Making rate transient analysis (RTA) and formation evaluation for multi-fractured tight gas wells has always been a difficult problem. This is because the fluid flow in the formation has multiple nonlinear flow mechanisms, including gas-water two-phase flow, gas slippage, low-velocity non-Darcy flow, and stress-dependent permeability. In this paper, a novel RTA method is proposed for multi-fractured wells in tight gas reservoirs incorporating nonlinear flow mechanisms. The RTA method is based on an analytical model, which is modified from the classical trilinear flow model by considering all the nonlinear flow mechanisms. The concept of material balance time and normalized rate is used to process the production data for both water and gas phases. The techniques of approximate solutions in linear/bilinear flow regimes and type curve fitting are combined in the proposed RTA method. After that, the rate transient behaviors and influencing factors of multi-fractured tight gas wells are analyzed. A field case from Northwestern China is used to test the efficiency and practicability of the proposed RTA method. The results show that six flow regimes for both gas and water production performances are exhibited on the log-log plots of normalized production rate against material balance time. The rate transient responses are sensitive to the nonlinear flow mechanisms, and formation and fracture properties. The medium flow regimes are significantly affected by fracture number, fracture conductivity, fracture half-length, stress-dependent permeability, gas-water two-phase flow, and formation permeability, which should be considered in making RTA of fractured tight gas wells. The field case shows that both gas and water production performances can be well-fitted using the proposed RTA method. The major innovation of this paper is that a novel RTA method is proposed for fractured tight gas wells considering multiple nonlinear flow mechanisms, and it can be used to make reasonable formation and fracturing evaluations in the field.
