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CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

In this chapter, we introduce the general scope of the research performed. In

particular, we introduce the (1) presentation of three scenarios for long-term linear flow
in tight gas wells, (2) derivation of a new analytical matrix-parallel fracture model, (3)
development of a catalog of reliable and stepwise methodologies to analyze production
data of tight gas wells in both homogeneous and dual porosity reservoirs in order to
estimate reservoir properties, original gas in-place, OGIP, and movable gas reserves, (4)
production analysis of actual tight gas wells from industrial sources by applying the
developed stepwise methodologies, and (5) numerical reservoir validation of the anlaysis
performed in actual data of tight gas wells.

In the first section of this chapter, we present what are and where are tight gas
reservoirs. In the second section, we present the background and motivation for this
work. In the third section, we discuss the objectives of this research as well as the
deliverables obtained. Finally, to assist the reader, we provide the organizational
sequence for this dissertation in the last section of this chapter.

1.1 Tight gas reservoirs

Natural gas today accounts for approximately 22% of world energy demand1. The
U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates that overall energy consumption will
rise 60% during 1997-2020 with natural gas being the fastest-growing component of
primary world energy. Currently, many countries use natural gas as their primary source
of imported energy, while at the same time gas-exporting countries have developed both
gas reserves and transportation infrastructure to meet the demand for natural gas.
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This dissertation follows the style and format of the Journal of Petroleum Technology.
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Actually, conventional and unconventional natural gas is being figured out

largely in petroleum companies’ asset portfolios.
Tight gas is the term used to refer to low permeability reservoir that produces
mainly dry or wet natural gas (unconventional gas). Most of these reservoirs are
sandstones, but substantial volumes of natural gas are produced from low permeability
carbonates, shales, and coal seams. It is not easy to select a single permeability value to
discriminate tight gas reservoirs; although, the U.S.A. Government decided that the
value should be 0.1 md or less. Actually, the permeability value that should be used to
define a tight gas reservoir is a function of net pay, h, porosity, , initial reservoir
pressure, pi, reservoir temperature, T, and reservoir heterogeneity (symbols and units are
defined in the Nomenclature section at the end of this dissertation).

A definition of tight gas is as follows: a tight gas reservoir cannot produce

commercial volumes of gas at economical flow rates unless massive stimulation and/or
fracturing treatments are successfully designed and implemented2.

A conventional gas reservoir is one that can be produced at economical flow rates
without the need for massive stimulation or fracturing treatments. Generally, acid
treatment, or small fracture treatments, or short horizontal wellbore contribute to the
adequate stimulation of conventional gas reservoirs.

Tight gas reservoirs can be deep or shallow, high or low pressure, high or low
temperature, blanket or lenticular, homogeneous or naturally fractured, and
homogeneous or layered. The optimal drilling, completion, spacing between wells, and
stimulation methods will be function of the properties and geometries of the reservoir.

Every worldwide basin that is currently producing oil or gas in significant

volumes will also storage oil and gas reserves in low permeability formations. Only in
the United States, Canada, Mexico, Australia, China, and parts of Europe and Argentina
are found low permeability reservoirs under production and active development. The
tight gas technology is being currently developed mainly in the U.S.A., and it will be
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used around the world over the next 30 years to design and implement the operations to
drill, produce, stimulate, and fracture unconventional gas reserves.

1.2 Background and motivation of this work

Forecasting reserves from tight gas reservoirs require total information or

reservoir definition and fluid-rock properties among other parameters.

Over the last half century, considerable technical papers have been presented on
well test analysis for oil and gas flow; this information includes models, solutions for
transient and boundary dominated flows, procedures of analysis, and practical aspects of
well testing methods. Exceptional well test analysis practice of different techniques
currently available have been presented by Mathews and Russell 3, Ramey et al.4, Energy
Resources Conservation Board5, Earlougher6, Aguilera7, Streltsova8, Cinco-Ley9,10,
Samaniego11, Da Prat12, Stanislav and Kabir13, Sabet14, Lee15, Samaniego and Cinco-
Ley16, Horne17, Lee et al.18, Lee and Wattenbarger19, Wattenbarger20, and Blasingame21.

Transient pressure testing, which an essential objective is the determination of

reservoir characteristics under in-situ conditions, is a trustworthy procedure for the
estimation of rock properties and the description of some heterogeneity in the porous
medium when an integrated approach is used. However, in tight gas reservoirs a transient
pressure testing can be not reliable and practical to estimate rock properties and
characterization of some reservoir heterogeneities. This type of gas reservoirs frequently
require too much time of testing to reach the middle, late transient, or boundary
dominated flow periods, which would be usually reached in months or years.

Similarly, the cylindrical radial flow model has been applied as a possibility in
the interpretation of production and pressure transient interpretation of several gas wells.
This usual procedure is based on the fact that, in general, the production of fluid towards
a wellbore follows this geometry. On the other hand, there are several actual cases (i.e.,
tight gas wells) with production and pressure data where cylindrical radial flow
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geometry analysis is not properly applicable, and then other types of flow models must
be applied such as linear, bilinear, radial, spherical, and boundary dominated flows.

Cinco-Ley and Meng22 presented that a vertical well intercepted by a finite

conductivity vertical fracture in a double porosity reservoir would exhibit fifteen
different flow regimes.

Kohlhaas and Abbot23 pointed out some physical scenarios where linear flow can
develop. They explained that these scenarios are early in life of fractured wells, edge-or-
bottom-water-drive reservoirs, channel sands, wells between parallel faults, and stratified
reservoirs. Straight and Gordon24 presented out linear flow for several years could be to
natural occurring properties in the reservoir, such as long-narrow fractures, thin high
permeability streaks, and long- narrow reservoir geometries.

Some researchers2,20,25-40 have presented treatments in tight gas reservoir analysis.

Recently, Wattenbarger20 presented linear analytical solutions for fractured wells with
rectangular reservoir geometry. He reported type curves and equations to analyze the
long-term performance of tight gas wells under either constant flowing bottomhole
pressure or constant rate production. El-Banbi35 presented in his research that linear flow
is detected in almost all wells that produce form tight basins. He reported a series of
cases where linear flow dominated and gave linear analytical and semianalytical
solutions for both constant flowing bottomhole pressure and constant rate production
under different boundary conditions. In his dissertation, Helmy 37 developed several
techniques by using superposition time that focuses on long-term linear flow in tight gas
wells that produce at constant flowing bottomhole pressure and subjected to periodic
shut-ins.

To the best of our knowledge, however, not too much has been written
concerning what causes long-term transient performance and production analysis of tight
gas wells. No trustworthy procedures are currently available in the industry to analyze
production data of tight gas wells. The subject and the main aims of this dissertation are
to discuss some physical scenarios that cause long-term linear flow in tight gas wells and
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to develop reliable and straightforward stepwise methodologies of production analysis

with practical application in actual wells in tight gas reservoirs under either constant
flowing bottomhole pressure or constant gas rate conditions. A special effort is made to
present applied actual cases whenever possible.

In this dissertation, we used several procedures of plotting the production data of

tight gas wells for homogeneous and dual porosity reservoirs.

Log-log diagnostic plots are one of the best procedures for production analysis
of tight gas well because the curves in these plots show consistent or smooth resolution
to all characteristics exhibited by the reservoir. Then, to detect one or more flow regimes
from production data we perform the following log-log plots: pseudo-pressure drop
divided by gas, [m( p i )  m( p wf )] / q g , pseudo-pressure drop/gas rate derivative

function, t [m( p ) / q g ]' t, and cumulative gas production, Gp, versus production time.
These plots result in one or more straight lines in which each one of them has a specific
slope that represents a specific flow regime.

In some cases, if both flowing bottomhole pressure and gas rate are fluctuating
slowly and smoothly with production time, the superposition time technique 37 to plot
production data is used. The diagnostic plots have a tendency to compact the production
data making it confusing to detect reservoir boundaries; however, these plots are very
useful to detect different flow regimes from production data.

Later, we perform useful specialized plots of [m( p i )  m( p wf )] / q g versus a

specific function of time, which depends on the flow regime(s) detected in the log-log
diagnostic plot. In this plotting technique, the different flow regimes are detected as
straight lines for each specific function of time. The slope of these straight lines in
transient period is inversely proportional to the permeability of the formation.

Once the production data has been matched to the appropriate flow regime(s), the
interpretation formulas under constant pwf production or constant qg production can be
used to estimate reservoir properties, distance to outer boundaries, original gas in place,
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OGIP, and forecasting reserves. One of the advantages of the specialized plots is that
they do not compress the production data, and they evidently display the effects of
reservoir boundaries. Finally, reservoir simulation is used to validate the analysis
performed.

Production analysis in tight gas reservoirs allows an estimation of the following

information: formation conductivity, kh, formation damage, earlier flow effect, k AC

product, permeability of the formation, k, cross-sectional area to flow, Ac, investigation

of drainage distance, yinv, drainage area, A, formation volume, FV, pore volume, Vp,
original gas in place, OGIP, and reserves. In fractured wells, allow an estimation of the
following parameters: fracture conductivity, (kw)f, half-length fracture, xf, dimensionless
conductivity, (kfwf)D, and fracture face skin factor, sf. The detection of: barriers and
discontinuities, layering, permeability anisotropy, and interference between wells and
reservoirs can be also detected.

Although this list is not complete, it highlights the most important information
that can be acquired through production analysis of tight gas reservoirs.

Experience in the application of production analysis of long-term performance in

tight gas reservoirs has shown that, in some cases, different physical situations in the
reservoirs yield to the same pressure and production behavior (uniqueness dilemma).
However, the uniqueness dilemma can, in several cases, be solved by using a
combination of production analysis and geological and geophysical information, 3-D
seismic interpretation, well logging data, well test data, core analysis, etc. (i.e., an
integrated approach). The study of all information available gives the interpretation
model, which defines formation properties and well conditions that are used as input
data into reservoir simulation studies.

A total knowledge of the characteristics and limitations of flow models allows

the correct application of analysis techniques, giving consequently a high confidence in
the estimation of reservoir parameters and forecasting production.
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To summarize , the analysis and interpretation of production data of wells from

tight gas reservoirs are always challenging, regardless of the quality of the data at our
disposal. These stepwise methodolgies to analyze long-term production data of gas
wells represent a significant improvement in understanding the complex behavior of
tight gas reservoirs.

1.3 Objectives and deliverables of this research

The main goal of this research project is to develop stepwise methodlologies and
procedures to analyze and interpret production data taken from actual gas wells in tight
gas reservoirs in order to provide an estimation of the reservoir properties, OGIP, and
movable gas-reserves. Among the reservoir properties that can be estimated are the
formation conductivity, kh, k Ac product, formation permeability, k, cross sectional

area, Ac, formation damage, earlier flow effect, drainage area, A, pore volume, Vp, etc.

To obtain our goal of characterizing the production performance of individual

gas wells in a tight reservoir system, the following subordinate objectives have been
established:

1. To present some physical scenarios that cause a long-term linear flow in tight gas
reservoirs.

2. To develop new analytic matrix-parallel fracture flow model for a single phase.

3. To develop a catalog of step-by-step methodologies and procedures o analyze flow

regime cases in tight gas wells for both homogeneous and dual porosity reservoirs. This
catalog will include: different diagnostic and specialized plots that result in linear,
bilinear, radial, spherical, and boundary dominated flow regimes, and the interpetation
equations to analyze these flow regimes and estimate reservoir properties. These
equations were adapted to real gas flow from analytical, semianalytical, and numerical
solutions for different flow regimes under both constant flowing bottomhole pressure
and constant gas rate production.
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4. To apply these stepwise methodologies using field data obtained from industry
sources.

5. To use numerical reservoir simulation to confirm and modify the results obtained with
the application of these methodolgies in actual tight gas wells.

The deliverables from this work are:

1. An analytic matrix-parallel fracture flow model for a single phase.

2. Reliable and staightforward methodologies to analyze data of actual gas wells in both
homogeneous and dual porosity reservoirs under either constant flowing bottomhole
pressure or constant gas rate conditions.

3. A series of diagnostic and specialized plots and straightforward analytical formulas to

estimate reservoir properties and OGIP of actual data in tigh gas wells.

1.4 Organization of this dissertation

The outline and organization of this dissertation are as follows:

We begin our work in the introductory Chapter I, in which we show what are and
where are the tight gas reservoirs and some background and motivations to do this
research. Then, we present the objectives and deliverables of this research.

In Chapter II, we present a comprehensive literature review related with

technology of tight gas reservoirs, as well as models, solutions and decline type curves
developed and presented from several researchers. In addition, we present a step-by-step
derivation of an analytic matrix-parallel fracture flow model.

In Chapter III, we discuss some scenarios that cause long-term linear flow in
tight gas formations. Among these scenarios, we present the flow effect in tight
reservoirs of natural parallel fractures, a fractured well, and a vertical flow in high
permeability streaks (layered reservoirs).
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In Chapter IV, we present stepwise methodologies to analyze and describe

production data from tight gas wells in homogeneous reservoirs.

In Chapter V, we extend the methodologies of production analysis to analyze

production data from tight gas well within dual porosity reservoirs.

In Chapter VI, we apply some methodologies developed in Chapter IV and V to

analyze and interpret production data from actual data in producing gas wells located in
the U.S.A. and Mexico. Then, we estimate some reservoir properties and show
validation of the obtained results by using numerical simulation.

In Chapter VII, we give a general discussion that deals with the findings and
highlights points of this work.

In Chapter VIII, we present summary, conclusions, and some recommendations

for future research work.

Finally, we present the nomenclature, reference, and some appendixes developed

in this research.