Abstract
Innovative completion techniques for unconventional oil and gas reservoirs have been developed at a rapid pace. Deciphering the flow regime characteristics of the pressure-time signature of flowing wells associated with these new completion techniques is critical for evaluating well performance and ultimate hydrocarbon recovery. In this paper we present the flow regimes observed in the plots of field production data for several of these new completion techniques. We also present the simulated model results for these completions.
Several rate-transient analyses (RTA) for different well completion techniques from 1990 to 2010 were analyzed to determine how different completion techniques would affect flow regime characteristics—specifically, the linear flow period. Reservoir simulation results for homogenous and heterogeneous reservoirs showed that hydraulic fracture and natural fracture properties are the most crucial variables affecting the linear flow period. A statistical analysis of the Arp’s decline b-factor was also used to show the impact of increased reservoir connectivity with advanced completion techniques and stimulation.
This paper demonstrates that (a) completion techniques can influence the linear flow period and the length of the transition period before boundary-dominated flow prevails, and (b) different completion techniques lead to different flow regime diagnostics and different Arp’s flow rate exponent b.
