Skin

A dimensionless estimation of obstruction to flow. An undamaged well would have a skin of zero. A
damaged well has a positive skin above zero and a stimulated well has a negative skin.

Determination of flow efficiency and skin

To quantify formation damage and understand its impact on hydrocarbon production, one must
have reasonable estimates of the flow efficiency or skin factor. Several methods have been proposed
to evaluate these quantities for oil and gas wells. The most common methods are:

Multirate tests
Isochronal gas-well tests
Transient well tests (pressure-buildup analysis)

Multirate tests
Multirate tests can be conducted on both oil and gas wells. In these tests, several stabilized
flow rates, qi , are achieved at corresponding stabilized flowing bottomhole pressures, pwf.
The simplest analysis considers two different stabilized rates and pressures. The IPR can be
written as

....................(1)
Simplifying and solving for the flow efficiency, F, we obtain

....................(2)
where x 0.
The above equation clearly shows that it is possible to obtain flow efficiency rather simply
with two stabilized bottomhole pressures and two stabilized flow rates. A similar analysis can
be performed to obtain an expression for a linear IPR (x = 0).

Multirate tests in gas wells: inertial effects

For many gas wells and some oil wells, flow rates are sufficiently high that turbulent or
inertial pressure drops near the wellbore can be significant. In such cases, the additional
pressure drop measured by the skin can be confused with the pressure drop because of nonDarcy or inertial flow. It is very important to separate out the pressure drop caused by
turbulent flow from that caused by physical skin because it has a significant impact on the
stimulation recommendations made on the well. To analyze high-rate gas or oil wells, the
following equation is needed. [1]
Darcy's law for high-rate gas wells can be written as

....................(3)
Here,

....................(4)
This equation can be rearranged to obtain

....................(5)
Here, Aqsc represents a laminar pressure drop and Bq2sc represents an inertial or non-Darcy
pressure drop (sometimes referred to as a turbulent pressure drop). Note that A contains the
physical skin, S, and B is directly proportional to the non-Darcy coefficient, D. By plotting

multirate test data as a plot of

, we obtain A and B as an intercept and
slope, respectively. It is then possible to compare the magnitude of the pressure drop caused
by S with that caused by inertial effects, Dqsc.
If S>Dqsc, a stimulation treatment would be recommended. However, if Dqsc > S, the well
may need to be reperforated or fractured to increase the inflow area and to reduce inertial
effects.

Isochronal test in gas wells

In gas wells in which it takes a long time to achieve stabilized rates, wells are shut in and
produced for a fixed time interval (t) at several different rates. These isochronal tests are
then interpreted by the following "deliverability" relation,

....................(6)
where the exponent n lies between 0.5 and 1. An exponent closer to 0.5 indicates that nonDarcy effects are important; an exponent close to 1 indicates that they are not. [2]
It should be noted that the "deliverability" equation is a variation of the equation derived in
the previous section.

Pressure-buildup analysis
The most common method for determining skin is a pressure-buildup test. [2][3] In this test, a
well that has been producing for a time, tp, is shut in for time t. The pressure buildup is
recorded as a function of time. By constructing a Horner plot[2][3] like the one shown in Fig.
1, we can compute the skin and the product of the permeability and formation thickness, kh,
of the reservoir (in field units).

....................(7)
and

....................(8)
Here, m is the slope of the straight-line portion of the Horner plot, and pws,1hr is the
extrapolated shut-in pressure at a shut-in time of 1 hour.

Fig. 1Horner plot from a pressure-buildup test.[2]

It is also possible to obtain the average reservoir pressure with the Matthew, Brons, and
Hazelbrook method from the pressure-buildup data. [4] Knowing both the average reservoir
pressure and skin, we can calculate the flow efficiency of the well. This method provides a
direct and quantitative measure of the extent of formation damage in a well.

Methods following the same principle have been developed for deviated and horizontal wells.
Equations for analysis are more complex and are not discussed in this page. The same
methods can also be used to analyze data from gas wells and from wells on artificial lift.
The short discussion presented above shows how near-wellbore formation damage can be
quantified by measurements made on oil and gas wells. Such measurements are essential for
determining the extent and magnitude of the formation damage and its impact on
hydrocarbon production. However, these measures do not provide us with any clues on the
reasons for the formation damage.

Nomenclature
Aqsc = laminar pressure drop
B
= proportional to the non-Darcy coefficient, D
2
Bq sc = inertial or non-Darcy pressure drop
c
= compressibility
Dqsc = inertial effects
F
= well flow efficiency
k
= overall permeability, md
kI
= initial permeability, md
kh
= permeability and formation thickness
m
= slope
n
= exponent
p
= pressure
pb
= bubblepoint pressure
pR
= average reservoir pressure
pwf = flowing bottomhole pressure
pws,1hr = extrapolated shut-in pressure at a shut-in time of 1 hour
Pskin = additional pressure drop caused by formation damage
q
= flow rate
qi
= flow rates
qsc
= volumetric flow rate, surface conditions
re
= external boundary radius
rw
= well radius
S
= skin factor
T
= temperature
t
= time
t
= fixed time interval
z
= real gas compressibility factor

= viscosity
g
= gas viscosity