Patent ID: 11859473
Assignee: SAUDI ARABIAN OIL COMPANY
Field: Civil engineering (Other fields)
Classification: CPC E | IPC E

Claim 0:
1. A system for automatic in-situ gas lifting of fluid in a multilateral well, the system comprising:
a plurality of downhole sensors arranged to periodically capture pressure data associated with the multilateral well;
a processor operatively connected to the downhole sensors and configured to dynamically determine a pressure gradient value associated with the multilateral well based on the periodically captured pressure data; and
a first inflow control valve (ICV) operatively connected to the processor and placed within a first lateral to:
automatically control a flow of a gas from a downhole natural gas source into the multilateral well based on the dynamically determined pressure gradient, and
cause a lift of the fluid received from a second lateral within the well when the first ICV is open;

wherein the processor compares the dynamically determined pressure gradient value to a reference gradient value and, if a difference between the dynamically determined pressure gradient value and the reference gradient value is not greater than a predetermined pressure gradient tolerance, determines whether the first ICV is fully closed,
wherein, when the processor determines that first ICV is fully closed:
the processor determines whether the difference between the dynamically determined pressure gradient value and the reference gradient value is within ten percent of the predetermined pressure gradient tolerance, and
when the difference between the dynamically determined pressure gradient value and the reference gradient value is within ten percent of the predetermined pressure gradient tolerance, the processor records a choke size of the first ICV as an optimum choke size for controlling the flow of a gas from the downhole natural gas source into the multilateral well.