Optimizing Shale Gas Equipment Deployment Based on Pressure Distribution

Abstract

Gas production and pressure from shale gas wells are highest early in the extraction process and decay rapidly over time. Skid-mounted compression equipment (SCE) in the shale gas gathering and transportation system (SGTS) can adapt to production changes in gas wells and can be deployed flexibly, improving equipment utilization. This paper examines the effects of node pressure and equipment type on the deployment scheme of SCE. Using a specific shale gas field production block as a case study, this paper proposes a method for multicycle operation and pressurizing deployment optimization in the SGTS, establishing a mixed-integer nonlinear programming (MINLP) model. Solving this optimization model yields the optimal deployment scheme of SCE at different times, the number of compression equipment, and the equipment utilization rate. The results show that in shale gas field production, SCE can be deployed flexibly, and most equipment utilization rates are above 0.8, with a maximum of 0.99. This not only achieves efficient use of equipment but also reduces the purchase cost, fully reflecting the importance of SCE in the SGTS. A sensitivity analysis was conducted to consider the impact of different costs and type combinations of SCE on the total production cost, and the results showed that the total cost of eight types was 6.28% lower than that of two types of booster equipment combinations.