Well Test Analysis in

Gas/Condensate Reservoirs
Published analyses of well tests in The existence of
gas/condensate reservoirs at pres- the fourth region
sures below dewpoint pressure usu- is important be-
ally are based on a two-zone radial cause it would
composite model. Laboratory exper- counter the reduc-
iments and numerical simulations tion in productivi-
suggest that three different mobility ty caused by liquid
zones could exist: (1) an outer zone dropout. This
away from the well with initial liq- velocity strip-
uid condensate saturation, (2) a ping has been
zone nearer the well with increased inferred from lab-
condensate saturation and lower oratory experi-
gas mobility, and (3) a zone in the ments and numer-
immediate vicinity of the well with ical simulation but
increased gas relative permeability. there has been lit-
The full-length paper investigates tle evidence of it Fig. 1Pressure and derivative composite behavior.
Reservoir Per formance

the existence of the third zone in in published well-

well-test data and discusses an
example of well-test analysis that
illustrates the difficulty of identify-
ing such a zone.
Introduction
When reservoir pressure drops below
dewpoint pressure, retrograde con-
densation occurs and three regions
with different liquid saturations are
created around the wellbore. An outer
zone has the initial liquid condensate
saturation. An intermediate zone
nearer the well has increased conden-
sate saturation and decreased gas rela-
tive permeability. Closer to the well,
an inner zone forms where liquid sat-
uration reaches a critical value. A
fourth region where low interfacial
tensions at high rates result in a
decrease in liquid saturation and an
increase in gas relative permeability
may exist in the immediate wellbore
vicinity. The first, third, and fourth
regions should appear as three differ-
ent permeability zones in a well test.
This article is a synopsis of paper SPE
62920, Well Test Analysis in
Gas/Condensate Reservoirs, by A.C.
Gringarten, SPE, A. Al-Lamki, SPE,
and S. Daungkaew, Imperial College
of Science, Technology, and Medicine;
R. Mott, SPE, AEA Technology; and
T.M. Whittle, SPE, Baker Hughes, orig-
inally presented at the 2000 SPE
Annual Technical Conference and
Exhibition, Dallas, 14 October.
test data.
Previous Work
Because draw-
down data are
affected by flow-
rate fluctuations
and noise caused
by condensate
dropout in the
wellbore, buildup
data are used in
most published
well-test data
analyses of gas/
Fig. 2Gas relative permeability during first extended
condensate reser- drawdown.
voirs. Analyses
use pressure, sin-
gle-phase pseudopressure, or two- There has been no published well-
phase pseudopressure. Two-phase test data analysis that exhibits a
pseudopressure analyses require region of increased gas mobility in
good relative permeability measure- the immediate wellbore vicinity
ments and result in homogeneous- which should result in a response
appearing derivatives. Single-phase similar to Curve b in Fig. 1.
pseudopressure analyses often result
in composite-shaped derivatives Simulation Studies
below the dewpoint. These usually Before field-data analysis, a number
resemble Curve a in Fig. 1 and sug- of simulations were performed by use
gest the existence of two mobility of a compositional simulator to devel-
zones, one in the vicinity of the well- op an understanding of derivative
bore with reduced gas effective per- shapes to be expected from well-test
meability because of liquid dropout, data. The simulator calculates pres-
and one away from the well with sin- sure/volume/temperature properties
gle-phase gas where reservoir pres- by use of an equation of state and
sure is above the dewpoint. Analysis varies condensate and gas relative
of this buildup data with a two- permeabilities as a function of the
region composite model provides capillary number. The simulation
total skin and a two-phase skin. model represents a single well in a

68
NOVEMBER 2000

Fig. 3Diagnostic plot for Well C.
homogeneous radial reservoir of uni-
form thickness. The model consists of
40 cells with a 11,950-ft outer radius
to ensure that there are no boundary
effects in the simulated well tests.
Reservoir Per formance
Cells near the wellbore are small to
simulate the gas/condensate near-
wellbore behavior accurately. Cell
size increases logarithmically away
from the wellbore. The model does
not include wellbore-storage effects
or mechanical skin.
Simulation runs were designed to
show gas/condensate behavior under
different production conditions. In
all cases, initial reservoir pressure
was set just above dewpoint pressure
so liquid-phase condensate would
form at the start of production. A
simulation run consists of 10 periods
of alternating drawdown and
buildup. The first drawdown is
extended (100 days) to allow con-
densate to accumulate in the near-
wellbore region and the following
periods are 10 days long. Variations
of this production history were run
with different rates, gas/oil relative
permeability models, and fluid com-
positions. Capillary number effects
reduce condensate saturation around
the well and in the reservoir. As time
increases, the condensate reduction
is greater in the immediate vicinity of
the wellbore. A plot of the corre-
sponding gas relative permeability
(Fig. 2) has a minimum between 10
and 100 ft, a maximum correspond-
ing to single-phase gas away from the
well, and an intermediate value a few
feet from the well. These represent
the three mobility regions and
should result in three stabilizations
on the derivative plot.
70
Fig. 4Analysis of gas/condensate Well C with the
three-region composite model.
Wellbore Dynamics
One reason few well tests show a
zone of increased gas mobility
around the wellbore is that such data
are difficult to identify with confi-
dence. When the data exists, it is
likely to be hidden by wellbore
phase-redistribution effects. Phase
redistribution occurs when different
phases flow in different directions in
the wellbore and results in an
increase in wellbore-storage coeffi-
cient that may be present in draw-
downs or buildups. Phase redistribu-
tion is different from a phase change
which creates a decrease in wellbore-
storage coefficient in buildups and an
increase in wellbore-storage coeffi-
cient in drawdowns. Phase change
effects on pressure behavior usually
are limited to early times but a well-
bore storage increase caused by
phase redistribution may dominate
the test for many hours. Recognition
of the existence of wellbore phase
redistribution is important because it
can result in derivative shapes that
could be misinterpreted easily
because they are similar to derivative
shapes resulting from double poro-
sity, partial penetration, or compos-
ite behaviors.
Early Time Well-Test Behavior
One objective of the study was to
confirm the existence of an
increased-gas-mobility zone at high
rates in the immediate vicinity of the
wellbore by use of well-test data.
Data for Well C, a North Sea gas/con-
densate well, (Fig. 3) seem to show a
three-region composite behavior and
could be interpreted to quantify three
mobility zones. The final derivative
stabilization, corresponding to the
mobility of the gas with the initial
condensate saturation, is slightly
below the last data points after 100
hours. The derivative stabilization
corresponding to the increased con-
densate saturation is at the level of
the derivative hump near 10 hours.
The location of the derivative stabi-
lization corresponding to the en-
hanced gas mobility is more difficult
to identify and must be between the
other two. The minimum at 1 hour
must correspond to wellbore phase-
redistribution effects.
Once the choice of the first stabi-
lization has been made, an analysis
can be performed by use of a three-
region composite model. Fig. 4 shows
the log-log match for Well C.
Conclusions
The full-length paper presents pre-
liminary results of a systematic study
of gas/condensate reservoir well
tests. The study investigated the
existence of different mobility zones
resulting from condensate dropout
and velocity stripping. Phase redis-
tribution was found to be a major
problem in data analysis because it
can create drawdown or buildup
shapes that can be misinterpreted.
An example was found that exhibit-
ed three stabilizations on the deriva-
tive plot corresponding to three
mobility zones. JPT
Please read the full-length paper for
additional detail, illustrations, and ref-
erences. The paper from which the
synopsis has been taken has not been
peer reviewed.
NOVEMBER 2000