A.

Exploration phase

- rock permeability from core samples.

- whether a structural trap has been sealed
- Information from well tests will supplement the amount of information with flow rate data, pressure data,
and other, which is needed to build a rich reservoir model.
- The main objective in the exploration phase is to assess the size of a reservoir and state with a given
certainty whether it has the properties for commercial exploitation and shall contribute to accounting for
available reserves.[1]
- Well testing taking place before permanent well completion is referred to as drill stem testing or formation
testing - depending on the technology used.
B. Field development phase
- The reservoir model is further developed to support the field development planning and to advise for the
optimal location for extra production wells to be drilled.
- Descriptive well tests are designed and performed in the new wells.
C. Field production phase

Flow test[edit]
- This test has also been called daily test and may have various other namings. Often, and especially at offshore
fields, a number of wells produce to a common separator, and flows from several separators or facilities may be
headed into a commingled flow in pipeline that transports oil or gas for sale (export).
- The total flow rate of all wells in total are measured, but the contributions of the individual wells are unknown. It is
important to know the individual contributions to account hydrocarbon material balance and for well monitoring
and reservoir management.
- To obtain individual well flow rates, it is common to use a smaller test separator. This is an isolated and down-
scaled processing system in parallel with the normal flows. Regularly, for example once a month per well, the
flow from one and only one selected well is led into the test separator for determining well flow rate for the
selected well. The separator divides the flow from the well into the streams of individual products which typically
are oil, gas and water, but may include natural-gas condensate. Contamination may also be removed and fluid
samples collected. This helps to allocate individual flow rate contributions, but the method has uncertainties.
- Flow rate, water cut, GOR and other parameters for the test system can deviate from production separators. This
is generally taken into account by the allocation of products back to individual wells based on the field total, and
by using data from the individual well tests.
- Multiphase flow meters have to some degree reduced the need for flow tests and test separators.[6] Multiphase
flow meters are not suitable for all applications where clean-ups are required post workover. In the absence of
accurate, robust and low-cost multi-phase flow meters, large oil fields with thousands of wells continue to rely on
well tests as the primary source of information for production surveillance.
The most common types of well tests include:

- Drill stem tests (DSTs): DSTs are conducted on exploration wells to assess the potential of a reservoir to produce
oil orgas. DSTs involve lowering a series of tools into the well to temporarily isolate the reservoir and collect
samples of the fluids.
- Production tests: Production tests are conducted on producing wells to monitor reservoir performance and
identify any potential problems. Production tests involve flowing the well at different rates and measuring the flow
rates and pressures.
- Buildup tests: Buildup tests are conducted on producing wells to measure reservoir pressure and permeability.
Builtup tests involve shutting in the well after a production test and measuring the pressure as it builds back up.
The reservoir management process must be tailored to individual fields depending on:
• Size
• Complexity
• Reservoir and fluid properties
• Depletion state
• Regulatory controls
• Economics
Reservoir management team

 Bring together the skills needed to describe the reservoir, prepare depletion plans (including economic
justification of projects)
 Drill the wells
 Design and maintain wellbores
 Design and maintain production equipment
 Conduct the day-to-day operations of producing the field according to the depletion plan
 The team also meets to provide the information needed to upgrade and improve the depletion plan. A major
focus of the team is to obtain reliable data on a timely basis to analyze production performance.
Data management
This process represents the organizing of raw and interpreted data into a readily accessible form. It is not intended
to imply what type or quantity of data is needed. Those issues are addressed in other processes.
Data captured
This information includes raw data such as:
• Seismic records
• Well logs
• Conventional and special core analyses
• Fluid analyses
• Static pressures
• Pressure-transient tests
• Flowing pressures
• Periodic well production tests
• Monthly produced volumes of oil, gas, and water
Interpreted data could include:
• Seismic time maps
• Seismic conversion of time-to-depth maps
• Seismic attribute maps
• Log analyses
• Formation tops
• Structure and isopach maps
• Cross sections
• Geologic models
• Simulation models
How much information and how to capture this information varies with:
•Size of the database
•Size of the resource
•Remaining life of the resource

Quality assurance
Processes for the timely capture and quality maintenance of data also should be established. Personnel may be
required for this specific purpose. While this assignment may be a drain on limited manpower, the benefits of
readily available, high-quality data will save time spent in reorganizing, checking, and reinterpreting data each
time a study is conducted. The time savings more than returns the cost of quality data capture. Studies of work
output indicate that as much as 50% of the time spent on a project can be consumed by finding and organizing
data that is not maintained in a readily accessible, high-quality format.
Reservoir issues
The first step in model selection is to identify the questions to be answered and their relative importance. The
following issues must be addressed during this step.
• Exploration prospect forecast of oil, gas, and water production
• Annual forecasts of oil, gas, and water production
• Monthly tanker scheduling and storage requirements
• Pressure maintenance requirements
• Evaluation of alternative recovery processes: gas-cap expansion; natural waterdrive; and water, gas, or other
fluid injection
• Operational guidelines for pressure levels, injection volumes and distribution, and individual well and field total
production targets
• Well performance predictions: coning, artificial lift requirements
• Stimulation evaluation
• Gas- and water-handling requirements
• Need for and timing of reservoir depressuring
Implement and operate
Implementation plan
This plan is developed with input from several engineering disciplines.
• Drilling engineers design drilling schedules, wellbore trajectories, and casing and cementing programs to
locate wells at the required location for the lowest effective cost.
• Subsurface engineers design tubulars, completion techniques, stimulation processes, and artificial lift
equipment required for target well rates. They also design workover procedures as needed.
• Facilities engineers design equipment needed initially to handle produced and injected fluids and provide
plans for upgrades and additions when required.
• For offshore locations, the platform design engineers provide adequate sizing to accommodate wells and
facilities within budget and physical restraints.
• Reservoir engineers assist in optimizing the drilling schedule to conform to available facility capacity and
injection requirements, in providing well rate forecasts to aid well design, and in providing multiple production
scenarios to aid facility design.
There is interdependence between depletion and implementation plans. Iteration normally is required to find the
optimum combination of reservoir depletion objectives, equipment and completion constraints, and economic
guidelines that result in optimum field development. For example, favorable mobility-ratio waterdrive reservoirs
tend to have low sensitivity to rate of recovery; therefore, there is an economic tradeoff between the facility
capacity and the time that the reservoir operates at a facility-constrained capacity (plateau rate).
Reservoir Surveillance
Survey of performance
A periodic and systematic review of field performance, once the field has been placed on production, should be
practiced. The types of activity vary with the type and size of resource and stage of depletion. At a minimum, frequent
(daily to weekly) review of the following should be required:
• Trends in individual well producing or injection rates
• Gas/oil ratios or gas/liquid ratios
• Water cut
• Wellhead pressure
• Artificial lift performance
Surveillance includes periodic comparison (every 1 to 5 years) of performance with the projections contained in the
depletion plan. The performance factors reviewed include:
• Rates
• Pressures
• Recovery levels
• Injection volumes
• Contact movements
• Etc.
Significant deviations should trigger an update to the depletion plan to:
• Reflect the new information
• Identify additional data needs
• Outline additional work programs needed to improve recovery and sustain rates
Reservoir reviews primarily should be an in-house assessment; however, the inclusion of experts not directly involved
in day-to-day surveillance should be considered to provide another view and an independent source of ideas.
Rank, justify, and fund opportunities
Opportunities that can increase the economic value of the reservoir will be an outgrowth of:
• Initial development plan
• Development and updating of the depletion plan
• Surveillance activities
Assessing the economic benefits of each opportunity and obtaining the necessary management approvals is the next
step.
Opportunities may involve investments in new wells, processing equipment, and improved recovery projects or
changes to reservoir depletion strategies. Such assessments include recognition and evaluation of risks and benefits
for programs to:
• Acquire data
• Improve recovery
• Increase production rates
• Reduce operating costs
Outputs are a range of outcomes for each opportunity reflecting the associated risks for that opportunity and any
alternative solutions. The natural outcome of such assessment is an up-to-date ranked list of opportunities. Outputs
are recommendations to fund projects and/or implement changes to the depletion plan. The final phase is to obtain
management approval for project funding consistent with budget and personnel resource constraints.
In the analysis of some opportunities, additional data, studies, or technology may be required to reduce the risks to
an acceptable level. Additional data acquisition might include additional seismic, delineation drilling, or fluid analyses.
Studies could include reinterpretation of seismic data or an in-depth reservoir study including complex geologic and
reservoir simulation models. Acquiring technology could be by purchase or through liaison with a research
organization in which the needs of the project are considered in planning research activities.
1. Pressure Buildup tests are performed by shutting in the well after some period of flow to measure increase in bottomhole
pressure (BHP)
2. Drawdown tests, engineers open the well after a specified shut-in period to observe BHP decrease
3. During injection tests and falloff tests, fluid is injected into the formation, and BHP, which increases as a result, is
monitored
4. Interference tests record the pressure changes in adjacent wells when the test well pressure is changed. The time it takes
for changes in the test well to affect pressure at the observation well gives engineers an indication of the size of the
reservoir and flow communication within it
5. Pressure Transient Analysis - Engineers analyze responses to pressure change schemes using pressure transient analysis,
a technique based on the mathematical relationships between flow rate, pressure and time. The information from these
analyses helps engineers determine the optimal completion interval, production potential and skin. They can also derive
average permeability, degree of permeability heterogeneity and anisotropy, reservoir boundary shape and distance, and
initial and average reservoir pressures
6. Engineers use specific variations on well buildup and drawdown tests to evaluate gas wells. During a backpressure test, a
well is flowed against a specified backpressure until its BHP and surface pressures stabilize—an indication that flow is
coming from the outer reaches of the drainage area.
7. An isochronal test is a series of drawdowns and buildups. Pumping rates vary for each drawdown, while subsequent
buildups continue until the well reaches its original shut-in pressure.
8. A modified isochronal test—in which drawdown and buildup periods are of equal duration—may also be used.
Rather than use well tests, operators may opt to evaluate their wells using wireline formation testers that include a quartz
pressure gauge and a fluid sampling tool placed across a production interval (Figure 2). During these formation tests, reservoir
fluids are pumped or flowed into the wireline formation tester through a probe inserted into the formation or between packers
set above and below the sampling site.
• determine production potential, skin and absolute open flow (AOF)—the theoretical rate at which the well would flow if
backpressure on the sandface, or the borehole wall, were zero
• Scientists also use downhole fluid analysis (DFA) to monitor the sampling process.