Well Testing Analysis

(Hydraulic Fractured Wells)

2023

Hesham Mokhtar Ali

Senior Reservoir Engineer
in/heshammokhtarali/
 Fractured Wells
• Reasons:
 Bypass near-wellbore damage.
 Extend a conductive path deep into a formation and thus increase productivity.
 Minimize the drawdown.
• To fracture, pump fluid against higher resistance, so that the bottom hole pressure rises above the
fracture gradient of the formation.
• Vertical fractures are characterized by the following properties:
• Fracture half-length xf , ft
• Fracture permeability kf , mD
• Fracture width wf , ft
• Fracture conductivity FC, kfwf

Wellbore Fracture permeability, kf

Fracture
width, wf
Reservoir permeability, k Fracture half length, Xf
 Hydraulic Propped Fracturing – Overview
• Create high conductive
path between the
reservoir and the
wellbore. After-closure

Before-closure

Pumping
Initiate Fracture Propagate Fracture

Typical pressure response during DFIT

Placing Proppant Flowback Idealized View of Induced Fracture

 Net Fracture Pressure (NFP)
• Instantaneous Shut-in Pressure (ISIP) is the pressure at
sand face when friction removed.
• Net fracture pressure, Pnet = ISIP - closure P
• Pnet controls fracture width and height.

Effect of net pressure on the

fracture propagation
Typical Minifrac Injection Test
 Fracture Shape & Dimensions
• Hydraulic fracturing is the process of using hydraulic
pressure to create an artificial fracture in a reservoir.

• The fracture grows in length, height and width by

pumping a mixture of fluid and proppant at high
pressure.

• W= the fracture width

• Xf= the fracture penetration or half-length
• Hf= Fracture Height

7
 Fracture Models
• There are 2 basic fracture models:
• High or “Infinite Conductivity”: the pressure drop along the inside of the fracture is negligible

• Infinite-Conductivity Fracture:
• Assumes NO pressure drop along the fracture.
• Uniform Flux Fracture:
• Assumes a uniform production per unit length of fracture.

• Low or “Finite conductivity”: the pressure drop along the fracture is significant.
 Flow Regimes In Fractured Wells
 Fracture linear flow:
 Initially, the flow is only through fractures Well
Fracture
 Never observed in practice in case of high WBS.
 Fracture bilinear flow:
 The pressure front extends both linearly along the fracture and linearly
into the reservoir close to the fracture. Fracture Linear Flow
 Formation linear flow:
 The pressure front moves linearly out from the fracture into the reservoir.
 Formation radial flow
 The flow is IARF.
Fracture Well
Fracture Well

Formation Linear Flow Pseudoradial Flow Bilinear Flow

 Flow Regimes In Fractured Wells
Fracture linear flow: Infinite conductivity fracture

t
p
t
 
 mL t 1 2  bL 1
 mL t 1 2
t t 2
• Pressure & derivative have slope of 1/2 (separated by a
factor of 2.
Fracture bi-linear flow: Finite conductivity fracture
12
44.1qB  1 
14
 t 
p    
 wk 
h  f   ct k 
• Derivative:

t
p
t

 mB t 1 4  bB 1 
 mB t 1 4
t t 4
• Pressure & derivative have slope of 1/4 (Separated by a
factor of 4.
 Infinite-Conductivity Fracture Model
• The linear flow is characterized by a pressure
change proportional to the root of time:

• On a loglog plot, the linear flow is characterized

by a ½ -unit slope in both the pressure and
derivative curves.
• The derivative is lower than the pressure, this
shift corresponding to a factor 2 on a linear
scale.
 Finite-Conductivity Fracture Model
• It represents the time at which the pressure drop
along the fracture is significant.
• Even with no storage, the data does not exhibit a 1/4-
unit slope, and can be matched on a high-
conductivity fracture type-curve with an immediate
1/2-unit slope.
• Generally, the fracture model must surely be finite-
conductivity fracture, as there must always be a
pressure drop along the fracture
• FCD, the dimensionless fracture conductivity, considers
the fracture width (w) and the fracture permeability (kf)
and is compared to ‘kh’.
 Sensitivity Analysis

Sensitivity to Xf Sensitivity to kh
• Multiplying the permeability by 100 will:
• Shift the stabilization of the derivative down 2 log cycles.
• The half slope of the linear flow will only be shifted down 1 log cycle.
 Fractured Well: Infinite Conductivity
• It shows the
behavior of the
linear and bilinear
flow,
• Liner derivative
stabilizes across
the fracture-related
floe regimes.
 Hesham Mokhtar
Hesham Mokhtar

Hesham Mokhtar
Hesham Mokhtar
Hesham Mokhtar
Hesham Mokhtar