Permeability, Skin and Inflow Profile Estimation From Production Logging Tool Temperature Traces

Abstract

Abstract Temperatures traces from multiple rates are used to estimate the production inflow profile and layer permeability and skin using a transient coupled reservoir/wellbore model. Production Logging Tool (PLT) temperature traces from two rates show heating of approximately 6–11 °F above the geothermal due to Joule-Thomson expansion of the reservoir oil. Production is single phase oil from a high pressure oil reservoir. Nonlinear regression was used to automatically adjust the layer permeability and skin values until the observation temperature traces from both rates were matched. History matching the temperature data provides a quantitative estimate of the skin and permeability within each contributing layer; this cannot be obtained from conventional pressure transient analysis which unless for highly specialized cases provides only a single value of permeability and skin. The production inflow profile is then constructed using the history matched layer permeability and skin values. In addition to the wellbore temperature profiles, temperature and pressure profiles within the reservoir will be shown which illustrate the relative impact of the reservoir permeability and skin on the wellbore temperature responses. Information on the coupled reservoir/wellbore model and the optimizer will be provided.