Natural Gas Technology - Testing and Analyzing Low-Permeability Fractured Gas Wells

The constant-rate drawdown test performance for a low-permeability, verticany fractured gas well was investigated. A series of gar wells were tested by flowing each well at constant rate until the data could be analyzed using con-ventional radial flow theory. Each well was then shut in to build up. After a sufficient buildup was obtained, another flow Iest commenced but at a higher flow rate than Ihe first test. Again, the well was shut in when radial fiow was obtained. his procedure was repeated for three to four different flow rates. Two wells in the San Juan basin were tested using this procedure. Both wellere fractured after completion, cleaned up and then shut in until flow testing commenced. Test designs of both wells permitted investigation of the most realistic values of egective permeability, wellbore radius and turbulence factor. Also, being able to determine the eflective fracture flow area and vertical fraclure efficiency was inherent with this testing approach. It was observed that fractures in both wells influenced the Pressure behavior for approximately Is to 40 hours (depending on the flow rate) before radial flow was evident. After this time, drawdown data were analyzed using radial pow theory. When a low-permeability gas well has vertitally oriented, induced fractures, the early flow geometry ic. essentially linear. It will be shown how to determine when a flow test has been conducted long enough so lha' the most representative values of effective permeahiiity. wellbore radius and turbulence factw can be calculated. From the linear pressure data, valuable information about The fracture treatment, such as the effective flow area and vertical fracture efficiency, can be determined for vertically froctured wells. Introduction During tests on gas wells in the Sari Juan basin7 initial transient behavior lasted for many days because of the low permeability of some porous media. As a result, stabilized flow performance could not be obtained. If these wells received some type of stimulation treatment, early pressure behavior deviated from conventional theoretical radial Row. When conventional radial flow theory was used to analyze these low-permeability fractured gas wells, larger values of flow capacity and absolute open flow potentials (AOF) sometimes resulted. Wells were assigned open flow poten- tials that proved to be 3 to 10 times higher than the well would sustain over a longer period of production. In some cases where the wells had flowed for longer periods of time during a constant-rate drawdown test, it was noticed that the effective flow capacity appeared to be decreasing with time until a certain value was reached. The early nonradial pressure behavior can be explained If linear flow is assumed. Rusell and Truitt mathematic. ally investigated the vertically fractured well in a bounded area. They showed that early flow behavior was essentially linear and, for x,/x. approximately less than 0.10 radial flow was obtained after short periods of time. Then realistic values of effective permeability and skin could be determined. Scotta experimentaliy studied the vertically fractured well with a heat flow analog. He showed that earb flow was linear, Both studies indicate that, for small values of x,/x,, linear flow approaches radial flow if the well is tested long enough, To help prove this concept of early linear flow caused by induced vertical fractures, two low-permeability gas wells were tested. Both wells received large fracture treatments prior to testing. A vertical fracture was indicated from the analysis of fracture treatments, As anticipated, tests of both wells indicated early linear flow that was later followed by a period of radial flow, Data collected from each well were analyzed. From the well tests, plus other information on each well, the effective permeability, wellbore radius and turbulence factor were calculated. Effective fracture flow areas calculated from test analyses for each well proved to be approximately one-fourth the created area calculated from classic hydraulic fracturing theory: other fractured wells that were tested but not presented in this paper also indicated that the effective fracture flow area was one-fourth to one-third the created area predicted from hydraulic fracturing theory. The vertical fracturing efficiency was estimated from the calculated values of effective wellbore radius and fracture flow area. For the two wells tested, calculated fracture lengths x, were 112 and 105 ft, and the vertical fracturing efficiencies E, were 122 and 183 percent. Development of Flow Model Agnew' showed that most induced fractures below 1,500 ft are vertical. Anderson and Stah15 indicated that most of the fractures they studied were vertical. Thc model proposed for early flow in most vertically fractured gas wells is shown by Fig. 1. This model should approximate early flow behavior until radial flow is reached, at which time a radial model with an effective wellbore radius of 0.5 they will