Petroleum 4 (2018) 309e317

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Petroleum
journal homepage: www.keaipublishing.com/en/journals/petlm

Study on characteristics of well-test type curves for composite

reservoir with sealing faults
Qiguo Liu a, *, Heng Lu a, Longxin Li b, Aiting Mu a
a
School of Oil &Gas Engineering, Southwest Petroleum University, Chengdu, Sichuan, PR China
b
Exploration and Development Research Institute of PetroChina Southwest Oil and Gas Field Company, PR China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The pressure response for the composite reservoirs with a sealing fault locating in inner and outer region
Received 12 December 2017 is different, which neglected by previous researchers, would cause significant errors during well-test
Received in revised form interpretations. Based on seepage theory, a well-test model of two-region radial composite reservoir
30 January 2018
with infinite outer boundary has been built in this study considering wellbore storage and skin effects.
Accepted 16 March 2018
The solutions for this model and characteristics of the type curves have been analyzed by applying the
method of mirror image, Laplace transformation and superposition principle, including a straight fault, a
Keywords:
perpendicular fault and parallel faults cases. The study shows that the dimensionless pressure derivative
Composite reservoir
Sealing faults
curves would be obviously different in two cases: the well to fault distance is larger, and smaller than the
Well-test interpretation half length of the inner-region radius. Therefore, type curves are presented with reasonable parameters
Dynamic pressure response to analyze the distance effect on the dynamic pressure response. The results in this study are of great
Superposition principle significance for guiding the oil and gas composite reservoirs' production and optimizing the hydrocarbon
recovery.
© 2018 Southwest Petroleum University. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of KeAi
Communications Co., Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://
creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

1. Introduction uninvaded zone. Based on the theory, condensate gas reservoirs are
usually regarded as composite models due to the result of
Well test interpretation for composite reservoirs is relatively condensate and retrograde condensate phenomena. In order to
complicated; especially a sealing fault exists nearby. Hence, it is understand the dynamic pressure response, numerous analytical
crucial to understand the dynamic pressure response caused by the models have been proposed to describe the pressure behavior of
fault for more accurate well-test analysis. That is to say, only when composite reservoirs.
the results of well test interpretation are more suitable for dynamic In 1961, an analytical model was established by Lucks and
productions, the formation information can be better grasped to Guerrero [1] to study the pressure distribution of a composite
make more effective development plan. reservoir with infinite outer boundary. They found that the
In a two-region radial composite reservoir, it is well known that permeability of inner and outer regions and the size of inner zone
the reservoir properties of inner region differ from those in outer can be determined by transient pressure test data under certain
region. The inner region usually represents the invaded or altered conditions.
zone caused by formation damages, while the outer zone stands for In order to study the well-test type curves of a composite
reservoir, an analytical model of two-region radial composite
reservoir was built by Olarewaju and Lee [2] (1989). Not only did
* Corresponding author. they find that the reservoir parameters, such as the permeability of
E-mail addresses: [email protected] (Q. Liu), [email protected] (H. Lu), inner and outer zones, radius of inner zone, and wellbore storage
[email protected] (L. Li), [email protected] (A. Mu).
coefficient can be determined, but also some distinct characteristics
Peer review under responsibility of Southwest Petroleum University.
of pressure derivative curves of composite reservoirs can be
detected.
According to the characteristics of the composite reservoir,
Production and Hosting by Elsevier on behalf of KeAi Issaka and Ambastha [3] (1999) studied different pressure

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.petlm.2018.03.011
2405-6561/© 2018 Southwest Petroleum University. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of KeAi Communications Co., Ltd. This is an open access article under
the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
310 Q. Liu et al. / Petroleum 4 (2018) 309e317

derivative curves through well-test data computed by various constants. The mobility and storability ratio are M12 and
analytical composite reservoir models: radial, elliptical, linear and u12respectively, and the dimensionless radius of inner region
spherical models. Moreover, they discussed the sensitivity of fac- is rfD;
tors including mobility ratio and storativity, which are important (2) The fluid in each region is single phase and slightly
for data matching at each flow stages. compressible, and the flow is isothermal, obeying Darcy's
Jordan and Mattar [4] (2002)made a comparison of the pressure law;
transient behavior between composite and two-layered reservoirs. (3) The skin and wellbore storage effect are taken into consid-
Based on the type curves, the similarities and differences of their erations, and regardless of gravity force and capillary
pressure derivative curves have been presented. They concluded pressure;
that the pressure behavior of these two systems may be similar (4) The well produces at a constant rate q and the pressure at any
during transient flow periods, but the long-term performance points in formation distributed evenly which is equal to
would be significantly different if improper models are used. initial reservoir pressure Pi before any well-tests.
Besides, Rahman et al. [5] (2003) proposed a new analytical
mathematical model to study the transient flow of a well located 3. Mathematical model
near a fault in a two-zone composite reservoir. They assumed that
the fault was finite-conductivity and the reservoir was a linear This model is both suitable for oil reservoir and gas reservoir.
composite model. The model solution was obtained by Laplace and Therefore, its dimensionless pressure is defined as:
Fourier transformations, which was verified by comparing with 8
K1 h  
corresponding models in previous researches [6e8]. >
> pi  pj
>
<
Even though a certain amount of researches on composite 1:842  103 qBm1
pjD ¼ (1)
models and fault cases have been studied in previous papers >
> K1 h  
[9e17], the researchers never discussed the model considering >
: ji  jj
0:01273qT
those two conditions together, i.e. they ignored the impacts on
pressure response caused by different sealing faults configurations Other dimensionless parameters in above equations are:
in a radial composite reservoir, especially the fault locating in inner
region. Some articles only consider a case of straight fault [18]. For 3:6K1 t M ðKh=mÞ1 0:159C
tD ¼ M12 ¼ 1 ¼ C ¼
the sake of better interpretation, an analytical well-test model of a 4Ct m1 rw
2 M2 ðKh=mÞ2 D 4Ct hrw 2
two-region radial composite reservoir is established in this paper to
study the bottom-hole pressure behavior of a producing well,
u1 ð4Ct Þ1 r r
mainly affected by three types of faults in various locations u12 ¼ ¼ r ¼ r ¼ f
u2 ð4Ct Þ2 D rw fD rw
respectively. The solutions are obtained by applying the mirror
images method and superposition principle in Laplace domain and On the basis of the assumptions and dimensionless parame-
through the Stehfest numerical inversion, the dimensionless pres- ters above, the well-test mathematical model of the two-region
sure and pressure derivative curves are presented to analyze the radial composite reservoir can be described by the following
effect of fault. Notably, the model provide in this paper could be equations.
used in both oil and gas reservoirs reasonably due to its widely Firstly, the governing equation for inner region of the composite
applicable conditions. system in radial coordinates can be expressed as follows:
   
1 v vp vp
2. Physical model rD 1D ¼ 1D 1  rD  rfD (2)
rD vrD vrD vtD

To simplify the calculations, several assumptions for an infinite While the governing equation in outer regions:
two-region composite reservoir have been made as following (see    
1 v vp M vp
Fig 1): rD 2D ¼ 12 2D rfD  rD (3)
rD vrD vrD u12 vtD
(1) A production well locates in the central of a radial composite Then initial condition on pressure can be described by:
reservoir with horizontal and uniform thickness formation.
The reservoir parameters in each region are different but p1D ðrD ; 0Þ ¼ p2D ðrD ; 0Þ ¼ 0 (4)
The inner boundary conditions considering both wellbore stor-
age and skin effects are:

dpwD vp 
CD  rD 1D  ¼1 (5)
dtD vrD rD ¼1

 
vp1D 
pwD ¼ p1D  S (6)
vrD rD ¼1

The infinite outer boudary condition is:

p2D ð∞; tD Þ ¼ 0 (7)

Fig. 1. Schematic of a two-region radial composite reservoir with infinite outer In addition, continuous interface conditions between the two
boundary. regions are:
 Q. Liu et al. / Petroleum 4 (2018) 309e317 311

    h pffiffiffi  pffiffiffi  pffiffiffi i

p1D rfD ; tD ¼ p2D rfD ; tD (8) D ¼ K0 ðbÞ CD uj0;1 1; rfD ; u þ ð1 þ CD SuÞj1;1 1; rfD ; u
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffi h pffiffiffi  pffiffiffi
  þ x21 =M12 CD uj0;0 1; rfD ; u
vp1D  1 vp2D  
¼ (9) pffiffiffi
vrD rD ¼rf D M12 vrD rD ¼rfD þ ð1 þ CD SuÞj1;0 1; rfD ; u

Through the Laplace transform, the dimensionless model of the

composite system in radial reservoir in the Laplace space is:
jx;y ða; b; zÞ ¼ Kx ðazÞIy ðbzÞ þ ð  1Þxþy1 Ix ðazÞKy ðbzÞ
8 d2 p1D 1 dp1D
> þ ¼ sp1D  pffiffiffi pffiffiffi pffiffiffi 
>
> 2 r B ¼ CD ,u2 KI,K0 u þ I0 u þ u u þ S,CD ,u2
>
> dr D D drD
>
>  pffiffiffi pffiffiffi
>
> d2 p
>
> 1 dp2D M12  KI,K1 u  I1 u
>
>
2D
þ ¼ ,sp
>
> 2 rD drD u12 2D
>
> dr D
>
>     x2 ½ðfmCt Þ=Kh2
>
> M12
>
> p1D rfD ; s ¼ p2D rfD ; s x21 ¼ ¼ ¼
>
>
> u12 x1 ½ðfmCt Þ=Kh1
<  
dp1D  1 dp2D  (10) pffiffiffiffiffi
> ¼
> drD rD ¼rfD M12 drD rD ¼rfD
x21
>
> I1 ðaÞK0 ðbÞ þ M12 I0 ðaÞK1 ðbÞ
>
> KI ¼ pffiffiffiffiffi
>
>  x21
>
> dp1D  1 K1 ðaÞK0 ðbÞ  M12 K0 ðaÞK1 ðbÞ
>
> C sp  r ¼
>
> D wD D
dr  s
>
> D r ¼1
>
> 
D
 pffiffiffi
>
>  a ¼ rfD u
>
> dp
>
> pwD ¼ p1D  S 1D 
>
> drD rD ¼1 pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
:
b ¼ rfD c21 u
p2D ð∞; sÞ ¼ 0
The general solution of equation (10) is:
 pffiffiffi  pffiffiffi 4. Results and discussion
p1D ðrD ; uÞ ¼ mK0 rD u þ nI0 rD u (11)

 pffiffiffi 4.1. Solution of a composite reservoir model with a straight fault

p2D ðrD ; uÞ ¼ cK0 rD u (12)
The well-test data for a composite reservoir with faults would be
Therefore, the dimensionless bottom-hole pressure of a pro- much more complicated than those without faults, similar to ho-
duction well in an infinite composite reservoir can be obtained mogeneous and dual-porosity reservoirs, which mainly affect the
through taking equation (11) and (12) into equation (10): mid-to-late flow periods. Because of the impermeable of sealing
faults, they would act as barriers for wave propagation, leading to
pwD;I ¼ pwD
 pffiffiffi pffiffiffi pffiffiffi  pffiffiffi pffiffiffi the pressure loss. Moreover, the time when it shows on the type
KI,K0 u þ I0 u þ uS KIK1 u  I1 u curve predominately depends on the distance between the pro-
¼
B duction well and the fault. Therefore, the images method and su-
(13) perposition principle can be applied to solve the composite model
with faults.
While the dimensionless pressure in inner region is: When dealing with a composite analytical model with a straight
 pffiffiffi  pffiffiffi fault, two different cases should be discussed separately Fig. 1.
KI,K0 rD u þ I0 rD u
p1D ðrD ; uÞ ¼ (14) As shown in Fig. 2-(b), the distance between the production well
B and straight fault is less than half length of inner region radius (rD ¼
The dimensionless pressure in outer region is: 2rDd < rfD ). According to image method, the image well locates in
 pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi the inner region.
½KI,½K0 ðaÞ þ K1 ðaÞ þ ½I0 ðaÞ  I1 ðaÞK0 rD c21 u In this case, the dimensionless pressure response caused by the
p2D ðrD ; uÞ ¼ pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
B, K0 ðbÞ þ c21 M12 K1 ðbÞ image well is:
(15)  pffiffiffi  pffiffiffi
KI,K0 rD u þ I0 rD u
p1D ðrD ; uÞ ¼ (16)
where, B

pffiffiffiffiffiffiffi However, when the distance between the production well and
K1 ðaÞK0 ðbÞ  x21 M12 K0 ðaÞK1 ðbÞ the straight fault is larger than half length of inner region radius
m¼ 3
(rD ¼ 2rDd  rfD ), the image well locates in outer region, which can
=
Du 2

be seen in Fig. 2-(a). In this case, the pressure response caused by

pffiffiffiffiffiffiffi the image one is:
I1 ðaÞK0 ðbÞ þ x21 M12 I0 ðaÞK1 ðbÞ
n¼ 3
=  pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
Du 2
½KI,½K0 ðaÞ þ K1 ðaÞ þ ½I0 ðaÞ  I1 ðaÞK0 rD c21 u
p2D ðrD ; uÞ ¼ pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
 pffiffiffi B, K0 ðbÞ þ c21 M12 K1 ðbÞ
j0;1 rfD ; rfD ; u (17)
c¼ 3=
Du 2
As Eq. (16) and Eq. (17) denote the pressure response caused by
the fault boundary, whose value is dominated by the distance from
312 Q. Liu et al. / Petroleum 4 (2018) 309e317

Fig. 2. Schematics of two different cases of a composite reservoir with a straight fault.

well to fault, we integrate them with following equations: Notably, before calculating the pressure response for the pro-
8   duction well in this situation, we should compare the values, i.e. the
< p1D ðrD ; uÞ rD < rfd distance from each image well to the production one and the inner-
pbD ðrD ; uÞ ¼   (18) zone radius, and figure out where the image wells locate in, inner or
:p
2D ðrD ; uÞ rD  rfd outer region, and the applying appropriate equations to obtain the
solution.
Therefore, the dimensionless bottom-hole pressure of a pro-
duction well is:
4.3. Solution of a composite reservoir model with two parallel faults
pwD ¼ pwD;I þ pbD ðrD ; uÞ (19)
The Fig. 4 clearly illustrates the situation when a production well
where pwD,I denotes the dimensionless bottom-hole pressure of a lies within two parallel faults. The rDdl and rDdr present the dis-
production well in an infinite composite reservoir which can be tances that production well to the left and right fault, respectively.
calculated by Eq. (13). By applying image method, infinite image wells would locate in
That is to say, Eq. (19) is the solution of the bottom-hole pressure both left and right side of the parallel faults, thus, the dimension-
for a production well in Laplace domain with a straight fault. Ac- less bottom-hole pressure of the production well can be obtained
cording to the relationship between the well-to-fault distance and by superposition principle.
the half length of inner-zone radius, the corresponding equations      
can be chosen reasonably to acquire result for different situations. X
∞
jþ1 j
pwD ¼ pwD;I þ pbD 2rDd1 ,int þ 2rDdr ,int ;u
j¼1
2 2
4.2. Solution of a composite reservoir model with a perpendicular 3
     
fault j jþ1
þ pbD 2rDd1 ,int þ 2rDdr ,int ;u 5
2 2
In reality, Perpendicular fault is another common fault config-
uration. As shown in Fig. 3, the distances between the production (21)
wells to a perpendicular fault are defined as rDd1 and rDd2, respec-
The calculation process is similar to the above two cases, not
tively. Hence, according to images method and superposition
repeating here.
principle, the dimensionless pressure in bottom hole of the pro-
Based on the previous derivation, the dimensionless bottom-
duction well is:
hole pressure and pressure derivative curves of different situa-
tions can be obtained by Stehfest numerical inversion [19]. To
pwD ¼ pwD;I þ pbD ð2rDd1 ; uÞ þ pbD ð2rDd2 ; uÞ
 qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi  clearly reflect the characteristics of each flow regime, the wellbore
þ pbD 2 r 2Dd1 þ r 2Dd2 ; u (20) storage constant CD is assumed to be 4, while the skin factor S and
the storativity ratiou12are considered as 0 and 1. In addition, the

Fig. 3. Schematics of a production well near a perpendicular fault. Fig. 4. Schematics of a production well near a parallel fault.
 Q. Liu et al. / Petroleum 4 (2018) 309e317 313

rest input data are listed in Table 1. Although the “steps” phenomenon would also appear after radial
The dimensionless pressure and pressure derivative curves flow period in inner region as the case displayed in Fig. 5, the value
affected by various well-to-fault distances, when the image well of the dimensionless pressure derivative curves increase to 2
locates in inner region, are shown in Fig. 5. affected by the perpendicular fault, which is different from the
According to flow characteristics, the type curves can be divided straight fault case shown as 1. For the situation when
into 4 stages to represent different flow regimes. rDd1 ¼ 25,rDd2 ¼ 150, the short horizontal line occurred around tD/
CD ¼ 103 whose value is 1, reflecting the effect of the nearby fault.
(1) Wellbore storage period. In this stage, the dimensionless Moreover, the “steps” phenomenon, resulting from time difference
pressure and derivative curves are presented by two coinci- between pressure wave reach each fault, would be less obvious as
dent unite slope lines. the distance of well to nearby fault increasing, such as
(2) Radial flow in inner region. In log-log coordinate system, caserDd1 ¼ 50, rDd2 ¼ 150. Notably, the values of the dimensionless
the dimensionless pressure derivative curves in this stage are derivative curves in outer region add to 2M12as a result of the
reflected by straight lines whose values are 0.5, manifesting pressure drop caused by the impermeable perpendicular fault in
the typical characteristic of radial flow period. In this period, inner region.
the pressure wave hasn't reached the straight fault yet. The difference between the Figs. 6 and 8 is that the straight fault
(3) Straight fault effect in inner region. The values of the is replaced by a perpendicular fault in outer region of the composite
dimensionless derivative curves increase from 0.5 to 1 when system. Therefore, the corresponding curves in later flow stages
fault appears, comparing with the case without fault in Fig. 5, also changed accordingly. The values of the derivative curves
and then the “steps” are shown. The rapid pressure changes reflecting the nearby fault and perpendicular fault effect areM12
caused by the impermeable barriers are responsible for the and2M12in Fig. 8, while the values representing radial flow in outer
“steps” phenomenon, which are the evidences that the region and the straight fault effect are0.5M12and M12,respectively.
pressure wave reaches the straight fault. With the well-to- The larger well-to-fault distance leads to the longer radial flow
fault distance decreasing, the radial flow period in inner re- period and later fault effect in outer region. Only if the distance
gion becomes shorter, and the straight fault effect comes difference of well-to-fault in each direction is huge enough, the
earlier, i.e. the straight fault effect lasts longer. Therefore, we effect of each fault can be reflected evidently in sequence
can deduce that the radial flow period in inner region would (rDd1 ¼100, rDd2 ¼ 800; rDd1 ¼ 800, rDd2 ¼ 3200). Therefore, we
be covered by fault effect when the well-to-fault distance is should pay more attention when analyzing the real production data
small enough. However, the fault effect would be weaker and curves.
when the fault gets closer to the interface of two regions as The Fig. 9 and Fig. 10 are obtained by image method and su-
the well-to-fault distance increasing (rDd ¼ 100, 200). perposition principle, which display the dimensionless pressure
(4) Flow regime in outer region. The dimensionless pressure and derivative curves of a production well locating within parallel
curves values affected by inner region fault increase to be faults in a composite reservoir model. By applying superposition
M12in comparison with case without fault which is 0.5M12. principle to infinite image wells in both sides of each fault, the type
curves show large slope at the late flow stage, which is similar to
Similarly, the type curves when well-to-fault distance is larger the closed boundary effect. In Fig. 9, the mobility-thickness product
than the inner-region radius can also be divided into 4 flow stages. ratio M12is set as 4, and it obviously illustrates that the earlier fault
The Fig. 6 illustrates the distance effect on the dimensionless effect appears with the well-to-fault distance decreasing, thus the
pressure and derivative curves. As it shown in Fig. 6, the flow dimensionless pressure and derivative curves would rise up in
stageⅠⅠand Ⅱare the same with the case that a straight fault in inner advance comparing with case without fault. As a consequence, the
region, and also the case without fault. dimensionless pressure and derivative curves would rise up in
advance comparing to the case without fault. With the distance
(5) Radial flow in outer region. The values of the dimensionless between well and fault in one side increasing, the nearby fault ef-
pressure derivatives are 0.5M12 presented by the horizontal fect appears firstly, until the pressure wave reaches the distant one
lines between tD/CD ¼ 104and tD/CD ¼ 106, for the reason that (rDdl ¼ 25; rDdr ¼ 100). This phenomenon are not noticeable in other
the pressure wave does not approach the fault. cases in Fig. 9, due to the effect of infinite superposition principle
(6) Straight fault effect in outer region. In this period, the for pressure drop, but it does exist in real situations, which defi-
dimensionless pressure derivative curves present “steps” nitely can't be ignored during well test interpretations.
phenomenon caused by the straight fault whose values are In order to analyze the mobility-thickness product ratio effect
M12. It is obvious that the fault effect comes later with the on pressure response of the production well within parallel faults,
distance increasing, thus, the radial flow in outer region lasts M12 is assumed to be 0.25 and the distances between the well and
longer. However, this regime would be covered up when the the faults are considered to be equal to each other in Fig. 10. As the
fault locates in the interface of the two-region radial com- first two cases (rDdl ¼ rDdr ¼ 50, 100) shown, the dimensionless
posite reservoir (rDd ¼ 100). derivative curves rise up in advance comparing to the radial flow
period in inner region without fault. For the reason that the pres-
The type curves when a production well located near a sure wave reaches the faults before approaching the two-region
perpendicular fault are as demonstrated in Fig. 7 and Fig. 8, where interface, firstly, the type curves presents the closed boundaries
the former one describes the case that image wells in inner region. characteristic. Then the horizontal line is more obvious in the first

Table 1
Synthetic data used for the discussion of the results.

Parameters (dimensionless) Fig. 5 Fig. 6 Fig. 7 Fig. 8 Fig. 9 Fig. 10

Radius of inner region, rfD 400 100 400 100 200 200
Mobility-thickness product ratio, M12 4 4 4 4 4 0.25
314 Q. Liu et al. / Petroleum 4 (2018) 309e317

Fig. 5. Well-to-fault distance effects on well-test curves with a straight fault in inner region.

Fig. 6. Well-to-fault distance effects on well-test curves with a straight fault in outer region.

Fig. 7. Well-to-fault distance effects on well-test curves with a perpendicular fault in inner region.
 Q. Liu et al. / Petroleum 4 (2018) 309e317 315

Fig. 8. Well-to-fault distance effects on well-test curves with a perpendicular fault in outer region.

Fig. 9. Well test curves of a production well within parallel faults in a composite reservoir when M12 > 1.

Fig. 10. Well test curves of a production well within parallel faults in a composite reservoir when M12 < 1.
316 Q. Liu et al. / Petroleum 4 (2018) 309e317

case than that in second case from period tD/CD ¼ 103 to tD/CD ¼ 104, no.2017ZX05009-004.
which manifest the mobility-thickness product ratio effect. The
case rDdl ¼ rDdr ¼ 200 means that the faults just fall in the two- Nomenclature
region interface, thus, the pressure derivative curves display both
of the mobility-thickness product ratio and parallel faults effects B Formation volume factor
after period tD/CD ¼ 103. The next two cases (rDdl ¼ rDdr ¼ 400, 800), Ct1,Ct2 Total compressibility in inner region and outer region,
in which the distance to each fault is larger than the inner-region MPa1
radius, present a concave-down to illustrate the mobility- CD Dimensionless wellbore storage constant, integer
thickness product ratio effect at first, then the fault effect subse- M12 Mobility-thickness product ratio between inner and
quently. Moreover, the larger distance is, the later fault effect would outer region
appear. h Effective formation thickness, m
K1,K2 Permeability in inner region and outer region, D
5. Conclusions p1D, p2D Dimensionless pressure in inner and outer region
pbD Dimensionless pressure response caused by fault
With the aim to study the characteristics of dynamic pressure boundary
response in a two-region radial composite reservoir with different pwD,I Dimensionless bottom-hole pressure in an infinite
fault configurations, the models describing different image wells composite reservoir
locations are built in this paper, which are applicable in both oil and pwD Dimensionless bottom-hole pressure of a producing
gas reservoirs. The Laplace transformation, images method and well
superposition principle are used to obtain the solutions for each Pi Initial pressure of oil reservoirs, MPa
case, then the Stehfest numerical inversion is applied to draw the 4i Initial pseudo-pressure of gas reservoirs, MPa2/mPa$s
dimensionless pressure and pressure derivative curves to analyze q Production rate, m3/d
the effect of the sensitive factors such as the well-to-fault distance rD Radial distance, dimensionless
and the mobility-thickness product ratio. From the above discus- rfD Dimensionless radius of inner region
sion, the following conclusions can be summarized: rDd1 Dimensionless distance to the vertical fault in Fig. 3
rDd2 Dimensionless distance to the horizontal fault in Fig. 3
(1) When analyzing the dynamic pressure response of a pro- rDdl Dimensionless distance to the left fault in Fig. 4
duction well in a composite reservoir with fault boundaries, rDdr Dimensionless distance to the right fault in Fig. 4
two cases should be discussed separately to avoid great er- rw Wellbore radius, m
rors that whether the well-to-fault distance is larger than S Skin factor
half length of the inner-region radius or not. And different tD Dimensionless time
equation should be employed to precisely describe the int Integer function
pressure response. u Laplace variable
(2) If the well-to-fault distance is less than the half length of ∅1, ∅2 Porosity in inner region and outer region
inner-region radius, the influence of the fault will be re- m1, m2 Viscosity of fluid in inner region and outer region,
flected in the flowing period of inner region and outer region mPa $ s
successively, and the value of derivative curve become 1 and u1 Storativity coefficient in inner region, MPa1
M12separately. If not, the fault effect would be only reflected u2 Storativity coefficient in outer region, MPa1
in the flowing period of outer region and the value of its u12 Storativity ratio between inner and outer region
dimensionless derivative curve would become 0.5M12 and
M12 to display the flow characteristics in outer region and the Subscript
fault impact. D Dimensionless; w, wellbore
(3) If there is a perpendicular fault in composite areas, the I Initial condition 1, Inner region
pressure response of the production well will be influenced 2 Outer region
as well and the fault effect are different according to the
relationship of the well-to-fault distance and the half length
Superscript
of inner-region radius. The value of its dimensionless deriv-
e Laplace transformed variable
ative curve in later periods would be as twice much as that in
the straight fault case.
References
(4) For the situation when there are two parallel faults near a
production well in a composite reservoir, the fault effect will [1] T.L. Loucks, E.T. Guerrero, Pressure drop in a composite reservoir, Soc. Petrol.
come early with the well-to-fault distances decreasing. Eng. 3 (1961) 170e176. SEP-19-PA.
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