A Cost-free Alternative Approach to Simulation of Pressure Transient Response for Slightly Compressible Fluids

Generating pressure transient response for an interpretation model to describe essential features of a reservoir system accurately is often difficult. It is generally due to the inaccessibility of standard pressure transient analysis tools due to the cost, and even when accessible, they are constrained to its workflow and limitations. This study presents an alternative to standard industry tools to determine transient pressure response for a given rate history. A reservoir model for a single well with constant skin and wellbore storage producing a varying step rate in a semi-infinite acting reservoir with a sealing fault was used as a case study. The well is also assumed to be producing above saturation pressure from a reservoir saturated with slightly compressible fluid hence having constant fluid properties. The method discussed in this study can be applied to well-test interpretation models with an analytical constant terminal rate solution producing at variable step rates from a reservoir having constant rock and fluid properties. The results show conformance with that of standard industry software, and diagnostic plots of the simulated data set can help engineers plan well-test jobs and study the behavior of different reservoir models. Moreover, the program can be modified and used to regress observed pressure response with a selected model. The approach suggested by this study is a perfect alternative where time and cost are constraints.