Well Testing Training Course

1. Introduction to Well Testing

1.1 Well Testing Fundamentals

• Purpose and objectives of well testing including (reservoir characterization and production potential evaluation)

• Types of well tests including (drill stem tests and production tests)

• Well testing applications throughout field life including (exploration phase and development phase)

• Key parameters obtained from well testing including (permeability determination and skin factor assessment)

• Introduction to API RP 49 and ISO 10414 standards for well testing operations

1.2 Well Testing Planning

• Test objectives definition including (information requirements and decision support needs)

• Test selection criteria including (reservoir type and well conditions)

• Duration optimization including (radius of investigation and boundary effects)

• Equipment selection including (downhole tools and surface facilities)

• Personnel requirements including (specialized expertise and supervision needs)

2. Well Testing Equipment

2.1 Downhole Testing Equipment

• Downhole pressure gauges including (mechanical gauges and electronic gauges)

• Downhole fluid samplers including (single-phase samplers and multiphase samplers)

• Downhole shut-in tools including (tester valves and circulating valves)

• Packers and isolation tools including (retrievable packers and inflatable packers)

• Safety equipment including (subsurface safety valves and circulating devices)

2.2 Surface Testing Equipment

• Wellhead control equipment including (choke manifolds and emergency shutdown systems)

• Separation equipment including (test separators and multiphase flow meters)

• Fluid handling systems including (storage tanks and transfer pumps)

• Flaring systems including (flare stacks and ignition systems)

• Monitoring and data acquisition systems including (pressure recorders and flow measurement devices)

3. Pressure Transient Testing Principles

3.1 Fluid Flow in Porous Media

• Darcy's law and applications including (flow rate calculations and permeability determination)

• Diffusivity equation including (pressure propagation mechanisms and boundary effects)

• Formation properties influence including (porosity effects and compressibility influences)

• Wellbore storage including (fluid compressibility effects and afterflow phenomena)

• Skin effect including (damage mechanisms and stimulation evaluation)

3.2 Transient Flow Regimes

• Early-time response including (wellbore storage and skin dominance)

• Middle-time response including (infinite-acting radial flow and permeability determination)

• Late-time response including (boundary effects and reservoir limits)

• Specialized flow regimes including (linear flow and bilinear flow)

• Flow regime identification including (diagnostic plots and characteristic signatures)

4. Well Test Design and Execution

4.1 Drill Stem Testing

• DST tool configuration including (valve sequencing and gauge placement)

• Test sequence design including (flow periods and shut-in periods)

• Operational procedures including (running in hole and pulling out of hole)

• Safety considerations including (well control procedures and contingency planning)

• Data acquisition including (pressure measurements and fluid sampling)

4.2 Production Well Testing

• Multi-rate testing including (step-rate tests and isochronal tests)

• Pressure buildup tests including (shut-in procedures and duration optimization)

• Pressure drawdown tests including (flow rate control and stabilization criteria)

• Interference testing including (observation well selection and response monitoring)

• Specialized tests including (vertical permeability determination and hydraulic fracture evaluation)

5. Well Test Interpretation Methods

5.1 Conventional Analysis Methods

• Semi-log analysis including (Horner plots and MDH plots)

• Type curve matching including (pressure derivative approach and reservoir model selection)

• Superposition principles including (varying flow rates and pressure interference)

• Radius of investigation calculations including (time-dependent analysis and boundary detection)

• Interpretation workflow including (quality control checks and analysis validation)

5.2 Pressure Derivative Analysis

• Pressure derivative calculations including (numerical differentiation and smoothing techniques)

• Diagnostic plots including (log-log derivative plots and specialized plots)

• Flow regime identification including (characteristic derivative patterns and transition times)

• Reservoir and boundary recognition including (homogeneous reservoirs and heterogeneous systems)

• Complex reservoir systems including (dual porosity behavior and composite reservoirs)

6. Reservoir Characterization from Well Tests

6.1 Reservoir Property Determination

• Permeability estimation including (horizontal permeability and vertical permeability)

• Skin factor evaluation including (mechanical skin and geological skin)

• Reservoir pressure determination including (initial pressure and average pressure)

• Reservoir boundaries including (sealing faults and constant pressure boundaries)

• Heterogeneity identification including (permeability variations and compartmentalization)

6.2 Well Condition Evaluation

• Well productivity assessment including (productivity index determination and flow efficiency)

• Damage characterization including (skin decomposition and damage radius)

• Completion effectiveness including (perforation efficiency and gravel pack evaluation)

• Stimulation assessment including (fracture conductivity and fracture half-length)

• Near-wellbore evaluation including (partial penetration effects and limited entry effects)

7. Specialized Well Testing

7.1 Testing Horizontal and Multi-lateral Wells

• Flow regime characteristics including (early-time radial flow and linear flow)

• Test design considerations including (test duration and pressure gauge placement)

• Interpretation challenges including (wellbore effects and reservoir anisotropy)

• Parameter estimation including (effective well length and anisotropy ratio)

• Case studies from Middle East horizontal wells including (carbonate reservoir applications and fractured reservoir testing)

7.2 Hydraulically Fractured Well Testing

• Fracture signature in pressure response including (bilinear flow and linear flow)

• Fracture parameter estimation including (fracture half-length and fracture conductivity)

• Test design for fractured wells including (flow rate selection and test duration)

• Interpretation techniques including (specialized plots and analysis methods)

• Middle East case studies including (tight reservoir applications and optimization examples)

8. Multi-phase Flow Testing

8.1 Multi-phase Flow Fundamentals

• PVT properties influence including (phase behavior and fluid characterization)

• Multi-phase flow effects including (relative permeability and phase segregation)

• Effective permeability concepts including (phase mobility and total mobility)

• Multi-phase well testing challenges including (varying composition and rate-dependent behavior)

• Interpretation considerations including (effective properties and apparent permeability)

8.2 Multi-phase Test Analysis

• Productivity testing in multi-phase conditions including (inflow performance relationship and nodal analysis)

• Gas well testing including (non-Darcy flow effects and pseudo-pressure approach)

• Oil well testing including (solution gas effects and multiphase skin)

• Interpretation adjustments including (pseudo-pressure and pseudo-time functions)

• Deconvolution techniques including (pressure-rate deconvolution and boundary identification)

9. HSE in Well Testing

• Risk assessment for testing operations including (hazard identification and mitigation measures)

• Well control during testing including (barrier philosophy and emergency response)

• Environmental considerations including (emissions management and fluid disposal)

• Personnel safety including (high-pressure operations and H₂S precautions)

• Emergency response planning including (contingency procedures and communication protocols)

10. Quality Control in Well Testing

• Data quality assurance including (gauge calibration and resolution requirements)

• Operational quality control including (procedure compliance and equipment verification)

• Data validation including (consistency checks and anomaly detection)

• Documentation standards including (test reports and data archiving)

• Uncertainty analysis including (error quantification and confidence intervals)

11. Case Studies & Group Discussions

• Analysis of challenging well tests including (Middle East field examples and complex reservoir systems)

• Problem-solving sessions for common testing challenges including (equipment failures and data quality issues)

• Regional applications including (high-temperature carbonate reservoirs and low-permeability formations)

• Interpretation of actual test data including (pressure transient analysis and results validation)

• The importance of proper training in successful well testing operations