Variable-rate reservoir limits testing
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Copyright 1986, Society of Petroleum Engineers. This paper presents a new method of estimating drainage area size and shape from production data (bottom-hole pressures and flowrates). The method is a rigorously derived approximation for variable-rate flow in. a closed reservoir. This method requires a graph of Ap/qm vs. the superposition plotting function (which is easily calculated by hand). The slope and intercept of the graph are used to provide the desired estimates of drainage area size and shape. The method that we propose is an approximation, however it has been proved to be very accurate for the constant rate, constant pressure, exponential rate, logarithmic rate, hyperbolic rate, sinusoidal rate, and discrete rate cases. The method also gives acceptable results for square wave rate and random rate cases. The new method is derived for the time after the initial pressure transient has reached the outer boundary. The changes in flowrate cause additional transients, but we assume that this effect is negligible when compared to the influence of the outer boundary. Therefore, if the change in flowrate does not dominate the influence of the outer boundary, the new method should give acceptable results. Also, at present, this method is only derived for single-phase flow of a liquid of small and constant compressibility.
