Pressure Transient Analysis Assists in Production Optimization of Magwa-Marrat Reservoir in South East Kuwait

Abstract

Magwa-Marrat reservoir fluid is an asphaltenic hydrocarbon, exhibiting precipitation and deposition of asphaltene in the production system including the reservoir rock near wellbore and the tubing. The main objective of this work was to optimize production in Magwa-Marrat wells by remediation of tubing plugging and formation damage. Well interventions were prioritized based on potential production benefit resulting from the removal of productivity impairment. It was required to understand current formation damage in all wells, including those without recent pressure transient analysis (PTA). All PTA tests since 1983 for Magwa-Marrat reservoir were analyzed to determine the different reservoir parameters such as flow capacity (KH), Skin (S), reservoir boundaries, and the extrapolated reservoir pressure (P*). PTA derived permeability was compared to log derived permeability to quality control skin determination. Independently formation damage was estimated using the radial form of the solution of the diffusivity equation for pseudo steady state flow. Once a skin correlation for both PTA vs. Darcy's law equation was derived using out of date well performance, the formation damage for all wells was accessed using current productivity index to identify production optimization opportunities in wells without recent PTA. This work was combined with nodal analysis to separate vertical lifting performance and inflow performance relationship impact on total productivity detriment. Cross plot of PTA derived flow capacity (Kh) vs. Log derived Kh correlates very well with a slope and a coefficient of correlation close to 1.0. This was observed for wells located in the reservoir where there are not heterogeneities near wellbore such as boundaries or natural fractures. For these cases the higher than normally observed estimated skin explained poorer well productivity. After skin values were accessed for all wells, a production gain was estimated, and the wells were ranked based on potential benefit. A stimulation campaign was put in place based on the type of rock, formation damage and vertical lifting performance. Eight (8) wells were stimulated and they delivered approximately an additional 20% production for the field. This work was innovative in the sense that there was not pressure build up tests run prior to the interventions and such, there was not any production deferral. This was achieved by building the well performance understanding on a correlation that required petrophysical description, production rates and estimates of drainage area reservoir pressure.