A method for production data analysis considering significant discontinuities in unconventional reservoirs. (4th June 2018) - Li, Qingyu
Abstract: Significant discontinuities exist in the production data of many unconventional reservoirs, which always causes difficulties in production data analysis (PDA). This paper proposes a PDA method to address the problem caused by the significant discontinuities based on the virtual equivalent time, which is calculated by using the average formation pressure. With the virtual equivalent time, production data with significant discontinuities are converted into several interconnected segments, and new type curves are then generated and applied to PDA, which improves the fitting precision of the production data. With the improved fitting results, accurate productivity forecasting can be achieved. A field case study is carried out, comparing the new method with commercial software. The results show that the new method has better fitting results, and that the errors caused by significant discontinuities are effectively eliminated. The effectiveness of the proposed method is further verified by the comparison between the forecasting data and the field data. The method proposed in this paper can improve the precision of the interpreted parameters, which is beneficial to the more reliable and efficient prediction of well production performance.