PRODUCTION RATE AND CUMULATIVE PRODUCTION MODELS FOR ADVANCED DECLINE CURVE ANALYSIS OF GAS RESERVOIRS A Dissertation by JOSEPH ANSAH Submitted to the Office of Graduate Studies of ‘Texas A&M University {n partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY August 1996 Major Subject: Petroleum EngineeringPRODUCTION RATE AND CUMULATIVE PRODUCTION MODELS FOR ADVANCED DECLINE CURVE ANALYSIS OF GAS RESERVOIRS A Dissertation by JOSEPH ANSAH Submitted to Texas A&M University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Approved as to style and content by: wae A (Chair of Committee) (a Pe Vedateixd UW. John Lee Robert A. Wattenbafger (Member) (Member), Kouplbo ene Le ‘Raytcho D. Lazarov James E. Russell (Member) (Head of Department) August 1996 Major Subject: Petroleum Engineeringiit ABSTRACT Production Rate and Cumulative Production Models for Advanced Decline Curve Analysis of Gas Reservoirs. (August 1996) Joseph Ansah, B.S., Moscow Institute of Oil and Gas Chair of Advisory Committee: Dr. Thomas A. Blasingame Production rate and cumulative production data from gas reservoirs are routinely analyzed using dimensionless "type curves", which are plots of numerical, analytical, or sometimes empirical solutions to the gas diffusivity equation. These solutions are theoretically developed by coupling the boundary-dominated flow equation with the gas material balance equation. Due to the mathematical difficulty of this process, past efforts have focused on approximate models based on simplifying assumptions. Two basic limitations of these models are: © The use of approximate linearization schemes (i.e., the zero-order and first-order polynomial models) for correlating the non-linear viscosity-compressibility term, and © Assumption of zero or constant bottomhole pressure production. This work aims to eliminate these restrictive assumptions by proposing semi-analytical solutions developed from the rigorous equations underlying production rate-time analysis models. Pseudopressure and pseudotime functions are also avoided in this work because knowledge of average reservoir pressure is required for computing pseudotime which makes the procedure iterative. We examine several linearization schemes (zero-order, first-order and general polynomial functions, as well as exponential function) for modeling the non-linear terms. Simulation studies conducted using different gas systems show that the general polynomial function is applicable to all gas reservoirs