Insights From Interval Pressure Transient Tests Derive Key Fracture Parameters
Authors: Feder Judy 
Published: February 2020

This article, written by JPT Technology Editor Judy Feder, contains highlights of paper SPE 195435, “Macro Insights From Interval Pressure Transient Tests: Deriving Key Near-Wellbore Fracture Parameters in a Light-Oil Reservoir Offshore Norway,” by Alfredo Freites, SPE, Patrick Corbett, SPE, and Sebastian Geiger, SPE, Heriot-Watt University, et al., prepared for presentation at SPE Europec featured at the 81st EAGE Conference and Exhibition held in London, 3–6 June 2019.

The complete paper describes the shortcomings of traditional well testing methods and the methodology and results of applying wireline-conveyed IPTT in a light-oil reservoir offshore Norway. The study focuses on cases in which fractures are present in the near-wellbore region but do not intersect the wellbore. The study included parameters such as fracture densities and conductivities, distance between fractures and wellbore, and the vertical extension of the fractures across geological beds.

Introduction

Fractures can be first-order controls on fluid flow in hydrocarbon reservoirs. Understanding fracture characteristics such as aperture, density, distribution, conductivity, and connectivity is key for reservoir engineering and production analysis.

Well testing plays a key role in fracture characterization, particularly in fractured reservoirs. New advances in pressure transient analysis (PTA) have enabled the interpretation of production data such that the resulting geological scenarios are in better agreement with fracture patterns observed in out-crop analogs.

Traditionally, drillstem-test (DST) data have been the primary source of information for well testing. However, the authors hypothesized that wireline-conveyed tools designed for interval pressure transient testing (IPTT) could yield a more-thorough description of near-wellbore heterogeneities, including fractures. To prove their hypothesis, they used a next-generation wireline testing tool to investigate the applicability of IPTT for characterizing fractured reservoirs, using detailed numerical simulations models with ac-curate wellbore representation to generate synthetic IPTT responses. The effect of the different fracture scenarios on the pressure transient tests was recorded as characteristic signatures on diagnostic plots, which the authors call IPTT-geotypes because they can be used to assist the interpretation of IPTT responses.

The paper includes a field example of an IPTT case that was analyzed using the concept of geological well testing. Information from petrophysical logs and the IPTT-geotypes was integrated to assist the calibration of a reservoir model developed to represent the geological setting of the tested reservoir interval. The results provided a sound interpretation of the reservoir geology and quantitative estimation of the matrix and fracture parameters.

IPTT Methodology

Static characterization of fracture systems, which can be key controls on reservoir performance, rely on analog outcrop observations, seismic, image logs, and core analysis.

Direct observations in cores; image logs; a sudden increase in mud filtration during drilling; and, at later stages, substantial differences between the wells’ expected and real productivity indices are all indicators of the presence of fractures in a reservoir. Well testing provides the means for dynamic characterization and is an area that has shown significant progress in recent years.

The industry standard model for well test interpretation in naturally fractured reservoirs (NFRs) was developed in 1963. This model assumes a geometrically idealized system where flow occurs only in the fractures, which have uniform properties, while the matrix is stagnant and only recharges the fractures. Such a system normally does not represent real fracture networks. Features such as fracture geometry, density, and connectivity cannot be derived from the purely mathematical description.