Petroleum Production

Engineering-II

UNIT 2: WELL DIAGNOSTICS

Prepared by: Mr. Ali Abbas

 Petroleum Production Engineering-2 Mr. Ali Abbas 2

Well Testing
• Tests on oil and gas wells are performed at various stages
of drilling, completion, and production.

• The test objectives at any stage range from simple

measurement of reservoir pressure to complex
characterization of reservoir features.

• The interpreted pressure transient test is a primary source

of dynamic reservoir data. Most pressure transient tests
can be classified as either single-well productivity tests or
descriptive reservoir tests.
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Well Testing
• Transient well testing: is a measurement of the output
(observation) of the system response to a given input.
• Control of the input, which has traditionally been a
constant flow rate or pressure at the wellhead, is as
important as the output measurement to obtain system
parameters.
• Control of the input has been a difficult problem for well
testing, with the exception of build-up tests at late times.
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Well Testing
• It has been recognized in the last decade that
the measurement of the input signal (usually
flow rate) at the sandface, along with the output
(usually pressure), is needed to reduce
wellbore-storage effects and to account for rate
variations.

• Furthermore, downhole flow measurements are

necessary to determine producing zones to
estimate permeability and skin from well-test
data.
 Petroleum Production Engineering-2 Mr. Ali Abbas 5

Applications of pressure
transient tests
• Productivity tests are conducted to:
Determine well deliverability
Characterize formation damage and other sources of
skin effect
Identify produced fluids and determine their respective
volume ratios
Measure reservoir pressure and temperature
Obtain representative fluid samples suitable for PVT
analysis
Evaluate completion efficiency
Evaluate workover or stimulation treatments.
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Applications of pressure transient

tests
Descriptive reservoir tests are conducted to:
Assess reservoir extent and geometry
Determine hydraulic communication between wells
Characterize reservoir heterogeneities
Evaluate reservoir parameters.
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Productivity Well Testing

Productivity well testing, the simplest form of testing provides identification
of productive fluids collection of representative samples and determination
of reservoir deliverability.
Formation fluid samples are used for PVT analysis, which reveals how
hydrocarbon phases coexist at different pressures and temperatures. PVT
analysis also provides the fluid physical properties required for well test
analysis and fluid flow simulation. Reservoir deliverability is the key
concern for commercial exploitation.
Estimating a reservoir productivity requires relating flow rates to drawdown
pressures. This can be achieved by flowing the well at several flow rates
using different choke sizes (Fig. 1a), while measuring the stabilized
bottomhole pressure and temperature for each corresponding choke (Fig.
1b).
The plot of flow data versus drawdown pressure is known as the inflow
performance relationship (IPR). For monophasic oil conditions, the IPR is
straight line and its intersection with vertical axis yield the static reservoir
pressure. The inverse of the slope represents the productivity index of the
well. The IPR is governed by properties of the rock-fluid system and near
wellbore conditions.
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Relationship between flow rates (q) and drawdown

pressures (p).
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Typical Inflow Performance Curves.

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Productivity Well Testing

• Example of IPR Curves for Low (A) and high (B)
productivity are shown in Fig. 2 in previous slide.
• The steeper line corresponds to poor productivity, which
could be due to either poor formation flow properties (low
mobility-thickness product) or by damage caused while
drilling or completing the well (high skin factor).
• For gas wells, the IPR curves exhibit a certain curvature
(C) caused by extra pressure drop resulting from inertial
and turbulent flow effects in the vicinity of the wellbore
and changes of gas properties with pressure.
• Oil wells that flow below the bubble point also display
similar curvature, but this is due to changes in relative
permeability created by variation in saturation
distributions.
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Descriptive Well testing

Estimation of the formation flow capacity, characterization
of wellbore damage and evaluation of a workover or
stimulation treatment all require a transient test because a
stabilized test is unable to provide unique values for
mobility-thickness and skin effect. Transient tests are
performed by introducing abrupt changes in surface
production rates and recording the associated changes in
bottomhole pressure. The pressure disturbance penetrate
much farther than in the near-wellbore region, to such an
extent that pressure transient tests have evolved into one
of the most powerful reservoir characterization tools. This
form of testing often called descriptive or reservoir testing.
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Descriptive Well testing

Production changes during a transient well test induce pressure
disturbances in the wellbore and surrounding rocks. These pressure
disturbances extend into the formation and are affected in various ways
by rock features. For example, a pressure disturbance will have
difficulty entering a tight reservoir zone but will pass unhindered
through an area of high permeability. It may diminish or even vanish
upon entering a gas cap. Therefore , a record of wellbore pressure
response over time produces a carve for which the shape is defined by
the reservoir's unique characteristics.
Unlocking the information contained in pressure transient carves is the
fundamental objective of well test interpretation. To achieve this
objective , analysis display pressure transient data in three different
coordinate systems:
• Log-log (for model recognition of reservoir response)
• Semi log (for parameter computation)
• Cartesian (for model and parameter verification).
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Descriptive Well testing

• Typical Pressure Responses that might be
observed with different formation
characteristics are shown in Fig. 3.
• Each plot consists of two curves presented at
log-log graphs.
• The top curve represent the pressure changes
associated with an abrupt production rate
perturbation( disturbance ).
• And the bottom curve (termed the derivative
curve) indicates the rate of pressure changes
with respect to time.
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 Petroleum Production Engineering-2 Mr. Ali Abbas 15

Descriptive Well testing

• Its sensitivity to transient features resulting form the well
and reservoir geometries (which are subtle to recognize in
the pressure change response) makes the derivative
curve the single most effective interpretation tool.

• However, it is always viewed with the pressure change

curve to quantify skin effects that are not recognized in
the derivative response alone.
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Descriptive Well testing

• Pressure transient curve analysis probably provides more
information about reservoir characteristics than any other
technique. Some of these characteristics that can be
determined are:
1. Horizontal and vertical permeability
2. Formation pressure
3. Well damage
4. Fracture length storativity ratio
5. Inter-porosity flow coefficient
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Descriptive Well testing

• Different types of well tests can be achieved by altering
production rates.
• a buildup test is performed by closing a valve (shut-in) on
a producing well
• a drawdown test is performed by putting a well into
production.
• Other wells tests are:
Multirate
Multiwall
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Wellbore storage and skin effects:

• Wellbore storage effects are due to the compressibility of
the fluids in the wellbore.
• Afterflow is induced after shutting in the well because flow
from the reservoir doesn’t stop immediately but continues
at a slowly diminishing rate until well pressure stabilizes.
• A further complication is the wellbore mechanics that
drives fluids to segregate, which makes the wellbore
storage variable with time.
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Wellbore storage and skin

effects:
• Skin effects are caused by three main factors:
 Flow convergence near the well bore
 Visco-inertial flow velocity
 The blocking of pores and fractures that occurs during
drilling and production.
• Well testing provides a way of estimating the
resulting extra pressure drop to analyze its
impact on well productivity.
 Petroleum Production Engineering-2 Mr. Ali Abbas 21

Pressure Buildup Testing

• Pressure buildup testing: is the most familiar
transient well-testing technique, which has been
used extensively in the petroleum industry.

• Basically, the test is conducted by producing a well

at constant rate for some time, shutting the well in
(usually at the surface), allowing the pressure to
build up in the wellbore, and recording the down-
hole pressure in the wellbore as a function of time.
• From these data, it is possible to estimate:
the formation permeability
current drainage area pressure,
to characterize damage
or stimulation and reservoir heterogeneity or boundaries
frequently.
 Petroleum Production Engineering-2 Mr. Ali Abbas 22

Pressure Buildup Testing

• The primary purpose of performing a build-up test
is to determine:
the wellbore damage (skin)
and the reservoir permeability.
• However, during the course of a build-up, it is
possible to encounter reservoir boundaries.
• If all the reservoir's boundaries are contacted
during the build-up, the size of the reservoir can
also be determined.
• If the well has been pressure tested before,
subsequent testing allows relative material balance
calculations (decline curve analysis), as well as the
determination of the drive mechanism for the
reservoir
 Petroleum Production Engineering-2 Mr. Ali Abbas 23

Pressure Buildup Testing

• Knowledge of surface and subsurface mechanical
conditions is important in buildup test data
interpretation. Therefore it is recommended that
testing and casing sizes, well depth, packer
condition, etc., be determined before data
interpretation starts.
• Usually, short-time pressure observations are
necessary for the complete delineation of wellbore
storage effects.
• Data may be needed at intervals as short as 15
seconds for the first few minutes of some buildup
tests. As the test progresses, the data collection
interval can be expended.
 Petroleum Production Engineering-2 Mr. Ali Abbas 24

Downhole Shut-in techniques

• Downhole shut-in
techniques play a critical
role in modern well
testing.

• The schematic diagram

of a downhole shut in
valve in the figure
shows that pressure
gauge monitors
pressure in the wellbore
chamber created below
the closed valve.
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Downhole Shut-in techniques

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Downhole Shut-in techniques

• The main advantages of using downhole shut in are
the minimization of both wellbore storage effects
and the duration of the afterflow period.
• The figure in the previous slide shows the
comparative log-log plot of two well tests, one shut
in at the surface, the other shut in downhole.
• In the surface shut-in test, wellbore storage masks
that radial flow plateau for more than 100 hr.
• The Plateau emerges clearly in the downhole shut-
in data after just 1 hr into the transient.
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Pressure Drawdown Test

• A pressure drawdown test: is simply a series of bottom-
hole pressure measurements made during a period of
flow at constant production rate.
• Usually the well is closed prior to the flow test for a period
of time sufficient to allow the pressure to stabilize
throughout the formation, i.e., to reach static pressure.
• The purpose of performing a drawdown test is to
determine:
• skin factor,
• Permeability
• and reservoir boundary distances.
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Pressure Drawdown Test

• The advantages of the Pressure Drawdown
test are:
• Uninterrupted flow once oil or gas well is online.
• Reservoir boundaries are easy to locate

• The main disadvantage of performing

drawdown test is that surface chokes need to
be changed periodically in order to maintain a
constant flow rate (i.e. Difficult to maintain
constant production rate).
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The Use of Downhole Flow Rate

Measurements
• The techniques described for analyzing transient tests
rely on only pressure measurements and were derived
assuming a constant flow rate during the analyzed test
period.

• The constant flow rate situation, in practice, prevails only

during shut-in conditions.

• Because of this, build-up tests are the most commonly

practiced well testing method.
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The Use of Downhole Flow Rate

Measurements
• A build-up test is undesirable:
if the operator cannot afford the lost production associated with the
test
or because the well would not flow again if shut in.

• For these circumstances drawdown tests are preferable.

• In practice, however, it is difficult to achieve a constant

flow rate out of the well.
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The Use of Downhole Flow Rate

Measurements
• Advances in measurements and interpretation techniques
now enable the analysis of tests that exhibit variable flow
rate conditions to obtain the same information furnished
from buildup test, provided that the flow rate variations are
measured in tandem (along with) with changes in
pressure.

• Today, pressure transient tests can be run in almost any

production or injection well without shutting in the well or
halting production.
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The Use of Downhole Flow Rate

Measurements
• Furthermore, drawdown data are not ambiguous like
buildup data (varying between steady-state and pseudo-
steady-state).

• Boundary geometries are easier to diagnose because

there is less distortion caused by superposition,
provided that the downhole flow rate is measured.
Consequently, the results are more definitive.
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The Use of Downhole Flow Rate

Measurements
• Flow rates and pressure changes are closely associated;
any change in flow rate produces a corresponding change
in pressure, and vice versa.
• The challenge for the analyst is to distinguish the changes
in the pressure response curve that have been caused by
a genuine reservoir characteristic from those created by
varying wellbore flow rates (i.e. the pure reservoir signal
versus noise).
• The pure reservoir signal can be separated from the noise
by acquiring simultaneous(same period of time)
measurements of flow rate and pressure.
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The Use of Downhole Flow Rate

Measurements

• Production logging tool

(PLT) can acquire both
variables simultaneously
and accurately, extending
the range of wells in which
well testing can be
successfully performed.

• In a typical test, a
production-logging tool is
positioned at the top of the
producing interval as
Production Logging Tool
shown in the figure.
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The Use of Downhole Flow Rate

Measurements
• The tool records
flow and pressure
data for the
duration of the
tests.
• The plotted data
shows a set of
data acquired
during a drawdown
test, with changes
in the shape of the
pressure curve
matching those on
the flow rate curve.
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Multilayer Test

• To interpret tests when several layers are

producing in a commingled environment, a
generalization of the pressure-flow convolution(
relation ) is used.

• Conventional well tests performed on

commingled multilayer reservoir systems
normally do not yield interpretable data.
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Multilayer Test
• The different dynamic reservoir parameters (i.e., skin
effect, static pressure, boundary condition, heterogeneity)
of each layer induce off-phase flow rate events in the layer
that do not superimpose themselves to yield a predictable
sandface pressure response.

• By using simultaneous bottomhole pressure and flow rate

measurements and designing the drawdown test as a
succession of step-rate tests , a rigorous solution to
deriving the dynamic reservoir parameters can be
obtained for each layer.
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Typical design for a three-layer multirate test (PL =

production logging).
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Steps in a typical multilayer test

• The following steps describe a typical design for a three-

layer multirate test:

1. The well is shut in, and the pressure and flow sensors (typically
conveyed by a production logging tool) are positioned above
the top of the uppermost layer. The well is opened to the
smallest choke opening, and the ensuing transients of rate and
pressure are recorded until stabilization occurs. Finally, a
continuous flow profile is recorded across the set of producing
layer.
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Steps in a typical multilayer test

2. The pressure and flow sensors are repositioned

above the top of the middle layer. The well is opened
to the intermediate choke opening, and the
ensuing(next) transients of rate and pressure are
recorded until stabilization occurs. A second
continuous flow profile is recorded across the set of
producing layer.
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Steps in a typical multilayer test

3. The pressure and flow sensors are repositioned above the top
of the lowermost layer. The well is opened to the largest choke
opening, and the ensuing transients of rate and pressure are
recorded until stabilization occurs. A third continuous flow profile
is recorded across the set of producing layer.

4. In a last, optional step, the pressure and flow sensors are

repositioned above the top of the uppermost layer and the well
is shut in again. The observed transients of rate and pressure
are recorded as in a traditional buildup test.