scholarly journals Telegraphic double porosity models for head transient behavior in naturally fractured aquifers

2013 ◽  
Vol 49 (7) ◽  
pp. 4399-4408 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Hernández ◽  
M. Núñez-López ◽  
J. X. Velasco-Hernández
Keyword(s):  
Transient Behavior ◽  
Double Porosity ◽  
Fractured Aquifers ◽  
Naturally Fractured

Pressure-Transient Behavior of Continuously and Discretely Fractured Reservoirs

2014 ◽  
Vol 17 (01) ◽  
pp. 82-97 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fikri Kuchuk ◽  
Denis Biryukov
Keyword(s):  
Fractured Reservoirs ◽  
Flow Regimes ◽  
Transient Behavior ◽  
Naturally Fractured Reservoirs ◽  
Dual Porosity ◽  
Pressure Transient ◽  
Naturally Fractured ◽  
Dual Porosity Model ◽  
Well Tests ◽  
Porosity Model

Summary Fractures are common features of many well-known reservoirs. Naturally fractured reservoirs contain fractures in igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary formations. Faults in many naturally fractured carbonate reservoirs often have high-permeability zones, and are connected to many fractures with varying conductivities. Furthermore, in many naturally fractured reservoirs, faults and fractures can be discrete (i.e., not a connected-network fracture system). New semianalytical solutions are used to understand the pressure behavior of naturally fractured reservoirs containing a network of discrete and/or connected (continuous) finite- and infinite-conductivity fractures. We present an extensive literature review of the pressure-transient behavior of fractured reservoirs. First, we show that the Warren and Root (1963) dual-porosity model is a fictitious homogeneous porous medium because it does not contain any fractures. Second, by use of the new solutions, we show that for most naturally fractured reservoirs, the Warren and Root (1963) dual-porosity model is inappropriate and fundamentally incomplete for the interpretation of pressure-transient well tests because it does not capture the behavior of these reservoirs. We examined many field well tests published in the literature. With few exceptions, none of them shows the behavior of the Warren and Root (1963) dual-porosity model. These examples exhibit very diverse pressure behaviors of discretely and continuously fractured reservoirs. Unlike the single derivative shape of the Warren and Root (1963) model, the derivatives of these examples exhibit many different flow regimes depending on fracture distribution and on their intensity and conductivity. We show these flow regimes with our new model for discretely and continuously fractured reservoirs. Most well tests published in the literature do not exhibit the Warren and Root (1963) dual-porosity reservoir-model behavior. If we interpret them by use of this dual-porosity model, then the estimated permeability, skin factor, interporosity flow coefficient (λ), and storativity ratio (ω) will not represent the actual reservoir parameters.

Fractured-Reservoir Modeling and Interpretation

SPE Journal ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 20 (05) ◽  
pp. 983-1004 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fikri Kuchuk ◽  
Denis Biryukov ◽  
Tony Fitzpatrick
Keyword(s):  
Fractured Reservoirs ◽  
Transient Behavior ◽  
Discrete Distributions ◽  
Dual Porosity ◽  
Fractured Reservoir ◽  
Well Test ◽  
Reservoir Model ◽  
Pressure Transient ◽  
Matrix Block ◽  
Naturally Fractured

Summary Fractures are common features of many well-known reservoirs. Naturally fractured reservoirs (NFRs) consist of fractures in igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary rocks (matrix). Faults in many naturally fractured carbonate reservoirs often have high-permeability zones and are connected to numerous fractures with varying conductivities. In many NFRs, faults and fractures frequently have discrete distributions rather than connected-fracture networks. Because faulting often creates fractures, faults and fractures should be modeled together. Accurately modeling NFR pressure-transient behavior is important in hydrogeology, the earth sciences, and petroleum engineering, including groundwater contamination to shale gas and oil reservoirs. For more than 50 years, conventional dual-porosity-type models, which do not include any fractures, have been used for modeling fluid flow in NFRs and aquifers. They have been continuously modified to add unphysical matrix-block properties such as matrix skin factor. In general, fractured reservoirs are heterogeneous at different length scales. It is clear that even with millions of gridblocks, numerical models may not be capable of accurately simulating the pressure-transient behavior of continuously and discretely NFRs containing variable-conductivity fractures. The conventional dual-porosity-type models are obviously an oversimplification; their serious limitations for interpreting well-test data from NFRs are discussed in detail. These models do not include wellbore-intersecting fractures, even though they dominate the pressure behavior of NFRs for a considerable length of testing time. Fracture conductivities of unity to infinity dominate transient behavior of both continuously and discretely fractured reservoirs, but again, dual-porosity models do not contain any fractures. Our fractured-reservoir model is capable of treating thousands of fractures that are periodically or arbitrarily distributed with finite- and/or infinite conductivities, different lengths, densities, and orientations. Appropriate inner-boundary conditions are used to account for wellbore-intersecting fractures and direct wellbore contributions to production. Wellbore-storage and skin effects in bounded and unbounded systems are included in the model. Three types of damaged-skin factors that may exist in wellbore-intersecting fracture(s) are specified. With this highly accurate model, the pressure-transient behavior of conventional dual-porosity-type models are investigated, and their limitations and range of applicability are identified. The behavior of the triple-porosity models is also investigated. It is very unlikely that triple-porosity behavior is caused by the local variability of matrix properties at the microscopic level. Rather, it is caused by the spatial variability of conductivity, length, density, and orientation of the fracture distributions. Finally, we have presented an interpretation of a field-buildup-test example from an NFR by use of both conventional dual-porosity models and our fractured-reservoir model. A substantial part of this paper is a review and discussion of the earlier work on NFRs, including the authors’ work.

scholarly journals Partially Penetrated Well Solution of Fractal Single-Porosity Naturally Fractured Reservoirs

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Posadas-Mondragón ◽  
Camacho-Velázquez
Keyword(s):  
Fractured Reservoirs ◽  
Transient Behavior ◽  
Fracture Network ◽  
Naturally Fractured Reservoirs ◽  
Fracture Density ◽  
Technical Literature ◽  
Pressure Transient ◽  
Fractal Approach ◽  
Fracturing Process ◽  
Naturally Fractured

In the oil industry, many reservoirs produce from partially penetrated wells, either to postpone the arrival of undesirable fluids or to avoid problems during drilling operations. The majority of these reservoirs are heterogeneous and anisotropic, such as naturally fractured reservoirs. The analysis of pressure-transient tests is a very useful method to dynamically characterize both the heterogeneity and anisotropy existing in the reservoir. In this paper, a new analytical solution for a partially penetrated well based on a fractal approach to capture the distribution and connectivity of the fracture network is presented. This solution represents the complexity of the flow lines better than the traditional Euclidean flow models for single-porosity fractured reservoirs, i.e., for a tight matrix. The proposed solution takes into consideration the variations in fracture density throughout the reservoir, which have a direct influence on the porosity, permeability, and the size distribution of the matrix blocks as a result of the fracturing process. This solution generalizes previous solutions to model the pressure-transient behavior of partially penetrated wells as proposed in the technical literature for the classical Euclidean formulation, which considers a uniform distribution of fractures that are fully connected. Several synthetic cases obtained with the proposed solution are shown to illustrate the influence of different variables, including fractal parameters.

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