Well Test Analysis

What is a Well Test?

•A well test is a record of observed pressure changes with time when a
disturbance is created in a well.

•The disturbance is a rate change which may be positive (production),

negative (injection) or zero (shut in).

•The rate change causes pressure change in the wellbore.

 A tool for reservoir evaluation and characterization

– Investigates a much larger volume of the reservoir than cores or logs
– Provides estimates of
– permeability under in-situ conditions
– near-wellbore conditions
– distances to boundaries
– average pressure
What is a Well Test Design?
 Selection of a set of well test procedure to achieve some specific
objectives.

• Well test duration may be short, or long.

• Short duration is meant for wellbore investigation.

• Long duration is meant for outside wellbore vicinity investigation.

 Well Test Interpretation
 Also referred to as well test analysis.
• To find (ascribe) meanings to well test data.

• Knowledge of mathematical equations, describing relationship

between reservoir, wellbore, fluid properties and flow time is
utilized.

• These mathematical equations are called diffusivity equations.

• For radial flow in wells, the real time diffusivity equation is:

1   p  1 p
r 
r r  r   t
Well Test Data Representations for Interpretation
 Flow pressure (pwf) versus flow time (a quick-look plot) to determine flow periods, reservoir
boundary types).

Log-log plot of pD’ versus tD called pressure derivatives plots (to obtain further confirmation
of trends on flow pressures versus time plots).

pD versus lntD ( to also obtain also pressure derivatives).

pD versus tD on log-log axes (are type curves for all kinds of tests data).

Pwf versus log t (drawdown plot) (for near wellbore characterization).

Pws versus log(tp+ Δt)/ Δt (for near wellbore and reservoir boundary characterization).
 Objectives of Well Test Analysis

•To estimate near wellbore permeability, skin, flow capacity, fluid mobility,
transmissibility, reservoir storability.

•Estimate the reservoir pressure.

•To estimate the volume of reservoir fluid in communication with the wellbore.

•To validate results of reservoir system characterization from other sources, like
reservoir simulation, mathematical modelling, etc.

•Determine reservoir heterogeneity (anisotropy, layering, degree of crossflow).

•To determine well flow efficiency, damage index and wellbore storage.

•To determine reservoir geometry.

•Degree of communication between points in a reservoir.

 Solutions to Radial Diffusivity Equation

Unsteady steady flow ∂p/∂t = f(x,t)

For vertical well flow at early time
 2 
1  rD 
p   Ei  s
D 2  4t D 
 
  2 
70.6qB   946ct rw  
p(r , t )  p  Ei    2s 
i kh   kt 
   

 e u
 Ei( x)   du
x u

r2
x D
4t
D
r 0.000264kt
r  t 
D r D c rw2
w t
Pseudosteady state flow ∂p/∂t = constant

 
141.2qB  2t Dw 3
p p   ln r 
i kh  2 eD 4 
r
 eD 

r
r  e
eD r
w

0.000264kt
t 
Dw
c r 2
t w

Steady state flow ∂p/∂t = o

p  ln r
D eD
 Radius of Drainage

The radius of drainage describes the distance that pressure transient travels into
the reservoir before hitting a boundary

kt
r d
 0.032
 ct
Near Wellbore Problems affecting Well Test Interpretation
(1).Skin, s
•A measure of alteration of near wellbore permeability.
•Skin is
– Either positive (damage, incomplete drilling or incomplete completion), Or
– Negative (fracturing, aciding, reperforating), or
– Zero (highly susceptible to damage and undesirable situation).

ks
k pi
rs

pwf
rw
ps
Wellbore Profile showing invasion (skin)

 k  r
s   1 ln s
k  r rw re
 s  w
Actual Pressure Profile of a well with skin

Pressure Drop across Skin ps

141.2qB
p  s
s kh
 Measures of Wellbore Damage/Repair

(i) Flow Efficiency, E: fraction of well’s undamaged producing capacity

J actual p  pwf  ps
E 
J ideal p  pwf
(ii) Damage Ratio: Reciprocal of flow efficiency
1 J ideal p  pwf
Damage ratio   
E J actual p  pwf  ps

(iii) Damage Factor

p  pwf ps
Damage factor  1  
p  pwf  ps p  pwf  ps

(iv) Effective Wellbore Radius

r  r e s
wa w
2. Wellbore Storage, C

•Occurs when liquids rise or fall in the wellbore.

•Some of the liquid is stored in the wellbore.

•Hence there is a difference between sand-face production and surface

production.

•Fluid compressibility, completion quality and age of the wellbore can

strongly contribute to wellbore storage.

v
C  c v wb
p
c  fluid compressib ility,1/ps i
v wb  welbore volume in bbl
C  storage factor, bbl/psi

qB
p (t )  t
24c
 Superposition
•Addition of all the pressure drops caused by rate changes in one well.

•Different wells in communication, or an image well across a boundary.

•
•All rate regimes act in a well from inception forever

70.6qB 946 μct rw2

p   [Ei(  )  2 s]
kh kt
222
 Reservoir Flow regimes

(1) steady-state flow;

(2) unsteady-state flow;
(3) pseudosteady-state flow.

Unsteady-state flow
Steady-state flow
(Also called transient flow) is defined as the fluid flowing
Pressure at every location in the reservoir remains
condition at which the rate of change of pressure with respect
constant, i.e., does not change with time.
to time at any position in the reservoir is not zero or constant.
It is essentially a function of both position / and time t, thus:

Pseudosteady-state flow
(commonly referred to as semisteady-state flow)
When the pressure at different locations in the reservoir is
declining linearly as a function of time. the rate of change of
pressure with respect to time at every position is constant, or
 Transient Well Testing
The pressure transient tests most commonly used in the
petroleum industry include:
• pressure drawdown;
• pressure buildup;
• multirate;
• interference; when the flow rate is changed and the pressure response is
• pulse; recorded in the same well, the test is called a "single-well" test.
• drill stem (DST);  Drawdown, buildup, injectivity, falloff, and step-rate
• falloff; tests are examples of a single-well test.
• injectivity;
• step rate. When the flow rate is changed in one well and the pressure
response is measured in another well(s), the test is called a
"multiple-well" test.
Some of the information that can be obtained from a well test includes:

Drawdown tests
Pressure profile
Reservoir behavior
Permeability
Skin
Fracture length
Reservoir limit and shape
Buildup tests
Reservoir behavior
 In pressure buildup and drawdown analyses, the following assumptions, as
Permeability regards the reservoir, fluid, and flow behavior, are usually made:
Fracture length • Reservoir: homogeneous; isotropic; horizontal of uniform
Skin thickness.
Reservoir pressure • Fluid: single phase; slightly compressible; constant /x0
Boundaries and B0.
• Flow: laminar flow; no gravity effects.
 Drawdown test
A pressure drawdown test is simply a series of bottom-hole pressure measurements
made during a period of flow at constant producing rate.

Usually the well is shut in prior to the flow test for a period of time sufficient to allow
the pressure to equalize throughout the formation, i.e., to reach static pressure.

 Fundamental objectives:
 to obtain the average permeability, k, of the reservoir
rock within the drainage area of the well, and
 to assess the degree of damage of stimulation induced in
the vicinity of the wellbore through drilling and
completion practices.
 Drawdown test
 When a well is flowing at
a constant rate of Q0
under the unsteady-state condition,
the pressure behavior of the well will act as if it’s an infinite-size reservoir.
 The pressure behavior during this period is described by the Equation:
…………(1)
The Eqn can be written as:  where:
k = permeability, md
t = time, hours
rw = wellbore radius, ft
…………(2) s = skin factor

This Eqn is like a straight line Eqn and can be expressed as:

where:

and the slope m is given by:

 then the average permeability is given by:

 where:
/m/= absolute value of slope, psi/cycle
 Drawdown test
Plot of pwf versus t
A plot of pwf versus time t on semilog graph paper would yield a straight line with a slope
m in psi/cycle.

or:
Semilog data plot for the drawdown test
Drawdown test
Skin Determination
 The skin effect can be obtained by rearranging Equation 2
as:

or, if selecting pwf = pi hr

 Additional pressure drop due to the skin is expressed as:

Exercise 1

•A pressure drawdown test was conducted on an oil well. The well was flowed at a
constant rate of 225stb/day. The initial reservoir pressure was 3766psia. Given the
result of the test below and the following information:
a) Estimate the wellbore permeability
b) Estimate the wellbore skin
c) From your graph, what is the wellbore pressure at 1hour?
d) Estimate the wellbore flow efficiency, and effective wellbore radius.
Time, hours Pwf, psi
Time, hours Pwf, psi
0.25 3757 31.2 3651
1.2 3739 44.0 3648
1.56 3729 55.0 3644
2.2 3720 72.0 3641
3.6 3712 78.0 3637
5.4 3698 82.0 3633
7.2 3691
96.0 3629
10.8 3683
120.0 3625
18.0. 3665
128.0 3618
148.0 3606
Pressure buildup test
Pressure buildup analysis describes the buildup in wellbore pressure with time after a well
has been shut in.

 Fundamental objectives:
One of the principal objectives of this analysis:
 to determine the static reservoir pressure

 Pressure buildup testing requires shutting in a producing well and

recording the resulting increase in the wellbore pressure as a function of
shut-in time.

 The resulting pressure buildup curve is then analyzed to determine

reservoir properties and the wellbore condition.

 The general formulas used in analyzing pressure buildup data come

from a solution of the diffusivity equation.
Pressure buildup test
 Widely used methods are:
 the Horner plot;

Honer plot
 A pressure buildup test is described mathematically by using the principle of
superposition.  where
 The pressure buildup equation can be given Δt = shut-in time, hours
as: Δp = pressure difference (pws − pwf), psi
q = flow rate, bbl/day
…………(3) Q = flow rate, STB/day
B = formation volume factor, bbl/STB

 The pressure buildup equation, i.e., Equation (3) was introduced by Horner (1951)
and is commonly referred to as the Horner equation.

 Equation (3) is basically an equation of a straight line that can be expressed

as:
Pressure buildup test

Homer plot
Plot of pws vs. (tp + Δt)/Δt
This expression suggests that a plot of pws vs. (tp + Δt)/Δt on a semilog scale would produce a
straight-line relationship with intercept pi and slope m,

where:

Where:
m = slope of straight line, psi/cycle
k = permeability, md
tp = total production time, hours
Pressure buildup test
 Horner plot

 This plot, commonly referred to as the Horner plot.

 The scale of time ratio (tp + Δt)/Δt increases from right to left.

 Graphically, the initial reservoir pressure, pi can be obtained by

extrapolating the Horner plot straight line to (tp + Δt)/ Δt = 1.

 The time corresponding to the point of shut-in, tp can be estimated

from equation:

Np = well cumulative oil produced before shut in, STB

Qo = stabilized well flow rate before shut in, STB/day
tp = total production time, hours
Pressure buildup test
Skin Effect
The general pressure buildup equation does not have skin factor, s.

That means the Horner-plot slope is not affected by the skin factor; however, the skin factor still does
affect the shape of the pressure buildup data.
 In fact, an early time deviation from the straight line can be caused by the skin factor as well
as by wellbore storage.

 The skin factor does affect flowing pressure before shut-in and its value may be estimated
from the buildup test data plus the flowing pressure immediately before the buildup test, as
given by:

and

where:
pwf at Δt = 0 = bottom-hole flowing pressure immediately before shut in, psi
Exercise 2
The Table below shows the pressure buildup data from an oil well with an estimated drainage radius of
2640 ft. Before shut-in, the well had produced at a stabilized rate of 4900 STB/day for 310 hours. Known
reservoir data are: depth = 10 476 ft, rw = 0. 354 ft, ct = 22. 6 × 10−6 psi−1, Qo = 4900 STB/D, h = 482 ft,
pwf(Δt = 0) = 2761 psig, µo = 0. 20 cp, Bo = 1. 55 bbl/STB, φ = 0. 09, tp = 310 hours, re = 2640 ft
Calculate:
a) the average permeability k; b) the skin factor; c) the additional pressure drop due to skin.
Δt(hr) tp+ Δt(hr) (tp+Δt)Δt pws(psig) Δt(hr) tp+ Δt(hr) (tp+Δt)Δt pws(psig)
0.0 – – 2761 4.08 314.08 77.0 3289
0.10 310.30 3101 3057 5.03 315.03 62.6 3293
0.21 310.21 1477 3153 5.97 315.97 52.9 3297
0.31 310.31 1001 3234 6.07 316.07 52.1 3297
0.52 310.52 597 3249 7.01 317.01 45.2 3300
0.63 310.63 493 3256 8.06 318.06 39.5 3303
0.73 310.73 426 3260 9.00 319.00 35.4 3305
0.84 310.84 370 3263 10.05 320.05 31.8 3306
0.94 310.94 331 3266 13.09 323.09 24.7 3310
1.05 311.05 296 3267 16.02 326.02 20.4 3313
1.15 311.15 271 3268 20.00 330.00 16.5 3317
1.36 311.36 229 3271 26.07 336.07 12.9 3320
1.68 311.68 186 3274 31.03 341.03 11.0 3322
1.99 311.99 157 3276 34.98 344.98 9.9 3323
2.51 312.51 125 3280 37.54 347.54 9.3 3323
3.04 313.04 103 3283
3.46 313.46 90.6 3286