Estimation of Permeability, Skin, and Inflow Profile in Multilayered Systems from Temperature Transient Data Using a Coupled Nonisothermal, Transient Reservoir and Wellbore Model

Abstract

Abstract The objective of this paper is to investigate the estimation of layer permeability, skin, and inflow profile from observations of production-logging-tool (PLT) and/or distributed temperature sensing (DTS) for a multilayered system where the layers communicate only through the wellbore. To achieve this objective, we develop a thermal, transient coupled reservoir/wellbore simulator that numerically solves transient mass, momentum, and energy conservation equations simultaneously for both reservoir and wellbore. The simulator accounts for the Joule-Thomson (J-T), adiabatic expansion, conduction, and convection effects for predicting the flow profiles across the wellbore. A comparison of the developed model with a commercial simulator is provided for the single-phase fluid flow of oil or geothermal brine from partially penetrating vertical or inclined wells with distinct fluid and formation properties. A sensitivity study on transient pressure, rate, and temperature profiles to identify the effect of the layer petrophysical properties and the layer thermophysical parameters is also conducted through synthetically generated test data sets from the developed simulator. In addition, nonlinear parameter estimation with the use of both profiles is shown to be useful to reveal permeability and skin information about individual layers. The results show that temperature transient data are more reflective of the properties of the near wellbore region, while wellbore pressures are determined more by average reservoir parameters. The simulator proves practical for designing a PLT test provided that limitations such as single-phase fluid flow having vertical or inclined well equipped with a thorough fluid characterization (EOS) are met. Such design tests may provide a good source for cross-checking PLT flow profiles and validating the fluid contributions from layers that are open to flow. It is often that the spinner of the field PLT tool does not operate properly at very low flow rates. Also, the spinner may fail to calculate and construct PLT plots accurately at very high flow rates. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study that presents a coupled transient reservoir/wellbore model for predicting layer permeability, skin, and inflow profile of a well from observations of pressure, temperate, and/or rate data from production-logging-tools (PLTs) and/or distributed temperature sensing (DTS) fiber optic cables.