TECHNICAL NOTE 362

THE EFFECT of a SHORT TERM SHUT-IN on a SUBSEQUENT PRESSURE

BUILD-UP TEST on an OIL WELL

PHILLIPS PETROLEUM CO.

ROBERT G. NISLE
BARTLESVILlE, OKLA.

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ABSTRACT sequence of production rates shown in Table 1. An ex-
pression for the super-posed effects may be derived from
In conducting a pressure build-up test on an oil well,
this table.
it is often necessary to shut-in the well for a short time
(Effect of + q for T + i3. T) + (Effect of - q for
prior to initiation of the test. The effect of such a short
T + i3. T-t,)
term shut-in on the resulting pressure build-up curve is
derived. The derivation is based on the Kelvin point-
+ (Effect of + q for T + i3.T - t,) + (Effect of
- q for i3. T) = Resultant. (2)
source solution and is a straight forward extension of
The desired result is obtained by substituting the ef-
the fundamental theory.
fect defined by Eq. 1 for the terms in Eq. 2. The re-
The magnitude of the effect is evaluated and illus- sult is Eq. 3.
trated by an example. It is shown that if the production
subsequent to the short term shut-in is at least 10 times qu [ r 2 cuf
p(r w ,i3.T) =P"+4 kh E(_~~w_ __
the duration of the shut-in, the effect will be less than 71" • 4k(T + i3.T)
10 per cent. r:cuf
- E, (- 4k (T + i3.T - t,) ) +
INTRODUCTION
r' cuf r2 CU f ]
It often happens that before a pressure build-up test E(- W -E(- W (3)
, 4k(T + i3.T - t,) '4kl:-,7'
can be made an additional valve must be mounted on
the wellhead, or on arrival at the well, it might be When the logarithmic approximation is made for the
learned that the well had been shut-in several hours exponential integrals and the terms collected the result
the previous day because of a shortage of tankage. In is Eq. 4.
such cases the question is "How will such an interrup- p(rw, i3.T) = p., +
tion of production affect the results of a pressure build-
up test?" This work explains how to take account of
such a short term shut-in in order that the test can pro-
4:~h[IOgC(T ~:T)( ~: ~~ =~:)] (4)
Let T - t, = 7 = flowing time following short term
ceed without further delay.
shut-in
The solution presented here makes use of the Kelvin t, - t, = 8 = duration of short term shut-in
point-source solution used by Horner' in his treatment Then T - t, = 7 + 8
of the pressure build-up in wells. Use is also made of
Substitution of these quantities in Eq. 4 gives
the super-position theorem.
p(rw, i3.T) = Po +
MATHEMATICAL DERIVATION
The well is assumed to have been in production at
4:~h[ loge ( T ~
When 8«7 + i3.T
:.J( :!: ~T )] (5)

a constant rate for a relatively long time (several days

8 + 7 + i3.T
or more). It is then shut-in for a short time, after then 7 + i3.T approaches 1.
which it is again placed in production at the previous
constant rate. It continues to produce at this rate until In this case the effect of the short term shut-in may
shut-in for a pressure build-up test. be ignored. In order to get some idea of the numerical
The Kelvin point-source solution is expressed by magnitUdes involved take the worst possible case, when
Eq. 1. i3.T = 0, that is at shut-in. If the error is made less
than some maximum acceptable value at this time, it
qu [ r' cuf ,]
po - p(r,]) = 471"kh - E, (-4fT) (1) will be less than the maximum for all subsequent times.
8+7
The sequence of production rates is listed in Table 1. Let the difference between the value of and
7
TABLE 1 -
Time Interval
SEQUENCE OF PRODUCTION RATES
Production Rate 1 be less than 0.1. Then
8 +7 -1 < 0.1
7
o 10 It + q
11 to t~
I, 10 T
l-q-q=O
I-q-q+q=+q
8 < 0.1 7
T 10 L'>T " q - q + q - q = 0 Therefore, if the flowing time following a short term
At time I1T the pressure will be the resultant of the shut-in is at least 10 times the duration of the short
term shut-in, the error introduced by ignoring the short
term shut-in will not exceed 10 per cent of _i3.~ .
1References given at end of paper.
Original manuscript received in Petroleum Branch office on April
27. 1956. Revised manuscript received May 31. 1956. T+i3.T
AUGUST, 1956 SPE 664-G 67
 If, on the other hand, this condition is not satisfied, TABLE 2-Calculation of (T ~: T) (~~ : ~ ¢T )
another procedure may be followed. Eq. 5 shows that if T = 2930 min., T = 300 min., {5 =: 120 min.

~ ~ T )( 8 : ~ : ~ T)
2 3 4 5
( T is plotted along the .~ il + 7 + .:\ T
T+.:\T 7+.:\T
(_':\_T_)
T+.:\T
( 0 +7+':\T
+ .:\ T )
7
Pressure ..\ T
logarithmic axis vs pressure on the linear axis of semi- 4085 psi -4 D.OOi3 1.39 0.0018
4095 15 0.0050 1.38 0.0069
log paper, then the slope of the straight part wiII be 4110 45 0.015 1.35 0.020
4126 114 0.037 1.29 0.048
-k quh . H ence t h e reserVOIr
. pro d "
uCtIVlty, kh ,may 4129 174 0.056 1.25 0.070
4136 276 0.086 1.21 0.104
47T 4142 411 0.123 1.17 0.144
4144 538 0.155 1.14 0.176
be calculated in the usual manner'. 4154 1037 0.261 1 09 0.~84

162.5 qu B
EXAMPLE equation kh = Z
The effect on the value of the well productivity of CURVE 1
ignoring the short term shut-in will be calculated. 162.5x1IOx.lx3.0
Consider the case of a pressure build-up test in which = 141 md-ft

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kh 38
the following pressures and times have been recorded.
CURVE 2
.:\ T (Minutes) Pressure (psig)
162.5 x 110 x.l x 3.0
4 4085 kh = = 130 md-ft
15 4095 41
45 4110
114 4126 Thus, about 8 per cent error is involved in the value
174 4129
276 4136 of the net effective reservoir productivity by the failure
411 41<2 to take account of the short term shut-in. This error
538 4144
1037 4154 would be larger for larger values of the short term
Let these additional data be given: shut-in time, 8, as compared with the time, 7.
q = 110 STBjD T = 2,930 minutes The smaIl error of 8 per cent in kh results from the
u = 0.1 cp 8 = 120 minutes fact that the straight part occurs at the end of the tests
B = 3.0 7 = 300 minutes where the effect of a short term shut-in is minimized
Pw (flowing) = 4,040 psig rather than at the beginning where it is a maximum. It
In this example 8 = 0047; hence, the short term shut- appears, therefore, that in the example given the effect
in cannot be ignored. Table 2 shows the manner of cal- of a value of 8 = 0.17 could surely be ignored. It is
culating the time terms. Although Eq. 5 is expressed conceivable, however, that in other cases this might not
in metric units, any consistent units may be used in be so. It is advisable, therefore. to check by calculation
the calculation of the logarithmic term. In the calcu- in every case the magnitude of the effect.
lation of the reservoir productivity the engineering
units of Reference 2 have been used. CONCLUSION
The resulting pressure build-up curves are shown A method has been presented which takes account of
in Fig. 1. Column 3 of Table 2 is drawn as Curve 1. a short term shut-in prior to shut-in for a pressure
The straight part has a slope of 38 psi/cycle. Column build-up test on a well.
5 is plotted as Curve 2 and the slope of its straight The maximum error resulting from a neglect of the
part is 41 psi/cycle. It will be noted that both curves short term shut-in occurs at shut-in and decreases to
converge to the same pressure, 4,176 psi, at infinite zero at very long times of shut-in. It is concluded that,
~~T
in general, it is best to make the calculations described
time T approaching 1). This is in accord in every case where a short term shut-in has occurred.
with theory.
NOM EN C L A T U R E':'
The error introduced by a failure to take account
of a short term shut-in can be shown by using the po = undisturbed reservoir pressure, atmos
two values of Z, found graphically in Fig. 1, to calcu- p(r,T) = pressure in the reservoir at time T at a dis-
late a net effective reservoir productivity" klz, from the tance r from the well, atmos
T = total time up to shut-in for test, sec
!'..IT = shut-in time for test, sec
8 = duration of short term shut-in, sec
7 = flowing period following short term shut-in,
sec
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The author wishes to thank the management of Phil-
lips Petroleum Co. for permission to publish this ma-
terial.
REFERENCES
1. Horner, D. R.: Proc Third World Petroleum Con-
gress, Sect. II, (1951) E. J. Brill, Leiden.
2. Thomas, G. B.: Trans AIME (1953) 198 125.

.& .. (~) (""I.W-) ':'Except as noted below, nomenclature in this paper conforms with
FIG. 1
the AIME Reservoir Engineering Symbols List published in the Jan .•
IDG5. issue of Journal of Petroleum Technology. ***
63 JOURNAL OF PETROLEUM TECHNOLOGY