Application of Well Production Data to Reservoir Characterization

Abstract

Abstract Many researchers have attempted to characterize reservoirs by qualitatively integrating all available seismic, geological, well logging, and core data. However, very few efforts have been made to incorporate the production data, an important reflection of reservoir properties, in reservoir characterization researches. One of the main reasons for the lack of efforts can be attributed to difficulties in determining reservoir properties from well performance data. In our study, well production data are used to derive relative trends of reservoir property distributions instead of calculating the exact reservoir parameters. These trends can be used as soft data in integrated reservoir characterization studies. Our approach was to partition reservoir into separate drainage area for each well and derive average reservoir pressure within this drainage area of a well from production data. The productivity index was then calculated and mapped using geostatistical techniques. Reservoir permeability trends were then derived from this field productivity index mapping. The validity of our approach was then checked using a conventional reservoir simulator.