WELL TESTING
By: Fuad Yagout. MEng University of Leeds,UK
Head of OGE, IUTT.
Before we start
Assessment
TBD
Attendance is mandatory.
10 minutes ONLY is allowed for late arrivals.
Refrain from eating and drinking.
Recommended References;
1. Pressure Transient Testing by John Lee, ISBN: 1555630995.
2. Well Test Analysis by M. A. Sabet.
3. Advances in Well Test Analysis by Robert C. Earlagher Jr, ISBN: 0895202042. 4. Well Testing by John Lee, ISBN: 0895203170.
5. Oil Well Testing by Amanat Chaudhary, ISBN: 0750677066.
6. Gas Reservoir Engineering by W. John Lee, ISBN: 1555630731.
1. Fundamentals of Fluid
Flow in Porous Media (2)
Solutions to diffusivity
equation
There are 4 solutions for diffusivity equation that are useful in well
testing.
Bounded cylindrical reservoir
Infinite reservoir with a well considered to be a line source with 0 well
bore radius.
Pseudosteady-state solution
Solution that includes well bore storage for a well in an infinite
reservoir.
Remember!
Assumptions made in the derivation:-
homogeneous and isotropic porous medium of uniform thickness.
Pressure indépendant fluid and rock properties.
small pressure gradients
radial flow
Valid Darcy law.
negligible gravity forces.
Bounded Cylindrical reservoir
Solution requires we specify two boundary conditions and
an initial condition.
Well produces at constant rate (qB) into the well bore.
Well with well bore radius rw is centred in a cylindrical
reservoir of radius re and there is no flow across this
boundary.
Before production begins, the reservoir is at uniform
pressure Pi
The solution
Relates flowing pressure Pwf, at the surface to time and
to reservoir rock and fluid properties.
𝛼n are the roots of Bessel functions.
Ct is used because even formations that produce a single
phase oil contain an immobile water and have formation
compressibility.
We won’t use this equation at its complete form to calculate
Pwf; instead we will use limiting forms of the solution.
It is an exact solution to diffusivity equation.
We compare other approximation solution to this one
because it is an exact solution.
Infinite Cylindrical reservoir
with line-source well.
Assumptions:-
Well produces at a constant rate (qB)
Well has zero radius.
Reservoir is at uniform pressure Pi before production.
Well drains an infinite area P—>Pi as r—>∞
The solution
Under those conditions the solution is :-
the new symbols; p pressure (psi) at a distance r (feet)
from the well at time t (hrs) and
This solution is based on idealised boundary conditions.
Ei-function solution is an accurate approximation to the
more exact solution for time.
For times less than the assumption
of zero well size (line source or sink) limits the accuracy
of the equation. At times greater than ,
the reservoir’s boundaries begin to affect the pressure
distribution in the reservoir so that the reservoir is no
longer infinite acting.
A further simplification of the solution to the flow
equation is possible : for x<0.02, Ei (-x) can be
approximated with an error less that 0.6% by:
Solutions to the Ei-function:
Table (1) for 0.02<x≤10.9.
For x≤0.02 we used equation above.
For x >10.9, Ei(-x) can be considered 0 for well testing
applications.
Some wells are stimulated using acidization or
hydraulically fractured. solution (2) fails to model such
wells properly. Because the derivation holds the
assumption of uniform permeability throughout the
drainage area of the well up to the wellborn.
Damaged/ stimulated zone.
extra pressure drop prevails (𝛥Ps), which can be modelled
by the steady state radial equation.
This equation indicates that
pressure drop in the altered zone
is inversely proportional to ks rather
than k. Assumption that k is uniform doesn’t hold.
Combining these two equations we find the total pressure
drop in the well bore:-
Here we can approximate the
Ei-function logarithmically to :-
Last term in the equation
is the skin factor.
Example
Pseudosteady-state solution.
This solution is a limiting form of bounding solution
which describes pressure behaviour with time for a well
centred in a cylindrical reservoir of a radius re.
It is valid for large times so that the summation
involving exponential and Bessel functions is negligible.
After time we use,
Superposition.
Most useful solution, Ei-function, is only applicable when
describing pressure distribution in an infinite reservoir
caused by the production of a single well in the reservoir,
and also at constant rate (quite restrictive)
“ The total pressure drop at any point in a reservoir is the
sum of the pressure drops at that point caused by flow in
each of the wells in the reservoir.
Superposition cont.
“ The total pressure drop at any point in a reservoir is the
sum of the pressure drops at that point caused by flow in
each of the wells in the reservoir.
Superposition cont.
We have wells A, B and C
that start to produce at the
same time from an infinite
reservoir. We apply the
superposition :-
Where:
qA is the flow rate at which well A produces.
Note we have skin factor for well A but not B and C. It is because most well have nonzero skin factor and we are
modelling pressure inside the zone of altered permeability near well A, we must include S. But the presence of S in B and C
affects pressure only inside their zones and has no influence on pressure at well A.
We use this principles to treat any number of wells flowing at constant
rate in an infinite reservoir. “Pulse testing”
Superposition cont.
Final most important application is to model variable rate producing wells.
Consider a well producing at a rate q1 from time 0 to time t1; at t1 the rate is
changed to q2 and at time t2 the rate is changed to q3.
The problem we wish to solve is this:-
At some time t>t2 what is the pressure at the sand face of the well?
To solve this we apply the superposition principle but in this case each well
that contributes to the total pressure drawdown will be at the same position
in the reservoir (wells will be turned on at different times).
Superposition cont.
The first contribution to a drawdown in reservoir pressure is by a well producing at rate q1
starting at t=0. This well, will be inside a zone of altered permeability and hence;
starting at t1 the new total rate is q2. We introduce a well 2 producing at rate (q2-q1) starting at time
t1. Note that the total time elapsed since this well started producing is (t-t1).
And similarly for third well:-
Superposition cont.
Thus, the total pressure drawdown is
Final most important application is to model variable rate producing wells.
Consider a well producing at a rate q1 from time 0 to time t1; at t1 the rate is
changed to q2 and at time t2 the rate is changed to q3.
The problem we wish to solve is this:-
At some time t>t2 what is the pressure at the sand face of the well?
To solve this we apply the superposition principle but in this case each well
that contributes to the total pressure drawdown will be at the same position
in the reservoir (wells will be turned on at different times).
Horner’s approximation
Horner reported an approximation that can be used in many cases
to avoid the use of superposition in modelling production of
variable rate wells.
In this approximation we replace the sequence Ei functions
reflecting rate changes with a single Ei function that contains a
single producing time and single producing rate. This single rate is
the most recent nonzero rate at which the well was produced (q last).
The single producing time is found by dividing cumulative
production from the well by this single recent rate (t p)=
Now, we can use the simple equation to model the pressure
behaviour at any point in the reservoir :-
We should ask: When can we use it?
If the most recent rate is maintained sufficiently long for
the radius of investigation achieved at this rate to reach
the drainage radius of the tested well.
For a new well to undergo a series of rapid rate changes,
it is usually sufficient to establish the last constant rate
for at least twice as long as the previous rate.
Example:-
Following completion, a well is produced for a short
time and then shut in for a buildup test the production
history is :-
1) Calculate the pseudo-producing time (tp).
2) Is Horner’s approximation adequate for this case?
Solution
1) qlast = 68 STB/72 hours x (24 hours/day)= 22.7 STB/D
tp) (24 *166)/22.7= 176 hours
2)
thus, Horner’s approximation is probably adequate. If not,
we use superposition.
