Basic Surveillance

Using Pressure-Transient Data to

Monitor Well & Reservoir
Performance

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 Basic Surveillance

An oil or gas field requires surveillance of

individual well behaviour to identify potential
problems and opportunities to improve
performance.
The objective of Basic Surveillance is to
answer the following two questions:
has the well-performance changed?
has the reservoir pressure deviated from the
expected trend?
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Basic Surveillance & Well-Test Analysis
Over the life of a well, there will be opportunities
(planned or otherwise) to carry out a shut-in and
measure a pressure-transient response.
Analysis of each set of pressure-transient data
can be used to help answer the two Basic
Surveillance questions:
compare Derivative plots to identify changes in well
performance
compare Superposition Plots to track changes in the
reservoir pressure.

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 Basic Surveillance Spreadsheet
The Basic Surveillance spreadsheet is intended
to replace specialised well-test software when
carrying out Derivative and Superposition plot
calculations and comparisons.
All formulas and source-code are open to allow
users to see how these calculations are done.
The spreadsheet can be modified to include
customised calculations and summary sheets
Download from www.welltestsolutions.com

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 Demo - Spreadsheet Layout
PVT & Units: define the test-type and the units for
the comparison plots. Also sets the
PVT data for gas-wells. Note the units
table has a row to set custom units.
PBU: each shut-in uses one of these sheets
which previews each plot, and sets a
line to estimate parameters. The input
units and test-type for each shut-in
can be set independent of the
comparison plots setting.
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 Surveillance over the Well History
2004/02/18-1418 : OIL
2150.
2050.
1950.

New PBU Sheet

0. 500. 1000.
New
1500.
PBU Sheet
2000.
New PBU
2500.
Sheet
3000.
in Workbook
6000.
-2000.

0. 500. 1000. 1500. 2000. 2500. 3000.

Time (hours)

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 Demo - Enter Data for a PBU
duplicate the blank PBU sheet and re-name
This name is used for the comparison plot legend
Select the test-type/units and fill in the static-data
click on the Edit Test Data button
This turns off the calculations to allow EXCEL to work
faster and avoid unnecessary sheet updates.
copy & paste the rate data
copy & paste the pressure data
Note: rate and pressure data must use the same
time format (e.g. date) and time basis.

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 Superposition Plot
Assuming radial-flow and given an arbitrary rate-history
with n rate-changes prior to a shut-in, the Superposition
Plot can be represented by the following equation:
B n
p( t ) P* 162.6 qi qi1 logt t n t i Note: rate qi
starts at time ti
kh i1
P*
Pressure data that reflects
radial-flow in the reservoir
Pressure during SI
will show a straight-line on m =162.6 B/kh
the Superposition Plot with
slope m and intercept P*
Note that P* is a fictitious value
with no physical meaning! This
pressure does not exist 0. 100. 200. 300.
anywhere in the reservoir! Superposition(q(t),t)

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 The Derivative Plot
Two special transforms of the data are
plotted together on log-log scales:

Delta-p curve
0
10
-1
10

Derivative curve
-2
10

10 -2 10 -1 10 0 10 1 10 2

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 Derivative-Plot Derivative Curve
dp
(derivative )
dSuperposit ionq( t ), t
Pressure during SI

10 0
10 -1

0. 100. 200. 300.

10 -2

Superposition(q(t),t)
10 -2 10 -1 100 101 102

Superposition Plot Derivative Plot

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 Derivative-Plot Delta-p Curve
80/12/11-1400 : N/A

p(t)
4950.

p(t=0)
Note the rate
4900.

normalisation...
delta-p = (p(t)-p(t=0))/q
4850.

t
4800.

shut-in
100. 120. 140.
Time (hours)
160. 180.

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 Derivative Plot Features
The derivative plot reflects the completion and
reservoir parameters that control well performance.
0
10

proportional
to a skin
-1
10

characteristic
shape derivative stabilisation
= straight-line on superposition plot
and yields a permeability-thickness
-2
10

10 -2 10 -1 10 0 10 1 10 2

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 The Half log-cycle Rule

Ignore any feature in the derivative curve

that spans less than half a log-cycle along
the time axis.
a stabilisation, linear trend, hump, or
dip must span at least half a log-cycle
before being considered significant.
any feature that fails this test is completely
unrelated to the reservoir characteristics.
No further explanation is required.

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 Demo - Set-up Analysis Plots
Select Begin Analysis button
Select SI Start button and slide red marker to
start of the shut-in.
Note zoom function and importance of finding exact start
to get right derivative delta-p curve.
Select SI End button and slide green marker to
the end of the shut-in.
Select Set KH button to display derivative plot.
Select Set P* button to display superposition plot.
NOTE: need both KH and P* set to calculate the skin.
This is a limitation of the single scroll-bar interface.
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 Detect Changes in Well Performance
Given multiple sets of shut-in data, derivative plots
can be directly compared to one another (plot
overlay)
This comparison is valid at any reservoir pressure
If the shape of the derivative curve for each
shut-in is the same, then there has been no
change in reservoir properties
If the separation between a stabilisation and
the delta-p curve is the same, then there has
been no change in skin
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Detect Changes in Reservoir Pressure
Given multiple sets shut-in data, Superposition
Plots can be directly compared to one another
for wells in a developed field (pss flow)
The sets of data should contain a sequence of
parallel straight lines
i.e. a common reservoir permeability-thickness
The individual values of P* are meaningless
because P* is a fictitious value.
The trend in the values of P* will run in
parallel to the trend of the reservoir pressure.
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 Demo - Spot the Changes
un-hide the second shut-in in the example
workbook.
define a stabilisation and P* using the KH
from the first shut-in.
on the sheet for the first shut-in, select the
Update Comparison Plots button.
on the sheet for the second shut-in, select the
Update Comparison Plots button.
Look at the comparison derivative plot, what
is the same and what has changed?
Look at the comparison superposition plot,
has the reservoir pressure gone up or down?
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 The Rate Measurements
What rate values should be used for the analysis?
Single-phase flow:
use the measured rates for that phase
Multi-phase flow:
use the TOTAL sand-face rate, qsf, with B=1, =1:
e.g. black oil: qsf = qo*Bo + [qg-qo(Rs-Rsi)]Bg + qw*Bw
if the well originally had single-phase flow:
compute an equivalent phase-rate by dividing qsf by that
phases volume factor, and...
use that phase volume-factor and viscosity in the analysis.
this is a handy way to track reservoir mobility changes with
respect to the initial behaviour of the well.

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 The Rate-History

How much rate data should be used to

define the rate-history for the analysis?
For a new well:
use all the available rate data or...
experiment to find the amount of data needed
to obtain a consistent derivative plot.
For a well in a developed field (pss flow):
this choice is more complicated...

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Time-to-Pseudo-Steady-State (Tpss)

A pressure transient
"disappears" once it
reaches the boundary.
Therefore, the well
"forgets" a transient
after an amount of time
greater than Tpss

Time to Pseudo-Steady-State

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 Contributions to a Shut-in
2004/02/18-1418 : OIL
2150.
2050.
1950.

0. Prior
500. History1000.
contributes
1500. Tpss contributes
2000. 2500. to
3000.
to Material-Balance Transient Response
6000.
-2000.

0. 500. 1000. 1500. 2000. 2500. 3000.

Time (hours)

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 Rate-History for a Developed Field
Including rates prior to the Tpss period implies that well-
test analysis can account for the material-balance of the
system.
This is correct ONLY for simple volumetric material-balance with a
constant compressibility. This is obviously not correct for real
reservoirs with a complex production process.
In general, the rate-history should be limited to Tpss
The resulting P* values will reflect the current state of the
drainage-area (but are still fictitious values not to be taken literally)
Across multiple shut-ins, the trend of P* using a Tpss
rate-history will parallel the trend in average pressure.
The material-balance contribution is left out of the P* values, so
whatever process is controlling material-balance can be reflected
in changes of P* from one shut-in to the next.

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 How to Estimate Tpss
1) Identify the features that define
the drainage-area for the well.

2) Identify the LARGEST distance

Rinv(Tdpss
2 ) d between the well and one of
those features.

d1 3) Compute the time, Tpss, such

d3 that the radius-of-investigation
A well equals the distance d

This procedure yields a conservative over-

d4 estimate of Tpss. This is preferable to an
under-estimate which could result in a rate-
history that distorts the analysis plots.

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 Demo - Using Tpss

Enter a value of 5000 feet for the

largest distance in the static-data
note Tpss is calculated in results
Enter a small value for the estimated
Tpss in the static-data.
note that the analysis plots change shape
because the rate-history is truncated to the
estimated Tpss duration.

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 Well-Test Analysis Steps
A complete analysis will progress through four steps:
1) Basic Surveillance to find valid sets of data that yield
consistent information about basic KH, skin, and P* behaviour.
2) Interpretation of the derivative plot to understand the shape of
the response, and to explain changes in behaviour.
3) Type-curve Analysis to quantify the observed response in
terms of a relevant well and reservoir model.
4) Integrated Analysis that incorporates other information about
the well and reservoir to obtain a useful set of results.
Embark on Interpretation, Type-curve analysis, and
Integrated analysis after getting advice on:
Data quality: is it worth pursuing a detailed analysis?
Analysis objectives: is it feasible to derive the analysis
results that will provide useful information?

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