Techbits: Reservoir Testing's Benefits Reviewed in Malaysia

Abstract

Techbits Recognizing that step changes in oil and gas recovery can only be achieved through analogous step changes in reservoir understanding, a recent SPE Applied Technology Workshop aimed to explore the limits and new promises in reservoir testing. The May 2009 workshop, titled "Reservoir Testing for Maximizing Understanding and Recovery," gathered more than 60 participants from 18 countries to Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia to review different reservoir-testing and fluid-sampling technologies aimed at providing more detailed subsurface information which will ultimately lead to improved recovery. The participants represented both service and operating companies and had an average of 15 years experience, a point which Tuan Haji Akbar Tajudin Abdul Wahab, senior general manager, Petroleum Engineering Department, Petronas Carigali, acknowledged in his keynote address. He said that collectively there were nearly 1,000 years of wisdom in the room. Wahab used his keynote to challenge the use of the term "well testing," suggesting that it fails to capture the diversity of testing available to the industry today. He proposed that it is time to expand the scope of reservoir testing to cover new technologies, and that new ways of working should be developed to allow an optimal use of new technology with the resources. He also emphasized the need to properly integrate reservoir test results into reservoir models, which can be assisted by proper test planning and design. Not only can the value of the reservoir information be better assessed with proper planning, but it may help avoid unnecessary tests and bring innovation back into reservoir testing. New Technologies, Improved Reservoir Characterization In the session titled "Applications of New Technologies," discussion leaders (DLs) reviewed new methods to collect data cost-effectively and ways to maximize the utility of the information collected. The DLs discussed alternative ways of analyzing large data sets from permanent sensors and the long-term reliability of hardware, such as logging-while-drilling tools, in providing fluid samples that could accurately characterize formation properties. The last DL examined smart-well technologies, demonstrating how these could be useful additions to not only production and recovery optimization, but also in providing greater flexibility in testing at all stages of a well's life.