ANALYSES OF PRODUCTION TESTS AND MDT TESTS CONDUCTED IN MALLIK AND ALASKA METHANE HYDRATE RESERVOIRS: WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM THESE WELL TESTS?

• Main Authors: Kurihara, Masanori, Funatsu, Kunihiro, Ouchi, Hisanao, Masuda, Yoshihiro, Yamamoto, Koji, Narita, Hideo, Dallimore, Scott R., Collett, Timothy S., Hancock, Steve H.
• Language: English
• Published: 2008
• Subjects: MDT; production test; numerical simulation; history matching; ICGH 2008; International Conference on Gas Hydrates 2008
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/2233

Pressure drawdown tests were conducted using Schlumberger’s Modular Formation Dynamics Tester™ (MDT) wireline tool in the Mallik methane hydrate (MH) reservoirs in February 2002 as well as in the Mount Elbert (Alaska) MH reservoirs in February 2007, while a production test was conducted applying a depressurization method in one of the Mallik MH reservoirs in April 2007. All of these tests aimed at measuring production and bottomhole pressure (BHP) responses by reducing BHP below the MH stability pressure to estimate reservoir properties such as permeability and MH dissociation radius. We attempted to analyze the results of these tests through history matching using the numerical simulator (MH21-HYDRES) coded especially for gas hydrate reservoirs. Although the magnitude of depressurization and the total duration spent for these tests were almost identical to each other, the simulation studies revealed that there existed significant differences in what could be inferred and could not be inferred from test results between a MDT test and a production test. The simulation studies mainly clarified that (1) the MDT tests were useful to estimate initial effective permeability in the presence of MH, (2) when BHP is reduced below the MH stability pressure at MDT tests, the pressure and temperature responses were significantly influenced by the wellbore storage erasing all the important data such as those indicating a radius of MH dissociation and effective permeability after partial MH dissociation, and (3) history matching of production tests tended to result in multiple solutions unless establishing steady flow conditions. This paper presents the results of history matching for the typical MDT and production tests conducted in Mallik and Alaska MH reservoirs. This paper also discusses the parameters reliably estimated through MDT and production tests, which should provide many suggestions on future designs and analyses of short-term tests for MH reservoirs.