P R O D U C T I O N

T E C H N O L O G Y

ANALYZING WELL PRODUCTION DATA

BY USE OF COMBINED TYPE-CURVE- AND
DECLINE-CURVE-ANALYSIS CONCEPTS
Estimation of hydrocarbons in place is
required to determine the economic viability of project development and to satisfy
requirements of regulatory agencies.
During the past 50 years, various methods
have been developed for estimating
reserves from high-permeability oil reservoirs and low-permeability gas reservoirs.
These methods range from basic materialbalance methods to decline- and type-curve
analysis. They have varying limitations and
are based on analytical solutions, graphical
solutions, and a combination of the two.
Decline-curve-analysis methods have
been used for the past 50 years to analyze
production data and forecast reserves. Typecurve-analysis methods have become popular during the last 30 years to analyze pressure-transient-test data. Pressure-transient
data can be costly to obtain and may not be
available for many wells, while production
data are collected routinely and are available
from industry databases. New productiondecline type curves provide a method that
uses readily available well production data
to perform pressure-transient analysis.
These new production-decline type curves
represent an improvement over previous
work because a clearer distinction can be
made between transient- and boundarydominated-flow periods. The new curves
also contain derivative functions similar to
those used in the pressure-transient literature to aid in the matching process. The fulllength paper documents new productiondecline type curves for estimating reserves
and determining other reservoir parameters
for oil and gas wells by use of production
data. Solutions for constant-rate or conThis article is a synopsis of paper SPE
49222, Analyzing Well Production
Data Using Combined Type-Curve- and
Decline-Curve-Analysis Concepts, by
R.G. Agarwal, SPE, D.C. Gardner, SPE,
S.W. Kleinsteiber, SPE, and D.D.
Fussell, SPE, Amoco E&P Co., originally presented at the 1998 SPE Annual
Technical Conference and Exhibition,
New Orleans, 2730 September.
76

stant-bottomhole-pressure (BHP) production for oil and gas can be converted to

equivalent constant-rate liquid solutions.
BACKGROUND

Transient- and Pseudosteady-State-Flow

Conditions. A well is in a transient condition from the time it is first opened to flow
until the production from the well affects
the total reservoir system. At that time, the
well begins flowing under a pseudosteadystate- or a boundary-dominated-flow condition. Transient-rate and -pressure data are
used to determine reservoir permeability,
near-wellbore conditions, and fracture
length and conductivity. Pseudosteadystate data are required to estimate fluid in
place and reserves.
DISCUSSION

The first objective of this study was to verify, by use of a single-phase finite-difference
reservoir simulator, that constant-rate and
-BHP solutions for liquid and gas systems
can be converted to an equivalent constantrate liquid solution. Constant-rate liquid
solutions are well-understood for both
transient and pseudosteady-state conditions and are used widely for pressure-transient-analysis purposes. With constant-rate
liquid solutions, many well-known pressure-transient-analysis techniques can be
used to plot decline-curve data on different
types of graph paper.
Dimensionless Variables. Dimensionless
variables frequently used in type curves for
pressure-transient analysis are dimensionless wellbore pressure, pwD, and its derivatives with respect to dimensionless time
and with respect to the log of dimensionless
time. Reciprocals of pwD and its derivatives
plotted vs. dimensionless time can be used
to make a type-curve graph appear like a
decline curve.
CONSTANT-RATE AND -BHP
EQUIVALENCE

Liquid Solutions. Two radial-liquid-system

cases were considered. The two systems

were identical, except in one case the well

was produced at a constant rate and in the
other the well was produced at a constant
BHP. Comparing the graphs of both cases
shows that the two sets of results are very
similar during the transition period, but that
they are quite different for the pseudosteady-state period. Constant-BHP results
replotted with a modified time are equivalent to the constant-rate solutions. Gas in
place (GIP) can be estimated from this plot.
Gas Solutions. Two radial gas systems, one
a constant-rate case and the other a constant-BHP case, were considered. During the
transition period, constant-rate and -BHP
cases appear identical. The difference
between the two cases during the pseudosteady-state period is significant. This is to
be expected because of variations in gas
properties. To obtain equivalent solutions,
first a dimensionless time based on the modified time instead of real time is used. Then,
time is redefined in terms of pseudotime,
where a gas-properties product is calculated
as a function of average reservoir pressure.
After these modifications, the two gas cases
are identical during both the transient and
pseudosteady-state periods, verifying that it
is possible to convert constant-BHP liquid as
well as constant-rate and -BHP gas cases into
an equivalent constant-rate liquid case.
PRODUCTION-DECLINE
TYPE CURVES

The full-length paper presents three categories of new decline type curves: (1)
rate/time, (2) rate/cumulative production,
and (3) cumulative production/time.
Rate/Cumulative-Production Curves. A
graph commonly made by operations and
field engineers is rate or normalized rate as
a function of cumulative production. To
investigate the character of these graphs,
dimensionless groups 1/pwD and the derivative of pwD with respect to dimensionless
cumulative production, QpD, were plotted
as functions of QpD. Fig. 1 shows the results
in the form of type curves for radial-flow
OCTOBER 1998

P R O D U C T I O N

T E C H N O L O G Y

re/rwa produce a single curve during transient flow. During pseudosteady-state flow,
the curves diverge and become flat.
ABOUT TYPE CURVES

Fig. 1Rate/cumulative-production-decline type curves for radial flow, r e=reservoir

radius, ft; rwa=apparent wellbore radius, ft.

systems for reservoir radius/wellbore

radius, re/rwa, values of 10,000, 1,000, and
100. During the pseudosteady-state-flow
period, the 1/pwD curves become linear and
converge at QpD=1/(2)=0.159. This is
called an anchor-point value and is useful
in estimating GIP. For an optimistic estimate of GIP, the trajectory of the field data
undershoots the anchor point; for a pessimistic estimate of GIP, it overshoots the

anchor point. This graph is very useful in

converging on a correct value of GIP.
Cumulative-Production/Time Curves.
These curves are useful because field
cumulative-production data are often
smoother than the corresponding rate data.
Fig. 2 shows dimensionless cumulative
production, QpD, as a function of re/rwa
plotted vs. dimensionless time. All values of

Dimensionless Time

Fig. 2Cumulative production vs. time production-decline type curves for radial flow.

OCTOBER 1998

The type curves presented in Figs. 9 to 19

in the full-length paper represent a new
contribution to technology and contribute
to recent work within the industry in
advanced type-curve methods. Recent
developments from several published
sources are integrated into more complete
sets of type curves for both radial and fracture flow in both transient- and boundarydominated-flow conditions. Derivative type
curves from both radial and fracture flow in
terms of dimensionless rate and rate derivatives vs. dimensionless time that are based
on normalized rate and equivalent fluid
properties are included. New dimensionless-rate and rate-derivative type curves in
terms of QpD were created.
The new suite of type curves considers
both transient and pseudosteady-state conditions as well as the transition between the
two. They can be generated easily by use of
a reservoir simulator for any desired flow
system, such as radial flow and vertically
fractured wells.
CONCLUSIONS

1. A new set of rate/time, rate/cumulativeproduction, and cumulative-production/time

production-decline type curves and their
associated derivatives was developed with
pressure-transient-analysis concepts.
2. These curves were developed for
radial systems as well as vertically fractured wells with infinite- and finite-conductivity fractures.
3. These new production-decline type
curves represent an advancement over previous work because a clearer distinction
can be made between transient- and
boundary-dominated-flow periods.
4. These curves provide a practical tool
for field engineers to estimate reservoir permeability, skin effect, fracture length, and
fracture conductivity.
5. These type curves use routinely collected production data and those available
from industry databases to replace costly
pressure-transient-test data.

Please read the full-length paper for

additional detail, illustrations, and references. The paper from which the synopsis has been taken has not been peer
reviewed.
77