Well Productivity
In the TDH section, we saw how to get friction
and wellhead pressure but we still had to be
given a fluid level.
Now we will look at ways of estimating the fluid
level depending on the type of well and what
information we are given.
Well Productivity
Pr is the average
reservoir closed-in
pressure
Reservoir
Perforations
Pr
Pr
Darcy's Law for radial flow into a
wellbore:
Pr
Flu
id ow
Flo Fl
w id
u
Fl
Pr Q=?
Pwf
Fluid Flow Fluid Flow
Fluid Flow
Reservoir outer Pr
"drainage"
boundary
Darcy's Law for radial flow into a wellbore:
For the system just described, Darcy's
Law looks like: -
7.08 x
10
3
k oh ( Pr P wf )
qo l 0.7
re
o Bo n 5
rw
qo = flow rate ko = effective
permeability
h = effective feet of pay o = average
viscosity
Pr = reservoir pressure Pwf = wellbore
pressure
re = drainage radius rw = wellbore radius
Darcy's Law for radial flow into a wellbore:
But what is this equation?
7.08 x -
10
3
k oh ( Pr P wf )
qo l 0.7
re
o Bo n 5
rw
Note: (Pr - Pwf) is the drawdown pressure
Darcy's Law for radial flow into a wellbore:
But what is this equation?
7.08 x -
10
3
k oh ( Pr P wf )
qo l 0.7
re
o Bo n 5
rw
Complicated!
Note: (Pr - Pwf) is the drawdown pressure
Darcy's Law for radial flow into a wellbore:
All of the data necessary for this equation is
usually not available. But if we make the
assumption that ko, h, re, rw, Bo and are
constant for a particular well (this is a pretty
good assumption), the equation becomes:
k1 k2 k3 ( Pr P wf )
qo l
k6
k 4k5 n k8
k7
Darcy's Law for radial flow into a wellbore:
Simplifying...
qo K Pr Pf )
( w
Darcy's Law for radial flow into a wellbore:
Re-arranging terms, we obtain...
1
Pf qo + Pr
w
K
Darcy's Law for radial flow into a wellbore:
This is an equation of the form" y=mx+b"
which is a straight line. Furthermore, the line
has a slope of "m" and a Y-intercept of "b".
The constant, K, has a special name:
Productivity Index or "PI" for short.
1
Pf
w qo+ P
K r
Darcy's Law for radial flow into a wellbore:
Graphically it would look like this:
Pressure - PSI
Intercept = Pr
Slope = -1/K
Pwf
0
0 Q - Flow Rate
(BPD)
Darcy's Law for radial flow into a wellbore:
The Productivity Index (PI) is equal to
the flow rate divided by the "drawdown":
qo
PI
(P r P w
f
)
Darcy's Law for radial flow into a wellbore:
Consider the following example:
Pr = 2,300 psi, and
Pwf = 1,200 psi @ qo = 1,150 bpd
What is the Productivity Index (PI) of the well?
115
0 = 1.046
PI bbl/day/psi
(2300 - 1200)
Darcy's Law for radial flow into a wellbore:
What is the maximum flow rate the well will
produce? The maximum flow rate occurs at
the maximum drawdown (Pwf = 0).
qmax o
ma
PI r q Pr x PI
(P
r 0 )
x
2300 x 1.046 =
qmax 2406
Darcy's Law for radial flow into a wellbore:
In some cases, the PI can also be improved
slightly by acidizing or fracturing. Acidizing
cleans up "skin" on the perforations and can
improve porosity in limestone reservoirs by
making larger holes for oil flow.
Before After
Skin Damage Acid
Darcy's Law for radial flow into a wellbore:
Fracturing can also improve porosity by
making large cracks near the wellbore.
Before After
Darcy's Law for radial flow into a wellbore:
Darcy's law works great for single phase fluid
(i.e. water, oil, or water/oil*) flowing into a
wellbore but what happens if gas comes "out
of solution" in the reservoir?
* Even though water and oil are two separate
phases, they are considered single phase
since they are both liquid.
Pressure drops as we
move toward the
wellbore
Pb
Gas will
begin
to form here
Pr
Pr
Darcy's Law for radial flow into a wellbore:
What happens when the gas comes out of
solution? Darcy's law works just as well for a
single phase gas as it does for a single phase
oil.
Let's look qualitatively at what will happen to
the flow rate of gas.
7.08 x -
3 w
10 kg h P r P f
qg l 0.7
re
g Bg n 5
rw
Darcy's Law for radial flow into a wellbore:
First of all, the permeability, k, will be much
higher for gas. What will this do to the flow
rate?
7.08 x -
3
10 kg h P r P wf
qg l 0.7
re
g Bg n 5
rw
Darcy's Law for radial flow into a wellbore:
First of all, the permeability, k, will be much
higher for gas. What will this do to the flow
rate?
Secondly, the viscosity of gas, is typically
about 50 times lower than that of oil. What will
this do to the flow rate?
7.08 x -
3
10 kg h P r P wf
qg l 0.7
re
g Bg n 5
rw
Darcy's Law for radial flow into a wellbore:
These two factors will give the gas a much
higher flow rate inside the reservoir.
Qg>>Qo
The gas also takes up more space than it did
when it was dissolved in the oil. This will cause
the rock pores to be filled up eliminating any
place for the oil to go.
Darcy's Law for radial flow into a wellbore:
What will this do to the flow of oil?
The oil flow we get as the pressure is lowered
will be less than we would predict using
Darcy's law!
(Or energy is being lost that we have not
accounted for).
Darcy's Law for radial flow into a wellbore:
Graphically it would look like this:
Pressure -
PSI
Pr < Pb
Pwf Darcy's law
predicted
Actual Qmax
Qmax
0
0 Q - Flow Rate
(BPD)
Inflow Performance Relationship - IPR:
We use instead Vogel's IPR curve. The
equation is:
w w 2
qo P
f P
f
o(max
= 1 - 0.2 - 0.8
q) Pr Pr
where q is the maximum flow rate the
o(max)
well can produce.
Inflow Performance Relationship - IPR:
Using this curve, if we know Qmax and Pr, we can
calculate
the wellbore pressure for any flowrate
Pwf/
Pr 1
0.
8
0.
6
0.
4
0.
2
0
0 0. 0. 0. 0. 1
2 4 Q/ 6 8
Qmax
Inflow Performance Relationship - IPR:
Consider our previous example…
Pr = 2,300 psi
Pwf = 1,200 psi @ qo = 1,150 bpd
Inflow Performance Relationship - IPR:
First we need to calculate qmax:
o(max qo
q ) =
w w 2
P
f P
f
1 - 0.2 - 0.8
Pr Pr
1150 = 1696
o(max
q
) = 120 120 2 bpd
0 0
1- 0.2 230 - 0.8 230
0 0
Inflow Performance Relationship - IPR:
Compare this to the qmax we got from Darcy's
equation of 2406 bpd. The well has lost 710
bpd in capability due to gas interference.
More importantly, if we wanted to produce
2000 bpd and sized a pump for this based on
Darcy's PI, we would be pretty disappointed.
Inflow Performance Relationship - IPR:
Now, calculate Pwf at a flow rate of 1000 bpd.
The first thing to do is to calculate q/qmax:
q/qmax = 1000/1696 = 0.5896
Now we can use the curve to get Pwf/Pr
Inflow Performance Relationship - IPR:
Read Pwf/Pr on the Y axis - we can't actually read it
this
closely so we used the equation to calculate it.
Pwf/
Pr 1
0.
8
0.6020.
6
0.
4
0.
2
0
0 0. 0. 0.
0.5896 0. 1
2 4 Q/ 6 8
Qmax
Inflow Performance Relationship - IPR:
Pwf/Pr = 0.602 so Pwf = Pr * 0.602.
2300*0.602 is 1384 psi. This is the wellbore
pressure for a flow rate of 1000 bpd.
Inflow Performance Relationship - IPR:
We can also solve for Pwf directly with the
following equation:
-1 + 81-80(q / q
w
Pf =0.125Pr ) o
o(max
)
0.125 x -1 + 81-
w
Pf = 2300 80(1000/1696)
P wf = 1384 psi
Combined IPR:
We saw that we could use Darcy's law when
gas was not a problem (as in a high water cut
well).
We also saw how to use Vogel's IPR for cases
where Pr < Pb.
What about a case where Pr > Pb > 0?
Combined IPR:
All we have to do in this case is
use Darcy's law for Pr > Pwf > Pb
and Vogel's IPR for the portion where Pb > Pwf
> 0.
Let's say, for our problem, we have a Pb of
1800 psi.
Graphically it would look like:
Combined IPR:
2500
Pr=2300
We use a straight line PI above Pb
2000
Pb=1800
1500 We use the IPR below Pb
Pressure - psi
1000
500
0
0 500 1000 1500 2000
Flow Rate - BPD Qmax=1706
Composite IPR:
Vogel's relationship works reasonably well for
water cuts below 50%.
For higher water cuts, a method has been
developed which takes an arithmetic average
of the PI and IPR equations to yield a
"composite IPR".
Composite IPR:
Graphically it would look like this
t where q is the
composite
Pressure - psi
flow:
Oil Composite
IPR IPR
Water PI
qb qo(max) qt(max) qw(max
Flow Rate - BPD
Composite IPR:
Some care must be exercised when applying
this particular technique.
The concept of a composite IPR is reasonable
in certain cases and is not applicable in others.
The difference lies in where the water is
coming from.
Composite IPR:
If the water being produced is connate water,
this technique will give optimistic results and
should not be used.
If the water is coming from below (or even
above) the producing oil zone or if the water is
fingering through long fractures, this method
can be used with some success.
Inflow Performance Curve
Summarizing:
•If we do not have a fluid level, we must use
some type of inflow relation to calculate a
wellbore pressure. We can then convert
this pressure to feet using a specific
gravity.
•Depending on the reservoir fluid, we may
use a straight line PI, an IPR, or a
combination of the two.