Production Performance Evaluation of Hydraulically Fractured Wells (2000)

Production Performance Evaluation of Hydraulically Fractured Wells Bobby D. Poe, Jr. Bobby D. Poe, Jr. Schlumberger Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Paper presented at the SPE/CERI Gas Technology Symposium, Calgary, Alberta, Canada, April 2000. Paper Number: SPE-59758-MS https://doi.org/10.2118/59758-MS Published: April 03 2000 Cite View This Citation Add to Citation Manager Share Icon Share Twitter LinkedIn Get Permissions Search Site Citation Poe, Bobby D. "Production Performance Evaluation of Hydraulically Fractured Wells." Paper presented at the SPE/CERI Gas Technology Symposium, Calgary, Alberta, Canada, April 2000. doi: https://doi.org/10.2118/59758-MS Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentAll ProceedingsSociety of Petroleum Engineers (SPE)SPE Unconventional Resources Conference / Gas Technology Symposium Search Advanced Search AbstractA detailed analysis procedure for obtaining estimates of the reservoir effective permeability, fracture effective half-length, and average fracture conductivity using the bilinear to formation linear transition regime duration production performance data is presented in this paper. A combination of fractured well diagnostic analyses and history-matching with analytic solutions are used to obtain reliable estimates of the average fracture properties and reservoir effective permeability. The transient performance models reported in this paper include the practical reservoir effects of dual porosity, reservoir permeability anisotropy, and fracture face skin effect.IntroductionA rate-transient based diagnostic analysis procedure for the production performance of fractured wells has been reported by Poe et al.1 which permits the rigorous evaluation of the reservoir effective permeability and average fracture properties using the production performance of a fractured well. The production performance of the well is simply considered to be an extended duration drawdown transient with a varying sandface flowing pressure history. This is a good first step toward developing a general production data analysis procedure for fractured wells. A complimentary approach to the diagnostic analyses is the use of production performance history-matching.Finite-difference reservoir simulation models can be used to history match the production performance of fractured wells. These models may often be cumbersome to use and often require enormous amounts of data preparation, simulation, and analysis time to obtain reasonable matches of the production performance of a fractured well.Agarwal et al2 have followed a somewhat similar approach in that they have used a combination of decline curve analysis and fractured well type curve matching to extract estimates of the reservoir effective permeability and average fracture properties.In this study, the fractured well production performance has been evaluated using a combination of the previously reported diagnostic analysis procedures1 and history-matching with semi-analytic solutions of the transient performance of a fractured well, given in Appendix A. The use of both of these analysis procedures to evaluate estimates of the reservoir effective permeability, average fracture conductivity, and effective fracture half-length has greatly improved the accuracy, uniqueness, and reliability of these estimates from production data analysis.Extension of Diagnostic Analysis ProceduresThe diagnostic analysis procedures given in Ref. 1 were developed for fully exhibited flow regimes. Often a significant portion of the production performance data exhibits only partial ranges of the flow regimes or the end of the formation linear flow regime may be difficult to identify clearly. An example is a fractured well which exhibits bilinear flow, a transition regime, and only the start and part of the formation linear flow regime without the end of the formation linear flow regime being exhibited.In this example, the slope of the bilinear flow regime provides a reliable estimate of the product of the reservoir effective permeability and the square of the average fracture conductivity. When the end of the bilinear flow regime is observed in the data, an estimate of the product of the reservoir effective permeability and square of the effective fracture half-length can be obtained for dimensionless fracture conductivities greater than or equal to 10. For smaller values of dimensionless fracture conductivity, somewhat different products of the reservoir effective permeability and effective fracture half-length can be derived. Keywords: pressure transient testing, flow in porous media, integral equation, fluid dynamics, dimensionless time, conductivity, drillstem/well testing, drillstem testing, regime, dimensionless fracture conductivity Subjects: Hydraulic Fracturing, Reservoir Fluid Dynamics, Formation Evaluation & Management, Flow in porous media, Pressure transient analysis, Drillstem/well testing This content is only available via PDF. 2000. Society of Petroleum Engineers You can access this article if you purchase or spend a download.