Basrah University for Oil & Gas

Oil & Gas Engineering Department

Well Testing

1st lecture
Mohammed Hussein Mahmood
 Syllabus
➢ Description of a well test, Types of tests, Why we do transient testing, Flow
States,
➢ Development of Flow Equations for Flow in Porous Media[Diffusivity
Equation], Initial & Boundary Conditions, Solutions of the Diffusivity Equation,
➢ Dimensional Group, Skin Development, Wellbore Storage (WBS), Radius of
Investigation (ROI), Pseudo Steady-State,
➢ Flow Regime Duration Calculations - Dimensionless Time, Shape Factors,
Principle of Superposition [Multiple producing wells, Bounded Reservoir &
Variable Producing Rate],
➢ Horner's Approximation [Pseudo producing Time].
➢ Type curve analysis [log-log Analysis, Semi-Log Analysis, Derivative Analysis].

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What Is A Well Test?
• A tool for reservoir evaluation and characterization which :
✓ Investigates a much larger volume of the reservoir than cores or logs.
✓ Provides estimate of permeability under in-situ conditions.
✓ Provides estimates of near-wellbore damage.
✓ Provides estimates of distances to boundaries.

The objectives of a well test usually fall into three major categories:
1. Reservoir evaluation.
2. Reservoir management.
3. Reservoir description.

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Basic requirements of a well test are:

➢ A means of controlling & adjusting flow from the reservoir.

➢ A means of measuring the gas & liquids produced .

➢ Pressure & temperature instruments to record reservoir characteristics.

➢ A sampler to obtain samples of the reservoir fluids.

➢ A means of safely disposing or storing produced well effluent.

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Objectives Of Well Test Operations:
➢ Gas production rate in MMSCF/D.
➢ Oil or Condensate production rate in barrels per day.
➢ B&W percentage of crude.
➢ Gravities of oil , gas & water.
➢ Salinity of water with further compositional analysis if possible.
➢ Viscosity of condensate or crude.
➢ Rough wellhead composition of produced gas, including H2S,CO2, CO&N2 content.
➢ Bottom hole pressures, build-ups and draw-downs.
➢ Bottom hole temperature.
➢ Accurate recording of surface pressures, temperatures and flow data versus time.
➢ Separator gas samples, Oil samples , under pressure.
➢ Bottom hole PVT samples.
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The Well Test Concept

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Standard Well Test Set-up

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Importance of Production Data Analysis
Reservoir Predictive Models
Information (forward solution)

Production
Analysis Models
(backward solution)
(i) Well test models
(ii) Material balance models
(iii) Decline curve analysis

Production Forecast

350

300
Gas rate Wellbore pressure
350

300
Field Data Economic Study and
250 250
(i) Well test data
Decision Making for the
Pressure(psia)
Rate(MSCFD)

200 200

150 150

100

50

0
100

50

0
(ii) Production data Field Development
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

9 Time (day)
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Basic Definitions & Concepts
➢ Test: Measurement of (i) Rate, (ii) Time, and (iii) Pressure in controlled conditions.
➢ Homogeneous formation: Formation with rock properties that do not change with location in
the reservoir. This ideal never actually occurs, but many formations are close enough to this
situation that they can be considered homogeneous. Most of the models used for pressure-
transient analysis assume the reservoir is homogeneous.
➢ Heterogeneous formation: Formation with rock properties changing with location in the
reservoir. Some naturally fractured reservoirs are heterogeneous formations.
➢ Isotropic formation: A type of formation whose rock properties are the same in all directions.
Although this never actually occurs, fluid flow in rocks approximates this situation closely
enough to consider certain formations isotropic.
➢ Anisotropic formation: A formation with directionally dependent properties. The most
common directionally dependent properties are permeability and stress. Most formations
have vertical to horizontal permeability anisotropy with vertical permeability being much
less (often an order of magnitude less) than horizontal permeability.
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Basic Definitions & Concepts
➢ Initial reservoir pressure: Reservoir pressure before any production.
➢ Average reservoir pressure: The pressure that would be obtained if all fluid motion ceases in
a given volume of reservoir. It also is the pressure to which a well will ultimately rise if shut
in for an infinite period.
➢ Flowing pressure: The pressure determined at the formation face during the flowing periods
of a well test.
➢ Static pressure: The pressure measured in a well after the well has been closed in for a
period of time, often after 24 or 72 hours. When a reservoir is first discovered, the static
pressure equals the initial pressure. After production begins, the static pressure approaches
the average reservoir pressure.
➢ Drainage area: If a well is flowed until boundary-dominated flow has been reached, a certain
area will experience a pressure drop. This area is called the Drainage Area of a well. The
boundaries of a well’s drainage area could be physical boundaries, such as faults, or no-flow
boundaries from nearby producing wells.
➢ Partial Penetration: When a well does not fully penetrate the formation, or the perforations
do not open up the whole formation, the reservoir fluid has to flow vertically and the flow
lines converge near the wellbore.
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Basic Definitions & Concepts
Net Pay: This is the thickness of the formation that contributes to the flow of fluids. It is
determined from logs or core, and can be different from the gross pay or the perforated
interval. In the case of inclined wellbores in dipping formations, the net pay is measured
perpendicular to the angle of dip. Several examples of net pay are shown below.

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Primary reservoir characteristics
• Types of fluids in the reservoir
• Incompressible fluids
• Slightly compressible fluids
• Compressible fluids
• Flow regimes
• Steady-state flow
• Unsteady-state flow
• Pseudosteady-state flow
• Reservoir geometry
• Radial flow
• Linear flow
• Spherical and hemispherical flow
• Number of flowing fluids in the reservoir.
• Single-phase flow (oil, water, or gas)
• Two-phase flow (oil–water, oil–gas, or gas–water)
• Three-phase flow (oil, water, and gas)
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Reservoir Flow Geometry

Radial flow
Linear flow

Spherical flow
Hemispherical flow

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Types of Test
Type of tests is governed by the test objective.
• Transient tests which are relatively short term
tests are used to define reservoir characteristics.
➢ Drawdown Test
➢ Buildup Test
➢ Injection Test
➢ Falloff Test
➢ Interference Test
➢ Drill Stem Test (DST)
• Stabilized tests which are relatively long
duration tests are used to define long term
production performance.
➢ Reservoir limit test
➢ AOF (single point and multi-point)
➢ IPR (Inflow Performance Relationship)
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Types of Test/ Drawdown Test
• Conditions
➢ Drawdown test –Produce a well at constant rate and measure
the pressure response.

• Objective
• To obtain average permeability of the reservoir rock within
the drainage area of the well
• To assess the degree of damage or stimulation
• To obtain pore volume of the reservoir
• To detect reservoir inhomogeneity within the drainage area
of the well.

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Types of Test/ Buildup Test
• Conditions
➢ Buildup test – Shut in a well that has been producing and
measure the pressure response.

• Objective
• To obtain average permeability of the reservoir rock within the
drainage area of the well
• To assess the degree of damage or stimulation
• To obtain initial reservoir pressure during the transient state
• To obtain the average reservoir pressure over the drainage area
of the well during pseudo-steady state

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Types of Test/ Injection Test
• Conditions
➢ Injection test – Inject fluid into a well at constant rate and measure
the pressure response.

• Objective
• Injection well testing has its application in water flooding, pressure
maintenance by water or gas injection, gas recycling and EOR
operations.
• In most cases the objective of the injection test is the same as
those of production test (k,S,Pavg).
• Determination of reservoir heterogeneity and front tracing.

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Types of Test/ Fall off Test
A pressure falloff test is usually proceeded by an injectivity test of a long duration. Injection
then is stopped while recording the pressure. Thus, the pressure falloff test is similar to the
pressure buildup test.

As with injection test, falloff test, interpretation is more difficult

if the injected fluid is different from the original reservoir fluid.

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Types of Test / Drill Stem Test (DST)
➢ It is a test commonly used to test a newly drilled well (since it can only be carried out while a rig is over the
hole). Used to determine (K, formation pressures, reservoir boundary condition, and fluid flow rates).
➢ In a DST, the well is opened to flow by a valve at the base of the test tool, and reservoir fluid flows up the
drill string.
➢ Analysis of the DST requires special techniques, since the flow rate is not constant as the fluid rises in the
drill string.

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Types of Test / Multi-well tests

➢ Interference test – Produce one well at a constant

rate and measure the pressure response at one or
more offset wells.
➢ To test reservoir continuity.
➢ To detect directional permeability and other
major reservoir heterogeneity.
➢ Determination of reservoir volume.

➢ Pulse test – Alternately produce and shut in one well

and measure the pressure response at one or more
offset wells.

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How the well is tested?

Production test:
➢ Generate and measure pressure
variations with time, by flowing well and
closing well in for a pressure buildup (BU).
➢ Pressures measured on a gauge in the
wellbore.
➢ Wellbore flowing pressure, (pwf) and
wellbore static pressure (pws)
recorded as a function of time.

➢ (Injectivity testing: well shut-in followed

by constant or variable injection rates).

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Well Test Applications
Exploration
➢ Is this zone economic?
➢ How large is this reservoir?

Reservoir engineering
➢ What is the average reservoir pressure?
➢ How do I describe this reservoir to:
– Estimate reserves?
– Forecast future performance?
– Optimize production?

Production engineering
➢ Is this well damaged?
➢ How effective was this stimulation
treatment?
➢ Why is this well not performing as well as
expected
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Purpose of well testing
➢ Define reservoir limits
▪ Distances to boundaries.
▪ Drainage area.
➢ Estimate average drainage area pressure
➢ Characterize reservoir
▪ Permeability
▪ Skin factor
▪ Dual porosity or layered behavior
➢ Diagnose productivity problems
▪ Permeability
▪ Skin factor

➢ Evaluate stimulation treatment effectiveness

▪ Skin factor
▪ Fracture conductivity
▪ Fracture half-length

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Well testing: data gathering

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Well testing: Interpretation

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Well test depth of investigation

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Terminology

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Data Used in Well Testing

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Data Used in Well Testing

Wellbore radius
•Wellbore radius is the size of the wellbore.
• Symbol
– rw
• Units
– feet
• Source
– Bit diameter/2
– Caliper log
• Range or Typical Value
– 2 to 8 in.

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Data Used in Well Testing
Formation volume factors
➢ The formation volume factor is the volume of fluid at reservoir conditions necessary to
produce a unit volume of fluid at surface conditions.
➢ Symbol – Bo, Bg, Bw
➢ Units – res bbl/STB, res bbl/ Mscf
➢ Source – Lab measurements, correlations
➢ Range and typical values
Oil:
– Black oil 1 – 2 res bbl/STB,
– Volatile oil 2 – 4 res bbl/STB
– Water: 1 – 1.1 res bbl/STB
Gas:
– 0.5 res bbl/Mscf, at 9000 psi
– 5 res bbl/Mscf, at 680 psi
– 30 res bbl/Mscf, at 115 psi Mohammed H. M. 31
Data Used in Well Testing
Viscosity
➢ Viscosity is a measure of resistance to flow -- specifically, it is the ratio of the shear stress to
the resulting rate of strain within a fluid.
➢ Symbols µo, µg, µw
➢ Units – cp
➢ Source – Lab measurements, correlations
➢ Range and typical values
- Black oil 0.25 – 10,000 cp,
- Water 0.5 – 1.0 cp,
- Gas 0.012 – 0.035 cp,

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Data Used in Well Testing
Porosity
• Porosity is the ratio of volume of pore space to bulk volume of rock.
• Symbol - ∅
• Units
– Reports -% (or fraction) Pores

• Source – Logs, cores

• Range or Typical Value

– 30%, unconsolidated well-sorted sandstone

– 20%, clean, well-sorted consolidated sandstone
– 8%, low permeability reservoir rock
– 0.5%, natural fracture porosity

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Data Used in Well Testing

Permeability is the measure of capacity of rock to transmit fluid.

•Symbol 𝑲 ∆𝒑 𝑨
–k
𝑸=
𝝁𝑳
• Units
– Darcy or millidarcy (md or mD)
• Source
– Well tests, core analysis
• Range
– 0.001 md - 10,000 md

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Data Used in Well Testing
Water

Saturations
•Saturation is the fraction of pore volume
occupied by a particular fluid.
• Symbol – So, Sw, Sg
• Units – fraction or % oil
• Source – logs Grain
• Range or Typical Value
–15 to 25% – connate water saturation in well-sorted,
coarse sandstones
– 40 to 60% – connate water saturation in
poorly sorted, fine-grained, shaly, low-permeability
reservoir rock

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Data Used in Well Testing
Fluid compressibility
➢ Compressibility is the fractional change in volume due to a unit change in pressure.
➢ Symbol – co, cg, cw
➢ Units – psi-1,
➢ Source – Lab measurements, correlations
➢ Typical Values
• Oil
–undersaturated oil 15x10-6 psi-1,
–saturated oil 180x10-6 psi-1,
• Water
– 4x10-6 psi-1
• Gas
– 1/p, Ideal gas
– 60x10-6 psi-1, at 9000 psi
– 1.5x10-3 psi-1, at 680 psi
– 9x10-3 psi-1, at 115 psi Mohammed H. M. 36
Data Used in Well Testing

Pore compressibility (rock compressibility)

1 ∆𝑉
• Pore volume compressibility is the fractional
change in porosity due to a unit change in
C= −
𝑉 ∆𝑝
pressure.
• Symbol – cf Where;
C = Coefficient of isothermal comp, 1/psi
• Units – psi-1, microsips V = volume, ft
• Source – Lab measurement, correlation, guess P= pressure, psi
• Range or Typical Value Dv= change in volume
Dp= change in pressure
– 4x10-6 psi-1, well-consolidated sandstone
– 30x10-6 psi-1, unconsolidated sandstone
– 4 to 50 x 10-6 psi-1 consolidated limestones

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Data Used in Well Testing

Total compressibility

•The total compressibility is the sum of pore compressibility and

saturation weighted fluid compressibilities.
• Symbol – ct
• Units
– psi-1
• Source
– Calculated

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Productivity or Deliverability Tests:
Conducted on initial completion or re-completion to determine the capability of the well at
various draw-downs.

➢ Helps evaluating the well capacity and determining artificial lift and facilities needs

q
PI = J =
Pi − Pwf
Specific PI = Productivity Index / Length of producing zone

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Productivity Index and Inflow Performance Test:

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