Analytical Models for Thermal Wellbore Effects on Pressure Transient Testing

Abstract

This work presents a new coupled transient-wellbore/reservoir thermal analytical model, consisting of a reservoir/casing/tubing combined system. The analytical solutions consider flow of a slightly compressible, single-phase fluid in a homogeneous infinite-acting reservoir system and provide temperature-and pressure-transient data for drawdown and buildup tests at any gauge location along the wellbore, accounting for Joule-Thomson, adiabatic fluid-expansion, conduction and convection effects. The wellbore fluid mass density is modeled as a function of temperature and the analytical solution makes use of the Laplace transformation to solve the transient heat-flow differential equation, accounting for a rigorous transient wellbore-temperature gradient ⁄. Regarding pressure transient analysis (PTA), thermal impacted pressure data may lead to the interpretation of false geological heterogeneities, since the heat loss during the buildup period provides an increase in the pressure exerted by the wellbore-fluid column, due to an increase in the oil mass density, and a change in tubing length, consequently causing a change in the gauge location. These effects can make a homogeneous reservoir be wrongly interpreted as a double-porosity reservoir, yielding invalid conclusions to geological modeling. Results are compared to the response of a commercial non-isothermal simulator and thermal impacts on PTA interpretations are thoroughly investigated. In addition, a field case study is also provided to verify the proposed analytical solutions. The proposed model provides more accurate transient temperature flow profiles along the wellbore when compared to previous models in Literature.