PETROLEUMSOCIETY

CANADIAN INSTITUTE OF MINING, METALLURGY & PETROLEUM

PAPER2005113

DynamicMaterialBalance (OilorGasinplacewithoutshutins)
L.MATTAR,D.ANDERSON
FeketeAssociatesIncorporated

th th ThispaperistobepresentedatthePetroleumSocietys6 CanadianInternational PetroleumConference(56 AnnualTechnical Meeting),Calgary,Alberta,Canada,June79,2005. Discussionofthispaperisinvitedandmaybepresentedatthemeetingif filedinwritingwiththetechnicalprogramchairmanpriortotheconclusionofthemeeting. Thispaperandanydiscussionfiledwill be considered for publication in Petroleum Society journals. Publication rights are reserved. This is a preprint and subject to correction.

Abstract
Material Balance calculations for determining oil or gas inplacearebasedonobtainingstaticreservoirpressuresasa functionofcumulativeproduction.Thisrequiresthewellstobe shutin, in order to determine the average reservoir pressure. (1) In a previous publication , it was shown that the material balancecalculationcouldbedonewithoutshuttinginthewell. The method was called Flowing Material Balance. While this method has proven to be very good, it is limited to a constantflowrate,andfailswhentheflowratevaries. The Dynamic Material Balance is an extension of the Flowing Material Balance. Itis applicable to either constant flow rate or variable flow rate, and can be used for both gas andoil.TheDynamicMaterialBalanceisaprocedurethat converts the flowing pressure at any point in time to the average reservoir pressure that exists in the reservoir at that time. Once that is done, the classical material balance calculations become applicable, and a conventional material balanceplotcanbegenerated. The procedure is graphical and very straightforward: a) knowing the flow rate and flowing sandface pressure at any given point in time, convert the measured flowing pressure to

theaveragepressurethatexistsinthereservoiratthattimeb) use this calculated average reservoir pressure and the correspondingcumulativeproduction,tocalculatetheoriginal oil or gasinplace by traditional methods. The method is illustratedusingdatasets.

Introduction
Thematerialbalancemethodisafundamentalcalculationin reservoirengineering,andisconsideredtoyieldoneofthemore reliable estimates of hydrocarbonsin place. In principle, it consistsofproducingacertainamountoffluids,measuringthe averagereservoirpressurebeforeandaftertheproduction,and with knowledge of the PVT properties of the system, calculatingamassbalanceasfollows: RemainingHydrocarbonsinplace= InitialHydrocarbonsinplace ProducedHydrocarbons At face value, the above equation is simple however in practice,itsimplementationcanbequitecomplex,asonemust accountforsuchvariablesasexternalfluidinflux(waterdrive), compressibility of all the fluids and of the rock, hydrocarbon phasechanges,etc

In order to determine the average reservoir pressure, the well is shutin, resulting in loss of production. In high permeabilityreservoirs,thismaynotbeasignificantissue,but in medium tolow permeability reservoirs, theshutin duration mayhavetolastseveralweeks(andsometimesmonths)before a reliable reservoir pressure can be estimated. This loss of production opportunity as well as the cost of monitoring the shutinpressureisoftenunacceptable. Itisclearthattheproductionrateofawellisafunctionof many factors such as permeability, viscosity, thickness etc Also, the rate is directly related to the driving force in the reservoir, i.e. the difference between the average reservoir pressure and the sandface flowing pressure. Therefore, it is reasonable to expect that knowledge about the reservoir pressurecanbeextractedfromthesandfaceflowingpressureif both the flow rate and flowing pressure are measured. If, indeed, the average reservoir pressure can be obtained from flowing conditions, then material balance calculations can be performedwithouthavingtoshutinthewell.Thisisofgreat practicalvalue.
(1) In a previous publication the authors presented The FlowingMaterialBalanceforgaswellsflowingataconstant rate.Experiencehasshownthatthismethodworksverywell, butunfortunatelyislimitedtocaseswherethewellisflowingat a constant rate. The following development extends the FlowingMaterialBalancemethodtocaseswheretheflowrate isnotconstant.ItiscalledtheVariableRateFlowingMaterial BalanceorDynamicMaterialBalance.Thisnamehasbeen chosen to contrast with the traditional material balance procedure,whichreliesonstaticreservoirpressuredata.

pR1- pR2 = pwf - pwf2 1 pR 2 - pR3 = pwf2 - pwf3

(1) (2)

Rearranging,
pR1 - pwf = pR2 - pwf2 = pR3 - pwf3 1

(3)

Thus, if the sandface flowing pressure and the average reservoir pressure are plotted versus time (or cumulative production), they will have the same trend, and will be displaced by a constant. In a conventional material balance calculation, reservoir pressure is measured or extrapolated basedonstabilizedshutin pressuresatthewell.Whileawellis flowing,itisobviousthattheaveragereservoirpressurecannot be measured, but the equations above give the relationship betweenthewellflowingpressure(whichcanbemeasured)and theaveragereservoirpressure.

ConstantRateFlowingP/ZPlot
Appendices A, B and C develop the equations that relate average reservoir pressure to flowing pressure. For a gas reservoir, the equations are given in terms of pseudopressure, andthematerialbalanceisexpressedintermsof p/z. Figure 2 demonstrates the Flowing Material Balance as appliedto a gasreservoir. It shows how the flowing pressure (pwf / z) andthe average reservoir pressure (pR/z)arerelated, and how the OriginalGasInPlace (OGIP) can be obtained fromtheflowingpressureiftheinitialpressureisknown.The line drawn through the measured flowing pressure data needs onlytobeshiftedupwardssothatitgoesthroughtheinitial (pi/zi) point.

AreviewoftheFlowingMaterialBalancemethod(constant flow rate) is given below to introduce the concepts of the method.ThisisthenfollowedbydevelopmentoftheDynamic MaterialBalancebyextendingtheconstantrateanalysistothe variableratesituation,thusgeneralizingtheapplicabilityofthe method. Forthepurposesofthispaper,theequationsarederivedfor a volumetric reservoir (i.e. no water drive or external fluid influx), but the method can be extended to include such complexities.Themethodisvalidforbothoilandgassystems, but it is sometimes more convenient to present a particular concept (or equation) in terms of gas rather than oil, or vice versa.

DynamicMaterialBalance(VariableRate FlowingP/ZPlot)
The Flowing Material Balance described above has proven tobeaverysuccessfulwayofdeterminingoriginalgasinplace when the flow rate is held constant. However it fails completely if the flow rate is variable. Unfortunately most wells do not flow at constant rate for extended periods of production.Atypicalhighdeliverabilitygaswellmayhavea productionprofileasshowninFigure3. A different methodology, called the Dynamic Material Balance,hasbeendeveloped,andisthesubjectof thispaper.It isapplicabletobothconstantrateandvariablerateproduction. Itisobviousthat,fortheflowingpressureprofileseeninFigure 3,wecannotassumeaconstantpressuredifferencebetweenthe average reservoir pressureandthe measured flowing pressure. Thecompletedevelopmentoftheappropriateequationsisgiven in Appendices A, B and C, but a simplified summary of the concepts as they apply to variable rate production is summarizedbelow:

FlowingMaterialBalance
Strictly speaking, both the Flowing Material Balance (constant rate) and the Dynamic Material Balance (variable rate) are valid only when the flow has reached Boundary Dominated conditions. The principles underlying these methods are best illustrated using constant rate production. When the flow becomes dominated by the boundaries, i.e. stabilizedorpseudosteadystateconditionsareachieved,the pressureateverypointinthereservoirdeclinesatthesamerate. This is illustrated in Figure 1, which shows that the pressure dropmeasuredatthewellboreisthesameasthepressuredrop thatwouldbeobservedanywhereinthereservoir,includingthe location which represents average reservoir pressure. pR1, pR2 and pR3 represent the average (static) reservoir pressure that wouldbeobtainedifthewellwasshutinattimest1,t2,andt3. Itisevident,fromFigure1,thatthechangeinaveragereservoir pressureisequaltothechangeinthesandfaceflowingpressure.
2

PseudosteadyStateFlow:
p - p = i wf qt + bpssq c N o

7. (4) 8.

CumulativeProduction:
(q t = Np)

9. (5)

Convert the average reservoir pseudopressure to averagereservoirpressure, pR. Calculate pR/Z and plot against cumulative gas produced, Gp, just like the conventional Material Balancegraphforagaspool.TheinterceptontheX axisgivestheoriginalgasinplace,G.SeeFigure5. UsingthisnewvalueofG,repeatsteps3to7untilG converges.SeeFigure5

MaterialBalanceEquation:

Limitations
p - pR = i Np c N o

(6)

Combingequations4, 5and6:
pR - p = bpssq wf

(7)

Rearranging:
pR = p + bpssq wf

(8)

The above equation illustrates how the Dynamic Material Balance can beappliedto a well with varying production rate andcorrespondinglyvaryingflowingpressure.Theconversion from flowing pressureto average reservoir pressure musttake into account the varying flow rate. Since the flow rate is known,weneedonlydeterminethevalueofbpss ,usingsome independentmethod.Onewaytoobtainareliableestimateof bpss isdiscussedinAppendixA.Aplotof(pipwf/q) versusNp/q should yield a straight line when boundary dominated flow is reached.Theinterceptofthisplotisbpss .Notethatthevalue of bpss is subject to interpretation, as it depends on the proper identification of the stabilized (straightline) section of the graph. The above summary equationsare for asingle phaseliquid system. The corresponding equations for a gas reservoir are developedinAppendixC. Foragasreservoir,twomodificationsarenecessary: a)Thepressuremustbeconvertedtopseudopressure,pp, to account for the dependence of viscosity () and Z factoronpressure,and b) materialbalancetime must be converted to pseudotime, tca, to account for the strong dependence of gascompressibility,cg,onpressure. The step by step procedure for generating a Dynamic Material Balance plot for a gas well with varying flow rate is givenbelow: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Convertinitialpressuretopseudopressure, ppi Convert all flowing pressures to pseudopressures, ppwf AssumeavaluefortheOriginalGasinPlace,G Calculate pseudotimefromEquationC11 Plot(ppippwf/q)versus pseudotime,tca.s.Theintercept givesbpss.SeeFigure4. Calculate the average reservoir pseudopressure from EquationC19.

Theproceduresdescribedinthispaperareveryeffectiveand provide extremely valuable information. However, like any otherreservoirengineering,ithasitslimitations. Becausetheformulationofthematerialbalancetime and pseudotime are, strictly speaking, rigorous only during boundarydominated flow, data obtained during transient flow cannot be used inthis analysis. However, for the majority of productiondata,thisis notaproblem. Thetransientdatacanbe identifiedasthecurvedpartofthegraphinFigure4andshould beignored. Experience with this method has shown that in certain situations such as pressuredependent permeability, or continuouslychangingskin,(bothfactorshavebeenignoredin the development of the equations) this method will tend to underpredict the hydrocarbonsinplace. However, these factors can readily be accounted for by more complex definitionsofpseudopressureandpseudotime. When comparing the Dynamic Material Balance to the more traditional buildup tests for obtaining average reservoirpressure,itshouldbekeptinmindthatbothmethods havetheirstrengthsandtheirlimitations.Thedynamicmaterial balance is an indirect method of determining the average reservoirpressure.Assuch,itincorporatesmanyassumptions. Ontheotherhand,buildupteststhemselveshavetheirownsets ofassumptionswhenthebuilduppressurehastobeextrapolated to obtain the average reservoir pressure. Accordingly, whenever possible, these methods should be used in concert witheachotherratherthanasalternativestoeachother.

Conclusion
Itispossibletoobtaintheaveragereservoirpressure withoutshuttinginawell. Theflowingpressurecanbeconvertedtotheaverage reservoir pressure existing at the time of the measurement using a very simple and direct procedure. The average reservoir pressure obtained from the Dynamic Material Balance method can be used anywhereitistraditionallyused. Foragaswell,aconventionalpR/Zplotcaneasilybe generated without shuttingin the well, and the originalgasinplacedeterminedasusual. The Dynamic Material Balance applies to variable rate production. It is an extension of the Flowing Material Balance method which was limited to a constantratesituation. TheDynamicMaterialBalanceshouldnotbeviewed as a replacement to buildup tests, but as a very inexpensivesupplementtothem.

ta

Pseudotime,daypsi/cp

NOMENCLATURE
2 A= Reservoirarea,ft

tc

= Materialbalancetimeforliquid,day

= Formationvolumefactor,bbl/stb

tca = Materialbalancepseudotimeforgas(EquationC 11),day tD T Tst

Z

bpss = Reservoirconstant (EquationA4)

cg = Gascompressibilityataveragereservoirpressure,psi1
1 cgi = Gascompressibilityatinitialreservoirpressure,psi

= Dimensionlesstime,

2637 10-4kt 24 .

fm cr 2 w

= Reservoirtemperature,R = Standardtemperature,519.668R = Gascompressibilityfactorataveragereservoir pressure = Gascompressibilityfactoratinitialreservoirpressure = Hydrocarbonfilledporosity = Viscosity,cp = Viscosityatinitialreservoirpressure,cp

co

1 Oilcompressibility,psi

G = Gp = h k = =

Originalgasinplace,MMscf Cumulativegasproduced,MMscf Paythickness,ft Reservoirpermeability,md Originaloilinplace,Bbl Cumulativeproductionproduced,Bbl Dimensionlesspressure,

( ppi - pp) kh 1417 10 qT .
6

Zi

f m

N = Np = pD =

( p - p kh ) i or 1412 m . qB

mi

REFERENCES
1.Mattar,L.,McNeil,R.,The'Flowing'GasMaterialBalance JournalofJCPT,Vol.37#2,page,1998. 2.Blasingame,T.A.,Lee,W.J.,VariableRateReservoirLimits Testing PaperSPE15028 presentedatthePermianBasinOil andGasRecoveryConference, Midland, TX,March1314, 1986 3.Lee,J.,Spivey,J.P.,Rollins J.B.,PressureTransient Testing SPETextbookSeriesVol.9,pg.15,2003. 4.E.R.C.B.GasWellTesting TheoryandPractice Energy andResourceConservationBoard,Alberta,Canada,1975, ThirdEdition. 5.Agarwal,R.G.,Gardner,D.C.,Kleinsteiber,S.W.,Fussell, D.D.,AnalyzingWellProductionDataUsingCombinedType CurveandDeclineCurveAnalysisConcepts SPEReservoir EvaluationandEngineering,October,1999. 6.Fraim,M.L.,Wattenbarger R.A.,GasReservoirDecline CurveAnalysisUsingTypeCurveswithRealGas PseudopressureandNormalizedTime SPEFormation Evaluation,December,1987. 7.Palacio,J.C.,Blasingame,T.A.,DeclineCurveAnalysis UsingTypeCurves AnalysisofGasWellProductionData PaperSPE25909presentedattheJointRockyMountain RegionalandLowPermeabilityReservoirsSymposium,Denver, CO,April2628,1993.

pi

Initialreservoirpressure,psi Averagereservoirpressure,psi Standardpressure,(14.65psiinAlberta) Flowingpressureattheinterface,psi Pseudopressure,(EquationC2) Pseudopressurecorrespondingtoaveragereservoir pressure p ,psi /cp

2

pR =

pst = pwf = pp =
pp =

ppD= Dimensionlesspseudopressuredifference

correspondingtoaveragereservoirpressure, ( ppi - pp)kh

1417 24 . qT pp =
i

Pseudopressurecorrespondingtoinitialreservoir
2 pressure,psi /cp

ppwf = Pseudopressurecorrespondingtothesandface 2 flowingpressure,psi /cp q re = Productionrate(canbeafunctionoftime),BPDor MMscfd

= Exteriorradius,feet
r e r w

reD = Exteriorradiusdimensionless, rwa = Apparentwellboreradius,feet rw t = Wellboreradius,feet = Time,day

Appendices AppendixA: FlowingMaterialBalance:(ConstantRate) Oil:

Thepseudosteadystateequationforan oilwell,abovethe (3) bubblepoint,flowingataconstantrateisgivenbyLee :
p =2 D /r D2 + ln(r D)t e D e 3 4

A Cartesian plot of (pipwf/q) versus Np/q will yield a straightlinewithaninterceptof bpss.

AppendixB: DynamicMaterialBalance:(Variablerate) Oil:

Strictly speaking, the relationships developedin Appendix Aapplytoaconstantratesituationonly. (5)(6)(7) Numerouspublications inthefieldofproductiondata analysishavedemonstratedthatiftheflowtime,t,isreplaced byMaterialBalanceTime,tc,theequationsofAppendixAare valid for varying rate production. For an oil reservoir, tc is definedas:
t = c Np q

(A1)

Thistranslatesto:
pi - p = wf qt 1412 m . qB r e + )(ln c N kh r o wa 3 4

(A2)

(B1)

p - p i wf

qt = + b q pss c N o

(A3) Accordingly, for any flow condition (constant rate or variablerate)theanalysisprocedureis:

3 4

where,
r 1412B . m e b pss = ln( )kh r wa

(A4)

a) Plot a Cartesian graph of (pipwf/q) versus Np/q. The earlypartofthedatamaybecurvedbecauseoftransientflow. However,theboundarydominatedflowwillyieldastraightline withaninterceptequalto bpss. b) Convert the measured flowing pressure to the average reservoir pressure existing in the reservoir at that time using EquationA7
pR = p + bpss q wf

Notethatbpssisaconstant.Theformofthisequationwas giveninBlasingame(2). Recognizing that in Equation A3, the term qt is the cumulativeproduction,Np.Thecumulativeproductionrelates the initial reservoir pressure to the current reservoir pressure through the Material Balance Equation for an oil reservoir abovethebubblepoint:
p - pR = i Np c N o = qt c N o

(A7)

AppendixC:
(A5)

DynamicMaterialBalance:(VariableRate) Gas:
(A6) (A7)
p = D

CombiningEquationsA3andA5
pR - p = bpss q wf pR = p + bpss q wf

Thedevelopmentoftheequationsforgasflowparallelsthat foroilflow(AppendixA).
2 D t r 2 eD + ln( eD)r 3 4

(A1)

This equation shows that if bpss were known, the average reservoirpressureatanytimecanbedeterminedbymeasuring theflowingpressureandsimplyaddingtoitthetermbpss xq, where q istheinstantaneousflowrate. bpss can be determined by rearranging Equation A3 as follows:
(p i - pwf ) q = Np coNq qt = + bpss coNq

Substitutingforthedimensionlessquantitiesintermsofgas variables(ERCB1975,equation4N21):

p pi - ppwf =

24 2348 T q t

p f m i cgi r 2 h e

(A8)

r 1417 106 q T . 3 + ln( e )- k h 4 r a w

(C1)

+ bpss

wherepseudopressure, pp isdefinedby:
p pp =2 dp mZ

ca t 1 = t m cg

(C12)

(C2) Usethechainrule
pp t ca pp pp t -1 ca t t 2 p q i GZi

InthesamemannerasfortheoilequationsinAppendixA, theMaterialBalanceEquationforgaswillbeincorporatedinto EquationC1. Thegasmaterialbalancecanbestated as

p Z = Gp p i ( 1 ) Z G i

(C13)

(C3)

t ca

=-

(C14)

Differentiatingpartiallywithrespecttorealtime,t,onegets
p i = - p q t Z ZiG dGp( ) t dt

Assumingaconstantrateqandintegratingwithappropriate limits
pp - pp =
i

(C4)

2 p qt i ca GZi

(C15)

where q t)= (

(C5)

Alsorecognizingthat
G=

fAhpT i st
Zip T st

SimilarlyfrompartiallydifferentiatingEquation(C2)with respectto p ,onegets

pp p 2 p

(C16)

MultiplyingbothsidesofEquation(C15)by(kh/1.417qT) andmanipulatingyields (C6)

kh 2.637 104 24 t k ca (pp - pp)= 2 p i 1417 T . q f A

m Z

(C17)

Onecanalsorecognizethat
p 1 p dZ pcg = = p Z Z Z2 dp Z

CombiningEquationsC1andC17resultsintheDynamic MaterialBalanceEquation. (C7)

p p = p + qb pwf pss

(C18)

wherethegascompressibilityisdefinedas where,
cg = 1 1 Z p Z p

(C8)

6 141710 T r . e b = pss ln kh r wa

3 4

(C19)

Now,usingthechainrule
pp p pp p = . . t t Z p p Z
-1

(C9)

Theabovedefinitionofbpss appliestoaverticalwellinthe center of a circular reservoir. Similar definitions, in terms of shapefactors,canbedevelopedforrectangularreservoirs. The value of bpss for a gas system is obtained from combiningEquationC1withthedefinitionofpseudotime.

Substituting the values from Equations (C4), (C6) and (C7)inEquation(C9),itfollows

pp t 2 p q i Z G cg i m

p pi - ppwf =
(C10)
6

24 2348 T q tca

=-

p f m i cg r 2 h e
i

Atthispoint,itisappropriatetointroducethedefinitionof pseudotimeforgas

r 1417 10 q T . 3 + ln( e )- k h 4 r a w

(C20)

t = ca

mc

dt

This equation shows that a Cartesian plot of (ppippwf/q) versus tca willyieldastraightlinewithaninterceptof bpss. (C11)
g

Figures:

ConstantRateq
1 p 1 R
2

p 2 R 3 p 1 wf pR3 p 2 wf AverageReservoirPressure p 3 wf

r w

Distance

r e

Figure1:PressureDropinaReservoirasafunctionofRadial DistanceandTimeDuringBoundaryDominatedFlow

p i Z i

Pressurelossinreservoir

( p - p )
R wf

PressureMeasured atwellduring constantflowrate

OriginalGasinPlace,G

CumulativeProduction CumulativeProduction

Figure2:TheFlowingP/ZPlotatConstantRateProduction
7

ProductionData
30 1400

25

1200

1000 20 GasRate(MMscfd) FlowingBHP(psi) 2500.0

800 15 Flow ingSandfacePre ssure 600

10 Gas Rate 400

5 200

0 0 100 200 300 400 Tim e(days) 500 600 700

0 800

Gasrate(MMscfd)

FlowingBHP(psi)

Figure3:ProductionData

Determinationofbpss
50.00

45.00

40.00

35.00

bpss
30.00

(Ppi Ppwf)/q

25.00

20.00

15.00

10.00

5.00

0.00 0.0

500.0

1000.0

1500.0

2000.0

MaterialBalancePseudoTime

Figure4:Determinationofb pss pss

DynamicMaterialBalancePlot
1800 30

1600 P/Z 1400 P/Zextrapolate dto 1200 Ave rageRe servoirPressure Pressure(psi) 1000 Flow ingSandfacePres sure 800 15 Rate(MMcfd) 25

G =24Bcf

20

600

10

400 5 200 Rate(M Mcfd)

0 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

0 10

Cum ulative Production(Bcf)

Figure5:DynamicMaterialBalancePlot Figure5:DynamicMaterialBalancePlot