Prediction of maximum possible liquid rates produced from plunger lift by use of a rigorous modeling approach

This paper introduces a reliable predictive model that can be regarded as a useful tool for petroleum-production engineers to check on maximum possible liquid-production rates by use of plunger lift. This method uses tubing size and well depth as affecting parameters for accurate prediction of maximum possible liquid rates produced from plunger lift. Therefore, a predictive model has been developed by use of an accurate and reliable mathematical algorithm. Furthermore, a simple approach (i.e., leverage approach) is used in this study to detect the outlier data points available in the data set used for the development of the predictive model. On the basis of this approach, it is found that all of the experimental data seem to be reliable and only a few percent of them are out of the applicability domain of the newly developed model for prediction of the maximum possible rate. The obtained results demonstrate that the model developed in this study is reliable and efficient in estimating the maximum possible rate by use of plunger lift as a function of tubing size and well depth.