Modeling the Interfering Effects of Gas Condensate and Geological Heterogeneities on Transient Pressure Response

Abstract

Summary Numerous publications have investigated the effect of gas condensate fluid on the transient pressure well-test (WT) response. However, to the best of our knowledge, its combined effect with geology has rarely been studied. Our findings in the present report demonstrate that geology can complicate the WT response and make it difficult for interpretation. In this study, the impact of geological heterogeneities on the WT response of a commingled braided fluvial gas condensate reservoir has been investigated. Numerical WT data were generated for a single-well model with a commercial compositional reservoir simulator. Several sensitivity simulations were performed to explore the effects of correlation length, vertical permeability, production rate, and drawdown time on the pseudopressure-derivative curves. The WT weighting kernel function and the calculated well-pressure sensitivity coefficients were implemented to demonstrate different trends of drawdown and buildup responses encountered in this study. The results clarified the idea that some geological heterogeneities and production parameters can alter pressure distribution and condensate saturation and mask the native model WT signatures. In this exercise, it was demonstrated that ramp effect, a geologically complex phenomenon in high-net/gross commingled reservoirs, is affected by the condensate formation. This interfering phenomenon is reflected on the derivative curves and is magnified in the presence of the shorter correlation lengths, the lower vertical communications, and the higher production rates. We also examined the stepwise stripping of the reservoir heterogeneity, demonstrating the significant impact of some facies on the buildup and drawdown transient pressure response. The time-dependent sensitivity coefficients were calculated to show that the drawdown test is sensitive to effective permeability in near-wellbore regions, in which condensate is prone to build up with time. In the buildup, on the other hand, the condensate saturation is almost invariant with time and affects the early-time region. This work leads toward better understanding of the influence of geology in gas condensate WT interpretation of fluvial reservoirs.