SPE

Society of Petroleum Engineers

SPE 15115

Pressure Transient Response in Stress-Sensitive Formations

by a.A. Pedrosa Jr., Petrobras
SPE Member

Copyright 1986, Society of Petroleum Engineers

This paper was prepared for presentation at the 56th California Regional Meeting of the Society of Petroleum Engineers held in Oakland, CA, April 2-4,
1986.

This paper was selected for presentation by an SPE Program Committee following review of information contained in an abstract submitted by the
author(s). Contents of the paper, as presented, have not been reviewed by the Society of Petroleum Engineers and are subject to correction by the
author(s). The material, as presented, does not necessarily reflect any position of the Society of Petroleum Engineers, its officers, or members. Papers
presented at SPE meetings are subject to publication review by Editorial Committees of the Society of Petroleum Engineers. Permission to copy is
restricted to an abstract of not more than 300 words. Illustrations may not be copied, The abstract should contain conspicuous acknowledgment of where
and by whom the paper is presented. Write Publications Manager, SPE, P,O. Box 833836, Richardson, TX 75083-3836, Telex, 730989, SPEDAL.

ABSTRACT rock properties with pore pressure. A well known

feature of low-permeability geopressured reservoirs
Pressure transient response in stress-sensitive and fractured rocks 1S the sensitivity of
formations 1S obtained by solving analytically the permeability and porosity to effective stress.
radial flow equation with pressure-dependent rock Lowering pore pressure causes an increase in
properties. In cracked rock systems and tight effective stress and consequent reductions in
formations, hydraulic permeability is very sensitive hydraulic permeability and total porosity.
to pore pressure change. The mathematical model
presented in this paper takes into account the The effect of rock stress on rate and pressure
reduction in permeability caused by an increase in response in low-permeability gas reservoirs has been
effective stress. studied by Vairogs et aZ. 1. They developed a
mathematical model for gas flow which incorporated
The dependence of permeability on pore pressure the effect of effective stress on permeability,
makes the flow equation strongly nonlinear. A based on a theoretical analysis of the stress state
perturbation technique 1S applied to determine around a wellbore. The gas flow equation was
approximate analytical solutions for transient flow numerically solved and required the knowledge of
in an infinite radial system with constant rate experimentally determined stress-permeability rela-
inner boundary. The model includes a new parameter, tionships. Vairogs and Rhoades 2 used this model
the permeability modulus, which measures the to simulate pressure transient tests of gas wells in
permeability dependency on pressure. stress-sensitive formations. They concluded that
drawdown analysis gives unreliable results when ap-
The solution of the model leads to the plied to highly pressure sensitive reservoirs. On
construction of type curves that can be applied to the other hand, conventional buildup analysis yields
drawdown and buildup analysis of well test data from a good estimate of the initial permeability when run
stress-sensitive reservoirs. Type curve matching early 1n the life of the reservoir. For longer pro-
provides a way to estimate initial permeability and duction times, a semi-log analysis of a buildup
permeability modulus. From buildun data, initial test can give useful estimates of the permeability
permeability may be obtained from the slope of the at the average reservoir pressure. They also pointed
semi-log straight line on Horner plot, as shown in out that the excessive pressure drop usually obser-
an example using field data from a low permeability ved in low permeability reservoirs might be caused
gas reservoir. by both mechanisms of stress sensitivitv and turbu-
lent flow. "

The effect of pressure dependent rock properties

IllffRODUCTION on the pressure transient response of reservoir
systems has been studied and discussed by a number
The methods commonly used to describe the of investigators 3-4 They solved numerically the
transient flow behavior 1n porous media have been one-dimensional radial flow equation in terms of a
based on the assumption of constant rock pseudopressure function which includes both fluid
properties. However, these methods are not strictly and rock properties, assuming constant well flow ra-
applicable to reservoirs that experience changes in te. Samaniego and Cinco L. 5 extended this approach
to the constant wellbore pressure case. However, the
References and illustrations at end of paper.

203
2 PRESSURE TRANSIENT RESPONSE IN STRESS-SENSITIVE FORMATIONS
linearization of the flow equation provided by the
use of this pseudopressure function requires data on
pressure-dependent permeability.
Recently, Ostensen 6 studied the effect of
stress sensitivity on gas production and well
testing in tight gas sands by using stress-dependent
pseudopressure. As the slope of the semi-log
straight line changes during a buildup or drawdown
in stress-sensitive reservoirs, he developed correc-
tion factors as function of pseudopressure that
yield the proper slope. He also presented a model to
determine pressure-permeability relationships under
non-uniform stress conditions.
yilmaz and Nur 7 developed a mathematical mo-
del to study pore pressure wave fronts in fractured
rock systems. They solved the one-dimensional flow
equation in Cartesian coordinates, assuming constant
pressure inner and outer boundaries. The nonlinea-
rity that comes from the dependence of permeability
on pore pressure was handled rigorously. These aut-
hors defined a new parameter, the permeability modu-
lus, that measures how hydraulic permeability varies
with pressure. They showed that diffusion is coupled
with a wave phenomenon when the permeability modulus
is not negligible compared with other material cons-
tants.
The purpose of this study is to determine pre-
ssure transient response in an infinite radial
system with pressure-dependent rock properties.
Approximate analytical solutions of the nonlinear
flow equation with constant well rate are obtained
by the use of a perturbation technique.
MECHANISMS OF PERMEABILITY REDUCTION
In general, rock properties are functions of
confining pressure and obey the effective stress
law. Fluid withdrawal from reservoirs lowers pore
pressure and consequently causes an increase in
effective stress. Therefore the porous medium beco-
mes more compact, reducing hydraulic permeability
and total porosity. The effective st,ess law states
that
(J - ap
where (J is the rock stress, p the pore pressure and
a is a parameter which depends on the mechanical
properties of the rock and the geometry of the rock
grains. In some situations, one can assume uniform
rock stress. The parameter a is generally taken to
be unity.
The mechanisms of permeability reduction are
much more pronounced in tight formations. It can be
expected that formations with pore distribution of
smaller radii are very sensitive to compressive
stress. However, rock heterogeneities such as frac-
tures and shale streaks make the porous medium
markedly affected by stress changes, as pointed out
by Vairogs et aZ. 1
Cracked rock systems are particularly sensitive
to stress changes. The change in hydraulic permeabi-
SPE 15115
lity is roughly proportional to the change in crack
width. Ostensen 6 has shown recently that flow
through microcracks controls the stress dependence
of permeability in tight gas sand cores.
To study fluid flow through stress dependent po-
rous media, a new parameter, the permeability modu-
lus, is defined as follows:
ClK
y 1
(2)
K ClP
This parameter plays a very important role in sys-
tems where changes in effective stress affect perme-
ability. Basically, it measures the dependence of
hydraulic permeability on pore pressure. For prac-
tical purposes, y can be assumed constant. Thus,
permeability varies exponentially with pore pre-
ssure. It can be seen from Fig. 1 that permeability
reduction ratio as an exponential function of pre-
ssure fits reasonably well the experimental data gi-
ven by Vairogs and Rhoades 2. To get these pressure-
permeability relationships, an overburden stress of
9000 psi and initial reservoir pressure of 8500 psi
were considered.
MATHEMATICAL MODEL
The mathematical models commonly used to descri-
be the transient flow behavior in porous media are
based on simplifying assumptions such as: homoge-
neous and isotropic medium, laminar isothermal flow
of a single phase fluid, and negligible gravita-
tional effect. Then, assuming no source or sink, the
continuity equation for one-dimensional radial sys-
tem is given as
Cl (rpv) Cl ((D p )
(3)
r Clr Clt
Darcy's law, under the above assumptions, takes the
form
(1)
v K ~ (4)
\l Clr
Combining the continuity equation and Darcy's law
and applying appropriate equations of state, the
equation governing the fluid flow through porous me-
dia is obtained. The dependence of permeability on
pore pressure makes this equation strongly nonline-
ar. Our purpose is to get approximate analytical so-
lutions for this nonlinear equation. Liquid and gas
flow toward a well producing at constant flow rate
in an infinite reservoir will be considered.
Liquid flow
Substituting Eqn. 4 in Eqn. 3, the flow equation
becomes
204
SPE 1515 O.A. Pedrosa Jr. 3

r- .,~ ..-~ -'E. Then, assuming

becomes
Y»c£ and Y» the flow equation
(5)
ar' r ar

a'p o + ...!... apo _

ar~ r o ar o ( 16)
This equation is strongly nonlinear due to the pre-
ssure gradient square term. In stress sensitive for-
mations, the pressure gradients near the wellbore
are usually very high. Therefore, the common assump- and the boundary and initial conditions are
tion of small pressure gradient cannot be applied
here. Furthermore, the permeability modulus is not
small enough to allow the nonlinear term to be ne-
glected. - 1
( 17)

Assuming constant compressibilities and constant

permeability modulus, we have ( 18)
-c (p.-p)
~. e m 1.
(6)
1. ( 19)

-y(p.-p) (7)
K = K. e 1.
1. Eqn. 16 is not written in a convenient form to be
solved analytically. Let us introduce a new dimen-
Substituting these equations in Eqn. 5 yields sionless dependent variable, n, that is related to
the dimensionless pressure according to

(8)
__
1_ £n (1 - YDn)
(20)
YD
Since the system is infinite, the inner boundary
condition can be written as Notice that YD n must lie between zero and unity. Ma-
king use of Eqn. 20, it can be found that n satis-
fies the following partial differential equation
lim ~
r+O (9)
2~h

( 21)

and the outer boundary condition is

lim p(r,t) p. subject to the boundary and initial conditions, res-

1. ( 10) pectively
r+O

~)
The initial condition 1.S given as lim
rnO (r o ar - 1
(22)
o
p(r,O) p. ( 11)
1.
n =
lim
rilO ° (23)

Now let us introduce dimensionless variables de-

fined as follows n (ro'O)
° ( 24)

ro r
rw ( 12) An approximate analytical solution for this
boundary value problem can be obtained using a per-
K.t
to • ( 13)
turbation technique. A similar approach was applied
"ill (C£+C )
m
r'w by Kidder 8 for solving the problem of transient
flow of gas through a semi-infinite linear system.
= 2~Kih To solve Eqn. 21, subject to the conditions 22 to
Po (Pi-P) ( 14) 24, n can be expanded as a power series in the para-
qll
meter Yu This can be accomplished because the dimen-
__q_ll_ y
sionless permeability modulus is usually small (less
Yo ( 15)
2~K.h than unity). Hence,
•

205
4 PRESSURE TRANSIENT RESPONSE IN STRESS-SENSITIVE FORMATIONS SPE 15115

Calculated values of no and n are shown in Ta-

1
ble 1. It can be seen that the absolute value of n 1
(25 ) is always smaller than no' The magnitude.of n 2 is
expected to be much smaller than the magn~tude of
no' Therefore, for small nn' second and hi~her.order
The term in the right-hand side of Eqn. 21 can be terms can be neglected. Then, an approx~mat~on to
also expanded as follows the exact solution of Equations 21 to 24 is given by
a truncated series and the dimensionless pressure
becomes

(26)

(33 )

The convergence of this ser~es is assured whenever

Ynn lies between zero and unity.
In some situations, the last term in Eqn. 33 can be
Substituting Eqn. 25 and 26 into Eqn. 21 and also neglected. Hence,
collecting coefficients of powers of Yn yields

E
1
(4::)] (34)

(27)
+ •••• 0 Notice that P n becomes the solution of the diffusi-
vity equation in a homogeneous porous medium with
constant rock properties when Y vanishes. In other
n
words,

Similarly, the boundary and initial conditions be-

come

__,
an o + Y r an + Y~ r an 2 + ... ). - ,
lim
Yj)0
p
n 2
E
1
(4::) (35)

lim D D D
rilO (r D ar D ar D (28)
Or
D
Fig. 2 depicts the dimensionless pressure profi-
le calculated by the use of Equations 31 to 33.
lim (no + Yon , + Y~n2 + ... ) 0 (29) Graphs of P versus the dimensionless variable ~/r D
rj) n
for different values of Yn are given in Fig. 3. Im-
portant conclusions can be drawn from the results
nD(rD,o) + yDn 1 (rD,O) + Y~n2 (rD,O) + .. . . 0 (30) depicted in these figures. First of all, at early
times, the sensitivity of permeability to pore pre-
ssure change does not show up. Secondly, for Pn less
than 1, the sensitive and insensitive systems have
Equations 27 to 30 leads to a sequence of linear the same behavior. As time goes on, the departure of
boundary value problems that can be solved recursi- any Y curve from the curve for Yn = 0 increases mo-
D
vely for n, n , and so on. The zero-order approxima- noton~cally, becoming very large for the highest
1
tion n cgrresponds to the solution for the case of values of dimensionless permeability modulus. The
nonstn?ss sensitivity, i.e., Y = O. As derived in type-curves shown in Fig. 3 can be used to analyse
n
Appendix A, no becomes drawdown test data in stress-sensitive formations.

In pressure buildup analysis the wellbore pre-

(:~J
ssure is usually obtained by desuperposing the solu-
(31) tion of the flow equation for the drawdown and shut-
2 in periods. For the case of stress-sensitive forma-
tions the principle of superposition must be applied
to each particular solution from the sequence of li-
where E is the exponential integral function. The near boundary value problems shown earlier. Thus we
1
solution of the first-order boundary value problem have
is given Appendix B, as follows
2
r~
rD
n
0
• 1
2
E, (
4( tP D+!lt D)
)- 1
2
E
,
(
4 !ltD
)
(36)
+ exp (32)

n, • .1
2
E,
[2(tP::~tJ - d1 + exp
[- 4(t::+~tD)] I (37)

[4(tP::~tJ +1 [1
E, E,(~)
t:~J] E(' 4~tDr~
- .1 +
exp )
2 2.6.t
D

206
SPE 15115 a.A. Pedrosa Jr. 5

The dimensionless pressure can be obtained by plugg-

ing equations 36 and 37 in Eqn. 39. Graphs of p x
~tD are depicted in Fig. 4 and Fig. 5 for dim~n­ + 1
(41)
sion~ess production time of 10 000 and 100 000, res- r
pect~vely. It can be seen that all stress-sensitive
systems behave like a reservoir with constant rock
properties at long times. This means that conven-
For a gas well producing at constant rate, the ~nner
tional buildup analysis can be applied to stress-
boundary condition is given as
sensitive formations using only the later buildup
data from a well test.

Equations 36 and 37 were used to compute n lim

r+O
and n1 for two different production times, as show~
(42)
in Table 2. Similarly to the drawdown case, the
magnitude of no is always greater than the magnitude
of n . Therefore, for practical purposes, only n
1 Again, p/~Z is assumed to be constant and evaluated
needs to be taken into account. Then the dimension~
at the initial reservoir pressure. The outer bounda-
less buildup pressure becomes
ry condition and the initial condition do not differ
from the conditions for the liquid case.

If the viscosity-compressibility product of the

gas ~n the right-hand side of Eqn. 41 can be evalua-
ted at the initial pressure, the boundary value pro-
blems for gas and liquid flow will have similar
For values of the argument of E in Eqn. 38 less equations. In addition to that, new dimensionless
1 variables can be defined as follows
than 0.01, the logarithmic approximation to the
exponential integral may be used. Then, it can be
found that K. t
t
n - iI.)J. c .r1.

2
1. 1. g1. W (43)
£n tP+~tJ
()J:~i) (T:::) (Pi-P)
~t
(39) ,
HK.h
(44)

A semi log plot of Eqn. 39 for var~ous dimensionless

permeability moduli is shown in Fig. 6. It is evi- 2~K.
,h
()J~:i) (PTssccT) y
(45)

dent that PD varies linearly with the logarithm of

(tp + ~t)/~t when YD vanishes. All the curves for
the various YD tend to coincide when (tp + ~t)/~t is
less than 5. This means that stress-sensitive sys-
It follows from these assumptions that the gas flow
tems behave like the system with constant permeabi-
equation and boundary conditions, expressed in terms
lity at long shut-in times, no matter the magnitude
of the dimensionless variables above, are exactly
of the permeability modulus. Therefore, a semilog
the same as those derived for liquid flow. In other
plot of later buildup data from a reservoir with
words, the solutions given by equations 31 to 34 are
pressure dependent rock properties must result in a
also valid for the flow of a real gas through a po-
straight line when the reservoir is in the period of
infinite acting behavior. rous medium with pressure dependent rock proper-
ties. Equations 36 to 39 can be also applied to the
pressure buildup in a shut-in gas well.
Gas flow
A more rigorous approach to treat the flow of a
At high pressures, the term p/~ is fairly cons- real gas through a porous medium consists of intro-
As . ducing the concept of pseudopressure function, defi-
tant 9 t~ght gas sandstones ?re usually sub-
mitted to high pressures, the assumption of constant ned as follows
p/~Z allows one to simplify the gas flow equation as
follows
P dp (46)
~Z

lE. (c +c
g m
) lE.
(40)
r dr dt
Then, the gas flow equation ~n stress-sensitive
formations becomes
Substituting Eqn. 6 and Eqn. 7 in Eqn. 40 and assu-
ming Y»c and c » em' the flow equation becomes
m g

207
6 PRESSURE TRANSIENT RESPONSE IN STRESS-SENSITIVE FORMATIONS SPE 15115
.._ - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - _ . _ - - - - - - - - , - - - - - - - - - -
DISCUSSION OF RESULTS

0J.l (c g +c m) Cl'¥ The selection of the permeability modulus as a

(47) perturbation parameter and the use of a solution
K dt procedure including only the first two order appro-
ximation terms place some mathematical restrictions
to the range of applicability of the solution. How-
where y* is the apparent permeahili~v modulus defi- ever, typical values of field parameters and physi-
ned as cal properties in Eqn. 15 and in Eqn. 45 yield Y
D
values that seldom exceed 0.3. Therefore, the appro-
ximate analytical solutions obtained earlier become
Y* ClK very useful for practical applications.
K Cl'¥ (48)
Another important aspect of the approach descri-
bed in this paper is related to the transformation
of the flow equation by using Eqn. 20. Since PD has
Assuming constant Y*, c and y* much greater than to be positive, the term yDn must lie between a and
c ' and introducing thg following dimensionless va- 1. The transformation variable n is always an
m increasing function of flow time for drawdown test
r~ables
analysis, as observed in Table 1. For large y va-
~K.h T
lues, the general solution given by Eqn. 20 fai£s at
f _ > sc [f(Pi) - f(p)] long times, when YDn exceeds unity. On the other
D
qscpsc T (49) hand, n is a decreasing function of shut-in time for
buildup test analysis, as shown in Table 2. Therefo-
re, large Y may result in YDn greater than 1 at
y* - D
D
y* (So) early times. Then the solution can also fail. How-
ever, this is not a strong limitation since it
usually happens out of the range of practical inte-
rest. According to this, it is clear that the condi-
tion for applying Eqn. 39 is

the gas flow equation becomes

2

r
<
Cl 2 1J' y~IJ'D (53)
D + ClIJ'D D e Cl'¥D tn tp + llt
- - - Y*
D ( ClCl'¥r (51)
llt
Clr~ r
D
Clr
D
dt
D

subject to the following constant rate inner bounda-
ry condition
ClIJ'
D \
~)
Again, it is assumed that the gas viscosity-compre-
ssibility product in the right-hand side of Eqn. 48
can be evaluated at the initial pressure.
In this case, it is evident that the transient
response in an infinite stress-sensitive reservoir
with a gas well producing at constant rate can be
given by equations 31 to 34 for drawdown analysis
and equations 36 to 39 for buildup analysis. In
these equations IJ'D must be substituted for PD and
y * for Y.
The approaches described in the literature to
account for pressure dependence of permeability in
gas reservoirs usually have the pseudopressure func-
tion defined in terms of fluid and rock properties.
However, these approaches require that pressure-per-
meability relationships must be known. In our case,
this is avoided, since the pseudopressure is only a
function of fluid properties, and the concept of
permeability modulus accounts for the stress
sensitivity of the reservoir.
The type curves depicted in Fig. 3 can be used
to analyse drawdown test data in stress-sensitive
formations. However, these data are usually pertur-
bed by variations of flow rates. In other words, it
\ is difficult to find reliable drawdown data in low-
- 1
(52) permeability reservoirs.
Buildup test data can be analysed by the use of
appropriate type curves, like those shown in Fig. 4
and 5. The value of the dimensionless production ti-
me needs to ~e known to perform the match. Vairogs
and Rhoades 2 found that buildup test yielded a good
estimate of the termeability-thickness product.
Later on, Ostensen emphasized that the final slope
from any buildup test yields the reservoir proper-
ties at the initial or average reservoir pressure.
As we have mentioned earlier in this paper, a
stress-sensitive reservoir and the reservoir with
constant rock properties show the same buildup pre-
ssure response at long shut-in times. Therefore, the
permeability at the initial pressure can be obtained
from the final slope of the semilog straight line on
Horner plot. Once we have computed K.h, dimension-
less pressure for the buildup data can~be calculated
and plotted on the semilog graph depicted in Fig.
6. If only stress-sensitivity affects the test data,
the calculated values of dimensionless pressures
must follow one of the Y curves in FIg. 6. Then,
D
from the match, the permeability modulus can be
determined.

208
SPE 15115 a.A. Pedrosa Jr. 7
,,----------------------------r----------------------------,
A field example is presented to illustrate the Subscripts
use of the permeability modulus type curves. Buildup
test data from a low-permeability gas reservoir in D dimensionless
Jurua field, Amazonas Basin, are plotted on the g gas
semilog graph shown in Fig. 7. The test was run ear- i initial
ly in the life of the reservoir, allowing infinite 1 liquid
acting behavior to be considered. Horner analysis m matrix
yields K.h = 23 md-ft from the slope of the straight sc standard condition
line fof the later data points and p. = 4060 psi w wellbore
from the intercept. Using these results~ dimension-
less pressures for the buildup data points are cal-
culated and plotted in Fig. 8. It can be seen that
the plotted data do not match anyone of the !D cur- REFERENCES
ves. This indicates that stress-sensitivity ~s not
the only cause of excessive pressure drop in this 1. Vairogs, J., Hearn, C.L., Dareing, D.W., and
reservoir. Turbulent flow needs also to be investi- Rhoades, V.W., "Effect of Rock Stress on Gas
gated. It can be expected that both mechanisms of Production from Low-Permeability Reservoirs".
turbulence and stress-sensitivity may be present. J. Pet~T~ch., (23), p. 1161 (Sept. 1971).

2. Vairogs, J. and Rhoades, V.W., "Pressure Transi-

CONCLUSIONS
The approach described in this paper to analyse
well test data in stress-sensitive formations was
developed for an infinite system with constant rate
inner boundary. However, it can be easily generali-
zed for any kind of boundary conditions.
The use of a perturbation technique transforms
the nonlinear boundary value problem in a sequence
of linear problems, since its solution is expanded
as a power series in the parameter YD' It is impor-
tant to note that the zero-order approximation to
the nonlinear problem always corresponds to the so-
lution of the non-stress sensitive case. For small
permeability moduli, this is the only term in the
series that needs to be taken into account. Therefo-
re, an approximate solution for the well test pro-
blem in pore pressure sensitive reservoirs can be
readily obtained by plugging the constant permeabi-
lity solution in Eqn. 20.
The permeability modulus is a very useful para-
meter to account for pore pressure dependence of
permeability in fractured rocks and tight sandsto-
nes. Type curves in terms of permeability modulus
can be used to analyse drawdown and buildup data in
stress-sensitive formations.
ent Test in Formations Having Stress-Sensitive
Permeability", J. Pet. Tech., (25), p. 965,
(Aug. 1973).
3. Raghavan, R., Scorer, J.D.T., and Miller, F.G.,
"An Investigation by Numerical Methods of the
Effect of Pressure-Dependent Rock and Fluid Pro-
perties on Well Flow Tests", Soc. Pet. Eng. J.,
(12), p. 267, (June 1972). ---------------
4. Samaniego, V., Brigham, W.E., and Miller, R.G.,
"An Investigation of Transient Flow of Reservoir
Fluids Considering Pressure-Dependent Rock and
Fluid Properties", Soc. Pet. Eng. J., (17), p.
140, (April, 1 9 7 7 ) . - - - - - · - - -
5. Samaniego, V. and Cinco L., H., "Production Rate
Decline in Pressure-Sensitive Reservoirs", J.
9an . .R.~t~1'.ec~ (19), p. 75, (July-Sept. 1980T~
6. Ostensen, R.W., "The Effect of Stress-Dependent
Permeability on Gas Production and Well
Testing", paper SPE 11220, presented at SPE-AIME
57 th Annu~Fall Techll~c;l Conference and Exhi-
bition, New Orleans, LA, Sept. 26-29, 1982.
7. Yilmaz, O. and Nur, A., "Pore Pressure Fronts in
Fractured Rock Systems.", Department of Geophy-
sics, Stanford University, California.

8. Kidder, R.E., "Unsteady Flow of Gas Through a

Semi-Infinite Porous Medium." -!.:.. App 1. _~~_C:~':'1
NOMENCLATURE p. 329, (Sept. 1957).

c compressibility 9. "Theory and Practice of the Testing of Gas

h formation thickness Wells." Third edition, Energy Resources Conser-
K hydraulic permeability vation Board, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
P pore pressure
q flow rate
r radius
t time APPENDIX A
tp production time
T temperature
v Darcy velocity Solution of the zero-order linear problem
Z real gas deviation factor
Y permeability modulus The zero-order approximate solution no must sa-
6.t shut-in time tisfy the following equation
p fluid density
].l viscosity +
o porosity (A.1)
\jf pseudopressure
a rock stress
209
8 PRESSURE TRANSIENT RESPONSE IN STRESS-SENSITIVE FORMATIONS SPE 15115

subject to the boundary and initial conditions

lim n 0
1 (B.3)
r+ OO
- 1
(CD an ) D
lim
rnO ar: (A.2)

(rD,O) 0 (B.4)
11
1

lim 11 0
0
r+ OO (A.3) This linear boundary value problem can be solved
D
since n is known. Making use of the transformation
expresse~ by Eqn. A.S and using Eqn. A.6, the par-
11 (rD,O) 0 (A.4) tial differential equation B.' is reduced to an or-
0
dinary differential equation as follows

~)
It is clear, from the equations above, that n is d n dn -z
the solution of the diffusivity equation with °the
___
1
2
+
(1 + 1 1 e E
1
(z)
(B.S)
line source inner boundary condition. This problem dz dz 4 z
can be easily solved by introducing a new independent
variable
The solution of this equation, subject to the fo-
llowing boundary conditions,
z (A.5)
lim 0
z+O (z : : 1 ) (B.6)

Then the solution becomes

n = J.. E
1
(z)
(A.6)
o 2
lim n1 o (B.7)
z+oo
where E, is the exponential integral given as

00 can be obtained by applying the method of variation

-x (A.7 ) of parameters. Then we have
J e dx
z x

n E (2z) - 1
1
1 (B.8)
2 4

APPENDIX B

Solution of the first-order linear problem

The first-order term in the power series in the

parameter Y must satisfy the following equation
D

dll
+ 1 1
(B.1)

subject to the boundary and initial conditions

o (B.2)

210
 2
Tn
t z =-- n (z) n (z)
n 4t
0 l
n
2
10 2.5 x 10- 1.5683 -0.3149
2
25 1.0 x 10- 2.0190 -0.3316
3
50 5.0 x 10- 2.3630 -0.3382

100 2.5 x 10- 3 2.7084 -0.3419

250 1.0 x 10- 3 3.1658 -0.3445

500 5.0 x 10- 4 3.5121 -0.3454

4
1000 2.5 x 10- 3.8585 -0.3460
4
2500 1.0 x 10- 4.3166 -0.3463
5
5000 5.0 x 10- 4.6632 -0.3464
5
10000 2.5 x 10- 5.0097 -0.3465

TABLE 1 - Numerical values of zero-order and

first-order terms - drawdown case

t t
PD = 10000 Pn = 100000

tlt
n no n1 no n1

10 3.4420 -0.0316 4.5928 -0.0316

25 2.9920 -0.0149 4.1422 -0.0150

50 2.6492 -0.0083 3.7982 -0.0084

100 2.3063 -0.0046 3.4531 -0.0046

250 1.8563 -0.0020 2.9965 -0.0021

500 1.5220 -0.0011 2.6514 -0.0011

1000 1.1988 -0.0005 2.3074 -0.0006

2500 0.8047 -0.0002 1.8567 -0.0003

5000 0.5493 -0.0001 1.5222 -0.0001

10000 0.3466 -0.0000 1.1989 -0.0001

TABLE 2 - Numerical values of zero-order and

first-order terms for two different
production times - buildup case.
 8.0

\
0,8 -- ~D • 0.10
6.4
--- 't D • O.

0,6
~ _ .......
"'"
..... 4.8
"'" L. i l ,6, C>
Q.
0,4
Ki

. , . 295110· l pli-' 3.2

1\\""~ / ~
'D • 10 3

0,2 ~ ¥Z • 108 110. 1 ,Ii·'

o SAND A
A SAND B
1.6
-------- ...
1000 2000 3000 4000
4p ( psi)

Fig. l-Permeablllty reduction ratio. 4 8 12 16 20 24 28 32 36 40

rD
Fig. 2-Dimensionless pressure profile during drawdown.

100'OO..,..r - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ,

10.00

~ --=~liD" 0.20
gD"0.15
C>
Q. 1.00 i ~
t:;;
I5 D "0.05 /
gD • 0.00
I /
0.10

0.01 f i i i iii i 'I I i i i i i i II I i i Iii ill i i i i II i II I i I I Iii Ij

0.1 10 100 1000 10000
2
'D / rD
Fig. 3-Drawdown pressure behavior in stress~sensitive reservoirs.
 10.00 .,.4--------------~
10.000, ~ ~

1.000
'6D '0.36 ,
'gD·0.2a / ; / lOO
~D' 0.20///
la.0.121
~ 0.100 ~D' 0.00 <:>
"-

0.10

0.010 t PD • 10 5
t PD • 10 4

0.001 ~ I " "'" I I " " '" I ' " ' ' "I I '"'''' I I I "".I 0.01 I I i r I i i iii ; i I Iii i i i i i i iii i i i r , iii II
100 1000 10000 100000 1000000 100 1000 1‫סס‬oo 10‫סס‬oo 1000ooo

II tD 1110

Fig. 4-Buildup pressure behavior in stress-sensitive reservoirs for dimensionless production time of 10,000. Fig. 5-Bulldup pressure behavior in stress-sensitive reservoirs for dimensionless production time of 100,000.

15.0

12.0

.
"-
9.0

1.0

3.0

0.0
1 10 100 1000
(Ip+lll) I LIt

Fig. 6-Bulldup pressure behavior on a Horner plot for stress-sensitive formations.

 4500 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ---- ----------------,

q: 1650 Msc;jD
t p : 25 hr
4200
SG : 0,58

m : 190 psi / log cycle

'i. 3900

on
•
0 ..

3600

3300 o
o

3000 .J---~ ........-,......,.....................--___r-~ . . . . . . . . T""T""T"'T..._--.______r____r___,.__.".._M

1 10 100 1000
(tp+llt)/llt

Fig. 7-Homer graph for the buildup test in a gas well.

- - - - ------ --._-_._---
10 liD : 0.35

•
7

a
0.. 5 o build -up dolo

o~I!:::=-..--......-..,...., ........,...,...,--........-....__......,_r_"T""T"T'T""--r___r_.___r"T""TIT~
1 10 100 1000
(lp+lll)/llI

Fig. 8-Buildup pressure behavior for a gas well in a stress-sensitive reservoir.