Chapter 2 Examples & Solutions: Example 2-1. Steady-State Production Rate Calculation and Rate Improvement (Stimulation)

Chapter 2 Examples & Solutions
2.1 Introduction NGEN 4396

2.2 Steady-State Well Performance Natural Gas Production
2.3 Transient Flow of Undersaturated Oil
Prepared by Dr. Zhaoqi Fan
2.4 Pseudosteady-State Flow
2.5 Wells Draining Irregular Patterns
2.6 Inflow Performance Relationship
2.7 Effects of Water Production, Relative Permeability
2.8 Summary of Single-Phase Oil Inflow erformance Relationships
Example 2-1. Steady-State Production Rate Calculation and Rate Improvement (Stimulation)
Assume that a well in the reservoir described in Appendix A has a drainage area equal to 640
acres (re = 2980 ft) and is producing at steady state with an outer boundary (constant) pressure
equal to 5651 psi. Calculate the steady-state production rate if the flowing bottomhole pressure
is equal to 4500 psi. Use a skin effect equal to +10. Describe two mechanisms to increase the
flow rate by 50%. Show calculations.
Solution:
From Equation (2-9),
To increase the production rate by 50%, one possibility is to increase the drawdown, pe – pwf,
by 50%. Therefore,
leading to pwf = 3925 psi.
A second possibility is to increase JD by reducing the skin effect. In this case,
leading to s2 = 3.6.
Example 2-2. Effect of Drainage Area on Well Performance

Demonstrate the effect of drainage area on oilwell production rate by calculating the ratios of
production rates from 80-, 160-, and 640-acre drainage areas to that obtained from a 40-acre
drainage area. The well radius is 0.328 ft.
Solution:
Assuming that the skin effect is zero (this would result in the most pronounced difference in the
production rate), the ratios of the production rates (or productivity indices) can be given by an
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expression of the form
The drainage radius for a given drainage area is calculated by assuming that the well is in the
center of a circular drainage area. Thus,
The results are shown in Table 2-1. These ratios indicate that the drainage area assigned to a
well has a small impact on the production rate. For tight reservoirs, cumulative production
differences are particularly immune to the drainage area because transient behavior is evident
for much of the time.
Table 2-1. Production Rate Increases (over a 40-acre spacing)
Example 2-3. Prediction of Production Rate in an Infinite-Acting Oil Well

Using the well and reservoir variables in Appendix A, develop a production rate profile for 1
year assuming that no boundary effects emerge. Do this in increments of 2 months and use a
flowing bottomhole pressure equal to 3500 psi.
Solution
From Equation (2-25) and substitution of the appropriate variables in Appendix A, the well
production rate is given by
For t = 2 months, for Equation (2-27) the production rate q = 627 STB/d.

Figure 2-2. Rate decline for an infinite-acting oil reservoir (Example 2-3).
Example 2-4. Production from a No-Flow Boundary Reservoir

What would be the average reservoir pressure if the outer boundary pressure is 6000 psi, the
flowing bottomhole pressure is 3000 psi, the drainage area is 640 acres, and the well radius is
0.328 ft? What would be the ratio of the flow rates before (q1) and after (q2) the average
reservoir pressure drops by 1000 psi? Assume that s = 0.
Solution
A ratio of Equations (2-29) and (2-33) results in
The drainage area A = 640 and therefore re = 2980 ft. Substituting the given variables in
Equation (2-38) results in
The flow-rate ratio after the 1000 psi average pressure decline would be
Example 2-5. Impact of Irregular Well Positioning on Production Rate

Assume that two wells in the reservoir described in Appendix A each drain 640 acres.
Furthermore, assume that 𝑝̅ = 5651 psi (same as pi) and that s = 0. The flowing bottomhole
pressure in both is 3500 psi. However, well A is placed at the center of a square, whereas well
B is at the center of the upper right quadrant of a square drainage shape. Calculate the
production rates from the two wells at the onset of pseudosteady state. (This calculation is valid
only at very early time. At late time, either drainage shapes will change, if they are artificially

induced, or the average reservoir pressure will not decline uniformly within the drainage areas
because of different production rates and resulting different rates of depletion.)
Solution
Well A The shape factor, CA, from Figure 2-3 is equal to 30.9. Therefore, from Equation (2-44),
Well B Since it is located at the center of the upper right quadrant, its shape factor (from Figure
2-3) is equal to 4.5. All other variables in Equation (2-44) remain the same. The flow rate
calculated is then equal to 574 STB/d, representing a 10% reduction.
Example 2-6. Determining Average Reservoir Pressure within Adjoining Drainage Areas
The following data were obtained on a three-well fault block. A map with well locations is shown
in Figure 2-4. (Use properties as for the reservoir described in Appendix A.)
Figure 2-4. Three-well fault block for Example 2-6. (a problem by H. Dykstra, class notes, 1976)
Each well produced for 200 days since the previous shut-in. At the end of the 200 days, the
following rates and skin effects were obtained from each well:
If the bottomhole pressure is 2000 psi for each well, calculate the average reservoir pressure
within each drainage area.
Solution

The drainage volumes formed by the production rate of each well are related by
Since h varies, the volumes can be replaced by the product hiAi, where i refers to each well.
Finally, a third equation is needed:
Equations (2-46), (2-47), and (2-48) result in

AA = 129 acres (5.6 × 106 ft2)
AB = 243 acres (1.06 × 107 ft2)
AC = 108 acres (4.7 × 106 ft2)
The next step is to sketch these areas on the fault block map.
From Figure 2-3, well A is shape no. 12 (CA = 10.8), well B is shape no. 7 (CA = 30.9), and well
C is shape no. 10 (CA = 3.3). From Equation (2-44) and for well A,
The average pressures in the drainage areas for wells B and C are calculated to be 2838 and
2643 psi, respectively.
Example 2-7. Transient IPR

Using the well and reservoir data in Appendix A, construct transient IPR curves for 1, 6, and 24
months. Assume zero skin.
Solution
Equation (2-24) with substituted variables takes the form

Figure 2-5. Transient IPR curves for Example 2-7.
Example 2-8. Steady-State IPR: Influence of the Skin Effect
Assume that the initial reservoir pressure of the well described in Appendix A is also the
constant pressure of the outer boundary, pe (steady state). Draw IPR curves for skin effects
equal to 0, 5, 10, and 50, respectively. Use a drainage radius of 2980 ft (A = 640 acres).
Solution
Equation (2-9) describes a straight-line relationship between q and pwf for any skin effect. For
example, after substitution of variables for a skin equal to 5, Equation (2-9) becomes
Similarly, the multipliers of the rate for the 0, 10, and 50 skin effects are 3.66, 7.67, and 23.7,
respectively.

Figure 2-6. Steady-state and impact of skin effect for Example 2-8.
Example 2-9. Pseudosteady-State IPR: Influence of Average Reservoir Pressure
This calculation is the most useful and the one most commonly done for the forecast of well
performance. Each IPR curve reflects a “snapshot” of well performance at a given reservoir
pressure. This is a time-dependent calculation, done in discrete intervals. Combination with
volumetric material balances (treated in Chapter 10) will allow the forecast of rate and
cumulative production versus time.
For this exercise, calculate the IPR curves for zero skin effect but for average reservoir
pressures in increments of 500 psi from the “initial” 5651 to 3500 psi. Use all other variables
from Appendix A. Drainage radius is 2980 ft.
Solution
Equation (2-44) is the generalized pseudosteady-state equation for any drainage shape and
well position. For a circular drainage shape, Equation (2-34) is sufficient.
Substituting the variables from Appendix A into Equation (2-34) results (for 𝑝̅ 5651 𝑝𝑠𝑖) in
For all average reservoir pressures, the slope in Equation (2-51) will remain the same. The
intercept will simply be the average pressure. Therefore, as shown in Figure 2-7, the
pseudosteady-state IPR curves are depicted as parallel straight lines, each reflecting an
average reservoir pressure.
the slope of the IPR

is the reciprocal of
the productivity
index, J.

Figure 2-7. Pseudosteady-state IPR curves for a range of average reservoir pressures.

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Chapter 2 Examples & Solutions

2.1 Introduction NGEN 4396

From Equation (2-9),

leading to pwf = 3925 psi.

A second possibility is to increase JD by reducing the skin effect. In this case,

Example 2-2. Effect of Drainage Area on Well Performance

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Table 2-1. Production Rate Increases (over a 40-acre spacing)

Example 2-3. Prediction of Production Rate in an Infinite-Acting Oil Well

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Example 2-4. Production from a No-Flow Boundary Reservoir

Example 2-5. Impact of Irregular Well Positioning on Production Rate

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Equations (2-46), (2-47), and (2-48) result in

Example 2-7. Transient IPR

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the slope of the IPR

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