Oil-water liquid flow rate determined from measured pressure drop and water hold-up in horizontal pipes

Stimulated by rapid progress in down-hole measuring techniques production engineers wonder whether in the near-future monitoring of oil/water production rates for horizontal wells can become possible on the basis of measured oil/water pressure losses and water hold-ups. A complicating issue is that these measured data depend on the oil and water flow patterns. The question then is if we use a flow-pattern-dependent model for pressure drop and water hold-up in an inverse mode, what then will be the accuracy by which production rates can be determined? In this review the progress with the inverse modeling will be investigated. Copyright © 2011 by ABCM.