Abstract
Estimation of reserves in tight gas and shale gas reservoirs is problematic due to the low to ultra-low permeability characteristics of these reservoir systems. The sole application of conventional decline curve analysis methodologies often yields erroneous reserve estimates. Therefore, the use of theoretically-based production analysis techniques has become a must to analyze well performance and estimate reserves.
The primary objective of this work is to develop a systematic workflow, which integrates model-based production analysis and rate-time relations, for the analysis/interpretation of well performance data in unconventional reservoirs. The major steps in the proposed workflow are:
Diagnosis of production data.
Construction of a base well/reservoir model utilizing static well/reservoir data as well as completion/stimulation parameters.
Extrapolation of the model to predict well performance along with the use of rate-time decline relations.
The proposed methodology is demonstrated using data from unconventional reservoirs, including a horizontal well with multiple fractures. We present the application of rate-time relations to provide estimates of time-dependent reserves. The use of βq,cp-derivative is also illustrated in distinguishing data characteristics as well as identifying issues associated with data.
