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Int. J Sci. Emerging Tech

Vol-3 No 2 February, 2012

Pressure Transient Analysis of a GasCondensate Well by Analytical and Numerical

Models (A Case Study in South of Iran)
Amin Mirhaseli Igder#1, Abdolnabi Hashemi*2
Department of Petroleum Engineering
Petroleum University of Technology
Ahvaz, Iran
1
igder@yahoo.com
Abstract In gas-condensate reservoirs when the
pressure falls below the dewpoint pressure, liquid drop
out and condensate accumulates near the well. This
condensate buildup decreases the relative permeability
to gas, thereby causing a decline in the well
productivity. In this study a set of pressure transient
data obtained from an actual production well in a gascondensate reservoir in Iran has been used. The
objectives being analytical interpretation of the data,
and verifying the results with compositional simulation
results. At first the transient pressure test has been
analyzed using a standard well test package. The test is
then analyzed using a commercial compositional
simulator. The results of the compositional simulation
show that capillary number effects should be included
in order for history match. The challenge is then to find
the capillary number correlation parameters.
Keywords Well Test, Gas-Condensate, Analytical and
Numerical Solution, Compositional Simulation, Relative
Permeability, Liquid Drop-out.

1.

Introduction

For gas and gas-condensate reservoirs, the equation

governing pressure transmission in porous medium is
nonlinear in reality. Al Hussainy and Ramey [1] and
Al Hussainy et al. [2] showed that the flow equation
for real gases in porous media can be linearized using
the real gas pseudopressure:

This is known as single-phase pseudopressure and

this method works best for dry gases therefore, it can
be applied to gas-condensate wells producing above
the dewpoint pressure. Once the pressure falls below
the dewpoint pressure and a condensate bank is
formed around the wellbore, the single-phase method
does not work properly.
The two-phase steady-state theory to predict the
performance of single-well gas-condensate systems
was first proposed by ODell and Miller [3] and was
later examined by Fussel [4]. The steady-state
saturation-pressure relationship predicted by ODell
and Miller and Fussel was later reproduced by
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Chopra and Carter and Jones and Raghavan [5]. The

steady-state model can be used to approximate the
actual reservoir pressure-saturation relationship by
assuming a hypothetical steady-state flow. The
pseudopressure computed by the steady-state model
is referred to as the steady-state pseudopressure [4].
The model assumes two flow regions around the
wellbore [4]: region 1: a near-wellbore region below
the dewpoint pressure where both gas and condensate
are present and mobile, region 2: an outer region
above the dewpoint pressure containing only singlephase gas.
As shown in Figure 1 the three-zone flow model was
first introduced by Fevang [6]. Unlike the steadystate model, the three-zone flow model considers the
existence of a transition zone where both gas and
condensate are present, but only gas is mobile [4].
Similar to the steady-state method, the three-zone
pseudopressure is only applied if the relative
permeability data are available and it can be
evaluated using the following integral [7] :

( )

Figure1. Schematic near-wellbore region fluid

description [8]
Gringarten et al. [9] provided the first well test
evidence in the literature of the existence of a
velocity stripping zone. Previous well test
publications had only reported the existence of a
condensate bank (zones 2 to 3 in Figure 2) as a two-

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Int. J Sci. Emerging Tech

region radial composite behavior (curve b in Figure

3). Jones and Raghavan [5] proposed that well tests
in gas-condensate wells below the dewpoint pressure
may be analyzed using either single-phase or twophase pseudo-pressures. Roussennac [10] compared
the accuracy between the steady-state method and the
three-zone method in analyzing the data.

Figure 2. Condensate saturation profile with

condensate drop-out and velocity stripping [11]

Vol-3 No 2 February, 2012

saturation curves to an internally generated miscible

curve [13].

2. Reservoir Description
The SH gas-condensate field is located in southern
Iran (the original field name has been changed to
SH for confidentiality). Based on geological,
seismic and well data, the field is an elongated
anticlinal structure and consists of three main
geological pay zones: Kangan, Upper Dalan and
Lower Dalan. To date a total number of 10 wells
have been drilled and completed in this structure.
These wells were completed on different reservoir
sections either as open holes or perforated liners.
Most of the reservoirs in the field are believed to be
carbonates.
The original fluid in this field is evaluated as a lean
gas condensate with an average CGR of 13.5
STB/MMSCF. PVT studies indicate a dewpoint
pressure of 4280 psia at a reservoir temperature of
184.5 F for the fluid samples taken from Kangan
formation. The average reservoir pressure in this
layer was 4117 psia. The basic reservoir parameters
used in this study are shown in Table 1.
Table 1. SH reservoir petrophysical and fluid
properties

Figure 3. Pressure and derivative composite

behaviors: (a) three-region composite; (b) two-region
composite [11]

1.1

Parameters Affecting Flow in GasCondensate Reservoirs

There are two competing phenomena which may

cause the effective gas permeability to be ratedependent [12]:
1. The relative permeability increase with velocity,
which has been demonstrated in numerous
laboratory core flood experiments. This effect is
sometimes termed velocity stripping or positive
coupling.
2. Inertial (non-Darcy) flow effects, which at high
velocity reduce the gas permeability.
Since simultaneous flow of gas and condensate is
usually affected by the combined effect of these
phenomena (coupling and inertia), both of them
should be included in reservoir modeling. The
complications of transient test analysis in this type of
reservoir are caused by multiphase flow and change
in the composition of the flowing mixture.
The capillary number model in the compositional
simulator was used to model velocity-dependent
relative permeabilities. This model reduces the
residual saturations and changes the relative
permeability from the user specified (immiscible)

3.

Analytical Simulation

Pressure and rate history of the well test is shown in

Figure 4. The production test consists of four periods
of drawdowns and one buildup, referred to as DD1,
DD2, DD3 and BU1. The value of the dewpoint
pressure is shown in Figure 4 (4280psia). The
derivative curves of all three drawdown periods
exhibits completely erratic behavior which can be
explained by phase redistribution or flow rate
fluctuations around the wellbore, making them
interpretable (as shown in Figure 5). Buildup has the
longest duration. Hence, it was selected for analysis
using the well test interpreter. The log-log diagnostic
plot of this test period is also shown in Figure 6.

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Vol-3 No 2 February, 2012

Based on the shape of the derivative plot, a two-zone

radial composite model was used for analysis. The
wellbore storage dominated region and two radial
flow zones can be identified in Figure 6.
Semi-log, log-log and history plots (resulting
matches) of the final buildup test data are displayed
in Figures 7, 8 and 9 respectively. All of resulting
matches are very good. Match results are listed in
Table 2.
Figure 7. Final buildup semi log plot (match results)
The estimated inner radii of zones 1 and 2 related to
the composite model are 98 and 340 ft, respectively,
which mean that the condensate bank radius is
estimated to be 340 ft. The rate dependent skin
coefficient of 1.29e-4 (1/(Mscf/day)) accounts for the
non-Darcy flow (inertia) effects near the wellbore.

Figure 4. Pressure and rate history

Figure 8. Final buildup log-log plot (match results)

Figure 5. Log-Log rate normalized pseudopressure

derivative plot of all the drawdown and buildup tests

Figure 9. Test history plot (match results)

Table 2. Final buildup log-log match results

Figure 6. Final buildup log-log diagnostic

pseudopressure derivative plot

Estimated parameters from the history match, log-log

and semi-log plots (both match and model) are in
good agreement. Although the pressure history match
is not very good the third drawdown is somewhat

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Vol-3 No 2 February, 2012

good and the buildup match is perfect. The negative

skin factor reflects effective acid stimulation. Well
test analysis provided good estimation for the initial
reservoir pressure at the gauge depth in comparison
to real result.

4.

Numerical Solution (Using

Compositional Simulator)

A key component in modeling gas-condensate

reservoirs is the development of a representative fluid
model. Therefore, commercial PVT analysis software
was used to simulate the experiments. The PVT data
used in the compositional model was based on the
samples collected from pay zone of the well SH. To
simulate the fluid samples of this pay zone, 3parameter Peng-Robinson (PR) equation of state was
used, and as shown in Figure 10 (parts a,b,c,d) very
good matches were obtained between calculated and
observed properties.
The next step is to build a static model to be
used as the basic reservoir structure. Rock and fluid
properties and completion production scenarios were
defined then. For compositional simulations capillary
numbers must be considered, otherwise pressure drop
and condensate dropout are overestimated and well
productivity is underestimated.
Finally a single three dimensional vertical well model
with radial grid blocks was defined. The model was
380ft in vertical direction and 3780 ft from the center
in radial direction and included 57 ft above and
below the pay zone. The grid model was divided into
90 cells in R- plane and 90 cells in Z direction (a
total number of 8100 cells each having a height of 4.2
ft). All grid properties such as porosity, water
saturation and net to gross ratio were obtained from
petrophysical properties of the layer as listed in Table
1. The relative permeability data is also shown in
Figure 11.

Figure 11. Relative permeability curves of SH field

It is essential to refine the model around the
production well especially for capillary number
analysis; otherwise the model cannot cover the full
physics of occurring phenomena around the
producing well. This causes the velocities across cells
to approach each other which results in better
performance of the model. For minimum fluctuation
in the wellbore pressure data and allowing more
detailed evaluation of near wellbore behavior local
grid refinement is also necessary. A logarithmic trend
was used for this purpose.

4.1

Model Verification

In order to verify the model output and numerical

dispersion effects, the model performance should be
investigated with a simulated well test scenario. As
shown in Figure 12 the simulated well test analysis
shows that the numerical model provides good
agreement with the reservoir parameters obtained
from the interpretation of the simulated well test. For
instance permeability input of the simulator was 25
md and the well test interpreter shows a value of 24.3
md or the simulator input for skin is zero and that of
the well test interpretation is about 0.14.

Figure 12. Log-Log pseudopressure derivative plot

(match results) of drawdown test for model
verifications

Figure 10. Match of PVT experiment, well SL-1(a.

liquid saturation from CVD, b. moles recovery from
CVD, c. relative volume from CCE, d. liquid
saturation from CCE)

Next we have to define the actual well test

scenario using the compositional model. In other
words, this time the flowing and shut-in periods and
production rates and pressures are assumed exactly
the same as the real test.
Simulation was run considering capillary
number effects. Figure 13 also displays the effect of
exclusion of capillary number effects in the
simulation.

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17 is the graphical depiction of the process of finding

the best reservoir parameters.

Figure 13. Real pressure and the resulted pressure

from the compositional simulation without capillary
number effects for first interpretation
Figure 15. Final buildup log-log pseudopressure
derivative curves of the real data and compositional
simulation results with capillary number effects
corresponding to first interpretation

Figure 14. Real pressure and the resulted pressure

from the compositional simulation with capillary
number effects for first interpretation
In this case by sensitivity analysis of capillary
number parameters good match was achieved in lean
gas condensate reservoir (as shown in Table 3).

Figure 16. Radial distribution of condensate

saturation

Table 3. Capillary number parameters

As in Figure 13 the simulation results did

not match the real pressure data, especially in high
gas rate drawdown periods in which the flowing
bottom hole pressure falls below the dewpoint
pressure. Therefore inclusion of capillary number in
the model, results in increase of the flowing bottom
hole pressure which results in good matches (Figure
14).
As can be seen in Figure 15 the rate
normalized log-log plot of pseudopressure and
derivative plot corresponding to simulated case and
actual derivative are compared. Match is moderately
good at middle times and as expected, but not good at
early times since the wellbore storage effects are not
accounted for in the compositional model.
Furthermore, the simulated case well matches the real
derivative at late times. Match results are listed in
Table 2.
Figure 16 shows the condensate saturation
profile versus distance from the well at the start of
the buildup period. Condensate bank radius can be
calculated from this figure. The velocity stripping
zone can also be easily identified in the figure. Figure

Figure 17. Graphically sequence to find the best

reservoir parameters.

Conclusions
1. Condensate saturation profile resulted from the
compositional simulation underestimates the
condensate bank radius in this lean gas condensate
reservoir compared to the well test analysis
results.
2. A good match was obtained by sensitivity analysis
of capillary number parameters, in this lean gascondensate reservoir.
3. The buildup log-log plot obtained from the
compositional simulator shows that the simulated
case matches the actual derivative reasonably at
middle times and more accurately at late times,

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yet not at early times, since currently available

compositional simulators cannot properly
simulate wellbore storage and skin effects.
4. The capillary number effects must be included in
the lean gas-condensate reservoir compositional
simulation, although the flowing bottom hole
pressure in the buildup period does not change
significantly with and without inclusion of
capillary number effects.

Vol-3 No 2 February, 2012

[3]

[4]

Nomenclature
BU
Bg
CCE
CVD
Cg
Cs
Ct
D
DD
ft
k
k2
model
M
krg
kro
m(p)
n1,n2
Ncb
NTG
p
pdew
PR
RCP2
RI2
S
scf

build up
gas formation volume factor
constant composition expansion
constant volume depletion
isothermal gas compressibility
wellbore storage coefficient
total compressibility
non-Darcy skin factor
drawdown
foot
permeability
permeability of zone 2 in radial composite
parameter controls the variability of the
critical oil/gas saturation
gas relative permeability
oil relative permeability
pseudopressure
controls the weighting between the miscible
and immiscible relative permeability curves
the threshold value of capillary number
net to gross ratio
system pressure
dewpoint pressure
Peng Robinson
the ratio of zone 2 storativity to zone 1
storativity
inner radius of zone 2 in radial composite
model
skin factor
standard cubic feet

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]
[11]

Acknowledgements
The authors would like to express their gratitude to
the management of Iranian Central Oil Field
Company and South Zagros Oil and Gas Production
Company for supporting this study and permission to
publish this paper.

[12]

References
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Real Gas Flow Theory to Well Testing and
Deliverability
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of
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[2] Al Hussainy R., Ramey H. and Crawford P.,
The Flow of Real Gases Through Porous

[13]

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