Investigation of permeability change in the Bandanna Coal Formation of the Fairview Field using time-lapse pressure transient analysis

Abstract

Permeability of coal seam gas (CSG) reservoirs is stress/desorption dependent and may change during the life of the reservoir. This study investigates permeability change with depletion in several CSG wells in the Fairview Field: a prolific reservoir in the Bowen Basin, Australia. High-resolution pressure gauges at surface provide an opportunity to conduct time-lapse pressure transient analysis (PTA) on the wells that have multiple shut-ins. Pressure build-up tests can be replicated by calculating bottom-hole pressure when surface pressure (tubing and/or annulus) is recorded at high-resolution during any shut-in event. This eliminates the need to perform multiple well tests, which are time consuming and costly to run. The production history of 100 CSG wells was examined to find suitable candidates to perform time-lapse PTA. This was used to investigate how Bandanna Coal permeability changes with depletion. Three wells with high-quality shut-ins were identified and analysed to calculate effective permeability to gas and average reservoir pressure. The results indicate that coal permeability can enhance up to one order of magnitude during the life of a CSG well in the Fairview Field, and this can significantly improve production performance. These wells, located in a depleted area of the field, show rapid increase in permeability with decline in average reservoir pressure. The integration of rate transient analysis with the results of time-lapse PTA for one of the study wells reveals that the functional form of permeability increase is exponential in the study area, and a permeability modulus of –0.00678 psia–1 was obtained.