Perforation Skin

1. Perforating: a process used to establish a flow path between the near

reservoir and the wellbore. It involves initiating a hole from the wellbore
through the casing and any cement sheath into the producing zone.

2. Perforation skin: caused by the convergence of streamlines towards the

perforation holes;
Quantitatively evaluate the effect of perforation on well performance.

3. Perforation skin is the one largest portion that contributes to the total skin
factor.

4. Factors affecting the perforation skin:

Perforation length, perforation hole diameter, degree of damage around
the perforation, perforation density (spacing), phasing angle.

Figure 1 Perforation system geometry (Economides, 1998, after Bell et al., 1995)

5. Perforation skin:
Karakas and Tariq (1988)
Perforation skin = plane-flow effect + vertical converging effect +
wellbore effect
s p=s H +s V + s wb

Table 1 Constants for perforation skin effect calculation (Economides, 1998, after Karakas
and Tariq, 1988)
 s H < 0 but the contribution to sp is small

rw
s H =ln '
r (θ )
w

l perf
r 'w ( θ )= for θ=0
4
'
r w ( θ )=aθ ( r w + l perf ) for θ ≠ 0

sV is normally the largest contributor to sp

 k H /k V increases, kV decreases (constant k H ), sV increases.

 ρ perf decreases (or h perf increases), sV increases.

Table 2 Effect of kv and lperf on sp (Economides, 1998)

a b−1 b
s V =10 hD r D

h D=
h perf
l perf √ kH
kV

r D=
r perf
2 h perf ( √ )
k
1+ V
kH

a=a1 log r D + a2
b=b1 r D + b2
 s wb =c 1 ec r
2 wD

rw
r wD =
l perf +r w

6. Example:
Assume that a well with r w =.328 ft is perforated with 2 shots/ft, r perf

= 0.25 in., and l perf = 8 inch.

When k H /k V = 10, calculate the perforation skin effect if θ = 180o,

0o, 60o.
When k H /k V = 1, calculate the perforation skin effect if θ = 180o, 0o,
60o.
ρ perf = 2 shots/ft
-> 0.5 ft/shot
-> h perf = 1 ft

Solution:
When k H /k V = 10, sp = 4, 4.3, and 4.

When k H /k V = 1, s p =…

Reference:
Petroleum Well Construction. Michael J. Economides, Larry T. Watters,
Shari Dunn-Norman (1998).