For transient multiphase flows studies, more and more we are using commercial simulators – the typically satisfactory results found for light and medium gravity oils support such usage. However, when dealing with heavy oils, most of time also associated with high viscosities, the obtained predictions do not exhibit the same level of robustness, particularly believed by the smaller concentration of studies on such type of fluid flow and also by the scarcity of operational data that could contribute in the enhancement of the modeling and associated simulation code tools.
This work, by considering the performed design, installation and operation of an offshore well, producing heavy oil (API 12.3°) and equipped with an Electrical Submersible Pump (ESP), presents the adopted modeling of such installation and associated analyses of the occurring multiphase flow. In the analyses, the comparison between the actual field results with the model and the predictions provided by OLGA, a well known commercial transient multiphase flow simulator, particularly when the production system is under the instabilities caused by the well geometry and/or the additional injection of fluids upstream of the ESP.
