A New Refracture-Candidate Diagnostic Test Determines Reservoir Properties and Identifies Existing Conductive or Damaged Fractures

Abstract A new refracture-candidate diagnostic test is presented that requires a brief injection at a pressure exceeding the fracture initiation and propagation pressure followed by an extended shut-in period with the pressure falloff recorded. Provided the time of injection is short relative to the reservoir response, the pressure falloff can be analyzed as a slug test by transforming and plotting the falloff data on a variable-storage, constant-rate drawdown type curve for a well producing from single or multiple finite- or infinite-conductivity vertical fractures in an infinite-acting reservoir. Characteristic variable storage behavior is used to diagnose a pre-existing fracture retaining residual width and to determine if a pre-existing fracture is damaged. Using the proposed model and analysis methodology, a quantitative type-curve/model match can be used to estimate reservoir properties. In addidtion to the new fracture diagnostic solution, a new single-phase fracture-injection/falloff dimensionless pressure solution is also provided along with new pressure-transient solutions for a well producing from multiple arbitrarily-oriented finite- or infinite-conductivity fractures.

A New Refracture-Candidate Diagnostic Test Determines Reservoir Properties and Identifies Existing Conductive or Damaged Fractures Conference Paper