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Deconvolution came up about 10 years ago and has become the

driving tool in well test analysis. However, deconvolution is still
not often used in well test design, operations and interpretation.
Perhaps due to these 5 main misconceptions.

What is Deconvolution?
In a linear system with a single well, the well flowing pressure is
given by the convolution integral (also called Duhamels
principle or superposition principle):

With Pi: initial pressure, Pwf(t): well flowing pressure at

bottom-hole conditions, q(t) is the sandface well rate and pu(t)
the well pressure response due to a constant unit-rate
production.

The constant-rate drawdown response pu (t) can be obtain from

initial pressure Pi, the well pressure from one or more PBU tests
and the rate data.

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As a result, the deconvolution technique transforms variable rate

and pressure data into an equivalent initial constant-rate
pressure response (in purple in the plot above) with duration
equal to the duration T of the entire test.
Plotting this response and its derivative with respect to the log of
time (log t) in the derivative plot (or log-log plot) gives the
deconvolved response, as shown in red in the figure below.

The duration of the deconvolved derivative plot is equal to that

of the entire test sequence, from well start-up to the time when
the PBU test is performed. In addition, deconvolution is free from
any error, which explains the discrepancy between the
conventional derivative (in blue) and deconvolution (in red).

Yes this is all fine, but:

I dont need deconvolution (and I dont need to learn it), I am

perfectly happy with my good old derivative. It does the job!
If you understand the conventional derivative, youll understand
the deconvolved derivative: it has the same principles, the same
slopes for the different flow regimes, etc All the things that you

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learnt with the conventional derivative can be applied with

deconvolution. The only main differences are that the
deconvolved derivative lasts longer and is free of distortion (error
due to the way the conventional derivative is calculated). So
deconvolution improves your understanding of the pressure
transient response. In fact, we could say that if you understand
deconvolution, you truly understand well test analysis.

Deconvolution is a sort of improved derivative and it improves

the understanding of the pressure transient response. Since it is
developed over a longer time interval, deconvolution will bring
more constraints and as a result will help reduce non-uniqueness
and minimize the range of possible values.
Deconvolution helps to give technical evidence to increase the
connected volume, refine initial pressure and even shorten the
shut-in period. On one occasion, we showed that deconvolution
could help to reduce shut-in time by more than 70% and provide
technical evidence to increase the connected hydrocarbon
volume by more than 30%.

And when you already have the data, it is free to use! Most likely,
you will get much more value out of your data and with a lower
cost. On some occasions, you could even reduce the shut-in
duration by some few days, with some big impact on operations.
(given about half million dollars rig cost)
Are you sure you dont want to investigate deconvolution ?

Deconvolution is not real, it is all mathematics.

There is a lot of maths with the algorithm to extract the
deconvolved response, but not much more than behind the well
test theory. Plus, you dont need to get any of these mathematics
to fully understand what deconvolution is and how to use it.
Whether we are talking about the conventional or deconvolved
derivative, both are not measured but calculated. So both are
not real

Deconvolution has a very limited application, it needs linear

flow equations.
Indeed, deconvolution should work only with linear flow

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equations, when the superposition theory is valid. But this is the

same as for the well test theory. Strictly speaking, conventional
derivative should only be applied to linear systems. However,
some critical and valid information can still be extracted about
the well and reservoir, even with non-linear equations. (there will
be a video session on well and reservoir surveillance with well
test analysis).

On some occasions, single well deconvolution can still be used

with the onset of a gas breakout or liquid dropout, on some water
injectors, in the presence of (weak) interference, etc And we
still find ways to bypass current limitations with new
enhancements.

I never can recover a reliable deconvolution. It is too

sensitive to small changes of parameters or it doesnt seem to
work.
Well on some occasions, deconvolution wont work, its simple as
that. For example, if you are using pressure data from a shallow
gauge or if there is heavy multiphase flow in the reservoir,
deconvolution will probably fail.
In each case, you need to ensure the validity of deconvolution
before using it in the analysis.
There are some particular techniques and processes to recover a
reliable deconvolved response, some as simple as cleaning the
data.
You also need to make sure that you have enough information to
derive a reliable deconvolved response. This is particularly
critical when designing new acquisition of pressure data.

Some colleagues (boss) still dont believe in deconvolution

and dont trust the results of deconvolution.
There will always be people that are not too excited about
advances and new techniques, even if it can help your company
get more valuable data at a lower cost.
If you checked the validity of deconvolution, used it as a driving
tool and checked that the other verification tools were matched,
then your confidence should be pretty high. If someone doesnt

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want to use this technique, just remove the deconvolution plot

from your analysis and show only the other tools. Win-Win

These are the 5 main misconceptions that we most commonly

hear about deconvolution. What about you, have you heard
any other ones?

For more information or for a discussion on this topic, please
dont hesitate to contact us.

Tagged with: deconvolution, PBU analysis, petroleum engineering, well test deconvolution, well test interpretation, well
testing, well testing new development, well testing technology, well testing tools
Posted in: Info Room

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