Inflow Performance Relationships for Vertical Completions

Oil Reservoirs:

Vogel
An IPR equation traditionally used to describe oilwell performance in saturated oil
reservoirs under a wide range of conditions. This model has proved to be valid for wells
producing at water cuts as high as 97%.

Fetkovich & Multi-rate Fetkovich

The Fetkovich equation is a development of the Vogel equation to take account of high
velocity effects.

Hydraulically fractured
The Fractured Well IPR type uses a digitized, constant rate, finite-conductivity, closed
square, fractured well type-curve to calculate the effect of a vertically drilled well that
has been hydraulically fractured

Pseudo Steady State Equation

The pseudo steady-State equation employs a radial reservoir model. The equation takes
into account both the effects of laminar and turbulent flows on pressure drawdown.

The PSS/Darcy equation assumes that the fluid is single phase, laminar flow exists and
the fluid is (essentially) incompressible. The equation is based on single phase flow,
therefore the user is prompted to select the basis for the equation - either Liquid or Gas.

A Vogel correction is available for liquid flow the bubble point. For gas systems, the user
can choose to use gas pseudo pressure or a pressure squared approximate (only reliable
for low pressure systems).

Well PI (Productivity Index)

The straight-line IPR, perhaps the simplest and most widely used IPR equation, states
that rate is directly proportional to pressure drawdown in the reservoir.
Gas Reservoirs:

Forchheimer
This equation is used to model non-Darcy flow, specially used to predict inflow well
performance of gas wells.

Normalized back pressure

The backpressure equation was developed by Rawlins and Schellhardt (1935) after
testing 582 wells. The equation is typically applied to gas wells although its application
to oil wells has also been proven

Pseudo Steady State Equation / Darcy

The pseudo steady-State equation employs a radial reservoir model. The equation takes
into account both the effects of laminar and turbulent flows on pressure drawdown.

The PSS/Darcy equation assumes that the fluid is single phase, laminar flow exists and
the fluid is (essentially) incompressible. The equation is based on single phase flow,
therefore the user is prompted to select the basis for the equation - either Liquid or Gas.

A Vogel correction is available for liquid flow the bubble point. For gas systems, the user
can choose to use gas pseudo pressure or a pressure squared approximate (only reliable
for low pressure systems).

Jones
Jones proposed an equation for gas flow and provides an alternative to the traditional
backpressure equation, which can sometime present problems with unit conversions

Inflow Performance Relationships for Horizontal Completions

Joshi
This equation is used to model horizontal well in a reservoir under steady state flow. It
also takes into account anisotropy in reservoir. This model was deduced for a water cut of
0%.

Babu-Odeh
This equation is to model a horizontal well in a reservoir under pseudo-steady state flow.
It also takes into account anisotropy in reservoir. This model was deduced for a water cut
of 0%.
Flow Regimes

Steady-State Flow
Steady-state flow represents the condition that exists when the pressure throughout the
reservoir does not change with time. The applications of the steady-state flow to describe
the flow behavior of several types of fluid in different reservoir geometries are presented
below. These include:
• Linear flow of incompressible fluids
• Linear flow of slightly compressible fluids
• Linear flow of compressible fluids
• Radial flow of incompressible fluids
• Radial flow of slightly compressible fluids
• Radial flow of compressible fluids
• Multiphase flow

Pseudosteady-State Flow
In the unsteady-state flow cases discussed previously, it was assumed that a well is
located in a very large reservoir and producing at a constant flow rate. This rate creates a
pressure disturbance in the reservoir that travels throughout this infinite-size reservoir.
During this transient flow period, reservoir boundaries have no effect on the pressure
behavior of the well. Obviously, the time period where this assumption can be imposed is
often very short in length. As soon as the pressure disturbance reaches all drainage
boundaries, it ends the transient (unsteady-state) flow regime. A different flow regime
begins that is called pseudosteady (semisteady)-state flow. It is necessary at this point
to impose different boundary conditions on the diffusivity equation and drive an
appropriate solution to this flow regime.

Matthews, Brons, and Hazebroek (1954) pointed out that once the reservoir is producing
under the semisteady-state condition, each well will drain from within its own no-flow
boundary independently of the other wells. For this condition to prevail, the pressure
decline rate dp/dt must be approximately constant throughout the entire reservoir,
otherwise flow would occur across the boundaries causing a readjustment in their
positions. Because the pressure at every point in the reservoir is changing at the same
rate, it leads to the conclusion that the average reservoir pressure is changing at the same
rate. This average reservoir pressure is essentially set equal to the volumetric average
reservoir pressure p–r. It is the pressure that is used to perform flow calculations during
the semisteady state flowing condition.