University of Mosul

College of Petroleum and Mining Engineering

Department of Reservoir Engineering

Pressure transient testing

SUBMITTED BY
Abdul Rahman Ahmed Jassim
Jassim Mohammed Nour
Abdullah Selwan Seddik

SUPERVISED BY
Dr. Ayman Mahmoud Ahmed

Date
3/12/2022

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Introduction:
The well tests in which pressure is recorded as a function of time. Well testing flow
regimes are main difference in Pressure transient test and deliverability test.
Change in pressure with respect to time is regarded as pressure transient. During a
well test, a temporary change in production rate helps us to note a pressure
transient. This pressure transient is noted only for a short period of time as
compared to total life of reservoir. This pressure response provides us different
information which may be about reservoir, associated to geological and
geophysical characteristics. These results are also used to build a reservoir model
for prediction of the field behavior and fluid recovery to for different operating
scenarios. The quality of the communication between the well and the reservoir
can also be indicated, which can help us to improve the well productivity. He
interpreted pressure transient test is a primary source of dynamic reservoir data.
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. Most
pressure transient tests can be classified as either single-well productivity tests or
descriptive reservoir tests.

Applications of pressure transient tests:

Pressure transient testing plays a key role in evaluating exploration and
development prospects. Properly designed well tests can provide reservoir
engineers with reservoir pressure, reserves (minimum economic or total), and flow
capacity, all of which are essential in the reservoir evaluation process. Some of the
results.
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

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 • Measure reservoir pressure and temperature
• Obtain representative fluid samples suitable for PVT analysis
• Evaluate completion efficiency
• Evaluate workover or stimulation treatments.
Descriptive reservoir tests are conducted to:
• Assess reservoir extent and geometry
• Determine hydraulic communication between wells
• Characterize reservoir heterogeneities
• Evaluate reservoir parameters.

The types of Pressure Transient test are:

• Build up Test.
• Drawdown Test.
• Injection/Fall off Test.
• Interference Test.
• DST.
• Build up Test

1- Build up Test:
This type of test is conducted on a well that has been producing for some time
at a constant rate. The well is usually shut in at surface. The Shut-in bottom-
hole (Pws) pressure is recorded for several hours & days. The increase of
bottom-hole pressure after shut-in is used for analysis. Before the build-up
test, the well must have been flowing long enough to reach stabilized rate.
During shut-in periods, the flow rate is accurately controlled.
2- Drawdown Test:
In this type of test, flowing bottom-hole pressure (Pwf) is stabilized to a static
reservoir pressure. Now, Pwf is measured with respect to flow rate for several
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hours or day depending on the anticipated reservoir properties & objective of
test. Ideally, the well should be producing at constant rate but in practice,
drawdown data is not regular and the analysis is frequently inaccurate.
3- Injection/Fall-Off Test:
Injection test is conducted on an injection well. Initially the well is shut in such
that the bottom-hole pressure stabilizes at a static reservoir pressure. Then fluid
is injected into the reservoir, the bottom-hole pressure increases, now injection
rate & bottom-hole pressure are measured as a function of time. One limitation is
that the properties of injected fluid are different from reservoir fluid, hence a
non-uniform displacement may cause erroneous interpretation of reservoir
properties.
4- Interference Test:
This is a test that involves more than one well in the same reservoir. In this type
of test bottom-hole pressure is monitored in a shut-in observation well, some
distance away from the producer. Interference tests are designed to evaluate
communication between wells. With pulse tests, the active well is produced with
a series of short flow / shut-in periods, the resulting pressure oscillations in the
observation well are analyzed. These responses can be analyzed to estimate inter-
well formation permeability and porosity and reservoir behavior.
5- Drill Stem Testing:
A drill stem test (DST) is a procedure for isolating and testing the pressure,
permeability and productive capacity of a geological formation during the drilling
of a well. It is a temporary completion that is an important measurement of
pressure behavior at the drill stem and is a valuable way of obtaining information

Pressure flow convolution and deconvolution:

The pressure-flow convolution involves simultaneous bottomhole flow rate and
pressure measurements to correct for the variations of bottomhole pressure
caused by flow rate fluctuations during drawdown tests.
he bottomhole pressure and flow rate are mathematically convolved (coupled) as
follows:

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 …. (1)

where pD, the pressure function equivalent to a constant flow rate situation, is
obtained by mathematical deconvolution of the pressure from the flow-rate
fluctuations. When software deconvolution operators are used, trial and error is
required to convolve a flow-rate schedule with a pressure function that
approximates the true constant rate-equivalent pressure function, thus
reproducing the measured pressures. The process can be made to converge rather
rapidly for a pressure measurement of a given resolution, as long as the results
allow for an acceptable margin of error.
Fig. 1 shows an example in which the transient consists of a step-rate change from
a high value with a downhole spinner flowmeter rotation rate of approximately 17
revolutions per second (rps) to a lower value with a flowmeter response of
approximately 7 rps. Clearly, the pressure and flow-rate data mirror each other,
which is precisely the effect of the convolution. A constant flow-rate function was
sought to interpret this test. The technique used here makes use of semi log
analysis, in which rate-normalized pressures are plotted vs. the "sand face
convolution time" (a time function akin to a generalized superposition function).
The result (Fig. 2) is a straight line on the semi log plot, which in turn can be
interpreted to yield the test objectives of the permeability and skin effect.

Fig. 1 – Pressure and spinner data in

a step-rate change test. Fig. 2 – Interpretation of
test data in Fig. 1.

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References
1- Joseph, J., Ehlig-Economides, C.A., and Kuchuk, F. 1988. The Role of
Downhole Flow and Pressure Measurements in Reservoir Testing.
Presented at the European Petroleum Conference, London, United
Kingdom, 16-19 October 1988. SPE-18379-MS.
http://dx.doi.org/10.2118/18379-MS

2- Kuchuk, F.J., Karakas, M., and Ayestaran, L. 1986. Well Testing and
Analysis Techniques for Layered Rese.

3- John R. Fanchi, in Shared Earth Modeling, 2002.