the end of the horizontal flow line shown for well 1.
Clicking on different segments in the picture box automatically updates the well’s node
description in the Node Description box.

The Define Wells options allow the user to create new wells, delete wells, and add or
delete nodes for a well.

Once the wells are defined the nodal analysis curves can be calculated by clicking the
All Nodal Curves button under the Calculate Results For selection. If the tubular
design for only one well were changed click the Nodal Curve Selected button to
update the calculations for only this curve. Please note that all calculations must be
performed before any results can be displayed.

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 Chapter 3: Avalon the Basics

Once the well calculations

have been completed under
results click either Nodal
Curve Selected to display
the highlighted curve under
Define Wells or All Nodal
Curves to plot all of the
curves simultaneously. The
last plot layout used will be
used to make plots when the
Plot button is clicked. The
plot layout can be changed by
selecting Design Plot
Layout before the graphics
are plotted, or alternatively
by selecting the Plot Layout
option under Format after
the plot is displayed. The
Plot Layout window is shown below. Pipe Roughness is the variable across the page
and Vertical Tubing Size is the variable down the page. Multiple plots per page were
selected and the layout on the individual plots is given in the graph window.

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Chapter 3: Avalon the Basics

The resulting plots for the layout selected above is given below.

To blow up individual plots to full screen click on the plot desired. Click again to see all
of the original plots.

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 Chapter 3: Avalon the Basics

3.3 – Creating a Report

Avalon has a sophisticated reporting option

that allows the user to create customized
reports for migration to Word Processors such
as Microsoft Word. The reports are written in a
Rich Text format to be compatible with most
other Windows applications. The procedure for
creating RTF reports is given below.

Once a plot or group of plots have been

displayed the user can pick either the Save
Image of Current Picture to save what is
visible on the current form, or alternatively the
Exit/Save All Pictures to save all of the
pictures that can be displayed. The pictures are
saved in both a Bit Map format (BMP) and a
Windows Metafile (WMF) format. The WMF
format is not used in the report generation
process, but the WMF files are saved for later copy and paste operations in other Windows
applications. The graphics are only maintained for the current nodal analysis file and are
located under the Program Files\Gemini\Avalon\XFiles\Bitmaps folder, or wherever
AVALON was installed.

Next under the View option for the

Node Setup form select Report to
start the report generation
procedure. The steps for creating a
report will pop up in the white
space as shown below.

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Chapter 3: Avalon the Basics

The next step is to select what will be displayed in the report. Under View select Report
Options, and choose the text and plots to be displayed. No plots can be displayed until first
included by clicking the Plot option on the Nodal Setup form. In the selection below all text
except the values for the nodal curves, and all graphics as well are displayed. Click Save to
save the reporting options.

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 Chapter 3: Avalon the Basics

Lastly click View Report under

View to View the RTF report.
The top of the report for the
selection above is given below.

Under File select Save Report to

save the RTF report. RTF
reports are large so it is
recommended to open these
reports with your word processor
and save to the word processor
format as soon as possible. The
RTF reports should be viewed as
a temporary report because the
RTF format is not particularly
efficient. Of course if you have
enough hard disk space keeping
the RTF formats may still be
desirable because they are so general. If your word processor cannot handle RTF files you can
always elect to open the file with WordPad.

Once the RTF file has been opened in a word processor you may find that the conversion was
not 100%. For example you may need to add tabs to keep columns lined up. We have found
that unfortunately the conversion process is not without errors. In addition you may wish to
replace the BMP graphics with WMF graphics stored under the \AVALON\Xfiles\BitMaps\
folder.

3.4 – Plots Available

Avalon has the ability to generate a variety of plots depending on the setting chosen. As we
have seen nodal analysis curves can be created for either oil or gas reservoirs, a reservoir
module can optionally be included, and the pressures can be fixed at either bottom hole or
surface conditions. Lets look at each of the plot types graphically to understand what is
possible.

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Chapter 3: Avalon the Basics

3.4.1 – Gas reservoir with surface pressure fixed

The first case we would like to

examine is a gas reservoir without a
reservoir module. The results for this
case are given to the right. Note that
the right mouse key was clicked to
highlight 2 different points. The legend
shows the surface pressure range, the
X axis shows the various gas rates, and
the Y axis shows the various calculated
bottom hole pressures. If one or more
horizontal surface segments are
included for the well the surface
pressures represent the pressures at
the end of the horizontal segments.

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 Chapter 3: Avalon the Basics

3.4.2 – Gas reservoir with bottom hole pressure fixed

An alternative plot for a gas reservoir is to look at the effect of maximum deliverability for
different bottom hole flowing pressures. For example with a bottom hole pressure of 2000 psi
the maximum deliverability is seen to be approximately 7000 MCF/D.

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Chapter 3: Avalon the Basics

3.4.3 – Oil reservoir with surface pressure fixed and reservoir curves

Another example given below is an oil reservoir with the reservoir curves included. Note the
intersection of the reservoir and tubing curves that shows the maximum deliverability for the
conditions chosen. In this case to achieve a oil rate of 6927 BOPD the bottom hole flowing
pressure is 7718 psi, and the corresponding reservoir pressure is 10000 psi.

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 Chapter 3: Avalon the Basics

3.4.4 – Tubing curves with sensitivities

Section 3.3 illustrated generation of tubing curves with sensitivities to both pipe roughness
and vertical tubing size. This plot has been reproduced below. A variety of other sensitivity
studies are possible for various combinations of variables listed on the Nodal Analysis Setup
form.

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 Chapter 4: Linking AVALON to MERLIN

4
Linking AVALON to
MERLIN
4.1 - Introduction

The real power of AVALON lies in its ability to quickly and efficiently link to the Merlin
reservoir simulator to allow precise optimal tubing curves to be designed on a well by well basis
taking into account the reservoir heterogeneities. This chapter will cover the tools and
procedures for making these links

4.2 – Linking to a Merlin File

4.2.1 – The basics

In order to start linking your

nodal files to Merlin several items
must be clicked to allow the two
programs to communicate. First on
the home form the option for
Gemini Nodal Analysis Tables
must be clicked to allow access to
the option for opening Merlin files
under the File menu. Next a
Merlin file must be opened. The
last step requires generating the

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Chapter 4: Linking AVALON to MERLIN

nodal analysis tables and then linking the various nodal curves to different wells in Merlin.
Let’s look at this last step in detail.

After generating nodal analysis curves the user must link the well names in Merlin to nodal
well curve names. Any Merlin well not assigned a tubing curve will use the conventional bottom
hole pressure constraint. To link the Merlin wells to tubing curves first select the Assign
Nodal Curves to Wells in Merlin button under the Nodal Setup form. Line up the Merlin
Well names and the Matching Nodal curve names and click the import arrow button to link the
two entries. Reassigning the nodal curves to the Merlin wells here will overwrite any previous
tubing curve assignments done in Merlin.

Lastly, under the home form select File/Save Merlin File to save the tubing curves and
corresponding well assignments to the various Merlin wells.

4.2.2 - Interactively Designing Surface Facilities

Avalon has a feature that allows horizontal tubing segments to automatically be edited to
go to different platforms or collection points. The procedure for accomplishing this task is
given below.

The first step is to create nodal analysis curves with one or more horizontal flow line
segments, the number of which depends on how many kinks are required to properly model to
surface flow line path. Assign some arbitrary length to each segment. These lengths will be
interactively modified to reflect the surface facility design chosen later.

Next assign to nodal curves to various wells in Merlin using the Assign Nodal Curves to
Wells in Merlin button discussed in the last section. The last step is to click the Design
Flow Lines button under the Merlin Link frame. This will open a picture box that contains a
plane view of the reservoir with the well locations specified in Merlin. The user can
interactively move the horizontal flow line segments and when the Form/Save button is
clicked the new length and position of each horizontal flow line segment is calculated. An
example of a horizontal flow line before and after correct placement using the mouse is shown
below.

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 Chapter 4: Linking AVALON to MERLIN

Separator facilities can also be deleted, added, or moved by first clicking the object to be
moved with the mouse.

Well Placement before adjusting the horizontal flow segments. Merlin well P1 assigned to nodal
curve well1.

Well Placement after adjusting the horizontal flow segments and separator position.

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Chapter 4: Linking AVALON to MERLIN

4.3 – Using Merlin With Tubing Curves

After integrating tubing curves into a Merlin file with Avalon the next step is to perform
reservoir simulation with Merlin, and gain an understanding of how the pipe design will affect
production. The latest version of Merlin contains modifications to the Well Description form to
include changing tubing curves for any well at any time step. This particular feature is absent
in Avalon where only the initial tubing curves for making runs are set.

Often you may find that after making a few runs in Merlin you need to reenter Avalon,
adjust the tubing curves based on results observed in the Merlin simulator, and reassign the
tubing curves to the Merlin file. This iterative procedure allows a simple trial and error path
for optimizing tubing curves for different wells in different parts of the reservoir. An approach
like this represents something that is rarely done in modern reservoir simulation, and
represents a major step forward for designing the development of fields. This ability is greatly
enhanced by the surface facility interactive design features discussed in the previous section.

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 Chapter 4: Linking AVALON to MERLIN

4.2.1 – History Matching Historical Well Flowing Pressure Data

Avalon does not have a stand alone history match feature at this time. To adjust the tubing
curves to match known flowing tubing head data the following work flow procedure is possible.
First generate approximate tubing curves in Avalon and assign to the appropriate wells in
Merlin. Next open Merlin and assign the historical flowing tubing head pressures for the
various wells. Run the model in Merlin and use the Output/Well Data to view the flowing
tubing head pressure history match. If it is unacceptable reenter Avalon and recreate adjusted
tubing curves (for example change the pipe roughness). Reassign the tubing curves to Merlin
and test the history match for flowing bottom hole pressures.

39
Chapter 4: Linking AVALON to MERLIN

40
 Index

Index

A G

All Nodal Curves, 25 Gas lift calculations, 22

Assign Nodal Curves to Wells in Merlin, 36 Gemini Nodal Analysis Tables, 21, 35
General Options , 21
B
H
Backups, 12
Bit Map, 27 Help, 17
blow up individual plots, 26 Help Index, 17
BMP, 27 History Matching, 39
bottom hole pressure, 31 horizontal, 24
horizontal flow segments, 37
C
I
Calculate Results For, 24
calculate tubing curves, 24 inclined segments, 24
Case Study Variable , 21 install, 10
choke, 24 install, two machines, 12
Correlations , 22 installation, 10

D M

Define Wells, 24 Merlin, 36

deliverability, 31 Merlin Well names, 36
Design Plot Layout, 25 Metafile, 27
design tubulars, 24 minimum requirements, 10
display the results, 24
N
E
network, 12
Exit/Save All Pictures, 27 Nodal Analysis Sensitivity Studies, 21
Exporting Pictures and Forms, 16 Nodal Curve Selected, 25
Nodal Setup, 28
Node Description, 24
Nodes, 24

2
 Index
Save Image of Current Picture , 27
O
Save Merlin File , 36
Oil reservoir, 32 sensitivities, 33
sensitivity variables, 19
separator, 23
P separator position, 37
Surface Facilities, 36
pipe roughness, 21, 22
plot, 25
Plot Layout, 25 T
Plots, 29
Pressure Calculated At, 21 Toolbox, 35
Printing, 16 tubing curve design, 19
PVT, 22
V
R
vertical, 24
recipe, 20 vertical tubing size, 21
Report, 27 View Report, 29
Report Options , 28
Reservoir and Well Options , 23 W
reservoir module, 23
reservoir performance curves, 23 Well Placement, 37
RTF reports, 27 well test, 23
wellhead conditions, 23
Windows Metafile, 27
S
WMF, 27
safety valve, 24 Word Processors, 27