Published on UH Cullen College of Engineering (http://www.egr.uh.

edu)
Home > SPE Publishes Fourth Petroleum Engineering Text by UH Professor

SPE PUBLISHES FOURTH PETROLEUM

ENGINEERING TEXT BY UH PROFESSOR
Posted on January 9, 2014
By:
Toby Weber

John Lee, Professor and Hugh Roy and Lillie Cranz Cullen Distinguished University Chair in the Cullen College
of Engineering?s petroleum engineering program, is unquestionably one of the giants of the petroleum
engineering field. Among his many accomplishments are three best-selling textbooks published by the Society
of Petroleum Engineers.
In December, the SPE added to its catalog a fourth book by Lee, written with senior author John Spivey.
"Applied Well Test Interpretation" focuses on using tests of petroleum wells to determine the important
properties affecting flow in a reservoir.
The main test the book covers is pressure transient response. To take this measurement, well operators change
the amount of petroleum a well produces (often shutting it down to zero) and then measure how the pressure at
the bottom of the well changes over time. ?If the pressure changes rapidly to a final, stabilized value, that means
the reservoir is able to transmit fluids very rapidly; that?s good. If it changes very slowly to that final pressure,
then the reservoir is not capable of transmitting signals rapidly and that?s bad,? said Lee.
In addition to covering the application of pressure transient response, the book also presents the theories behind
rate transient testing, which uses the amount of petroleum produced by a well over a period of time to determine
the reservoir?s important properties.
Since pressure in unconventional wells builds up too slowly to conduct pressure transient response tests, rate
transient testing is an important tool for forecasting unconventional reservoirs, Lee said. Applied rate transient
testing will be covered in a future book, he added.

This is the first of Lee?s textbooks in which he serves as a secondary author. The lead author, Spivey, is a
petroleum engineering consultant based in College Station, Texas who earned his Ph.D. under Lee.
This is very much by design, said Lee. Two of Lee?s three other SPE-published books cover well testing and
interpretation. By having Spivey take the lead on this text, Lee said he is beginning to handoff the series to
Spivey for the many years ahead.

The University of Houston, 4800 Calhoun Road, Houston, Texas 77204