An Account of Decline-Type-Curve Analysis of Vertical, Fractured, and Horizontal Well Production Data

Abstract

Abstract This paper presents an account of decline-type-curve analysis of production data from vertical, fractured, and horizontal wells. It is discussed that the decline-type-curve analysis techniques presented in the literature are based on an approximate deconvolution of the production data and therefore have some limitations. In addition, decline-type-curve analysis inherits the limitations of both conventional pressure-transient and decline-curve analysis techniques. Because of the theoretical and practical limitations, decline-type-curve analysis may need to be supported by pressure transient analysis to yield meaningful and reliable results. In this paper, we also present an alternate approach to construct and analyze the decline type curves and present new decline type curves for horizontal wells. The application of the new horizontal-well decline type curves is demonstrated by examples.