SPE 96587

Experimental Investigation of Wellbore Phase Redistribution Effects on Pressure-

Transient Data
A.M. Ali, Imperial College; G. Falcone, SPE, Total E&P U.K. plc and Imperial College;
and G.F. Hewitt, M. Bozorgzadeh, SPE, and A.C. Gringarten, SPE, Imperial College

Copyright 2005, Society of Petroleum Engineers

Introduction
This paper was prepared for presentation at the 2005 SPE Annual Technical Conference and Wellbore phase redistribution (WPR) occurs in wells where
Exhibition held in Dallas, Texas, U.S.A., 9 – 12 October 2005.
more than one phase flows and has an impact on the quality of
This paper was selected for presentation by an SPE Program Committee following review of
information contained in a proposal submitted by the author(s). Contents of the paper, as
recorded pressure data. WPR may cause an increase in the
presented, have not been reviewed by the Society of Petroleum Engineers and are subject to wellbore storage coefficient in both drawdowns and build-ups.
correction by the author(s). The material, as presented, does not necessarily reflect any
position of the Society of Petroleum Engineers, its officers, or members. Papers presented at Phase change, on the other hand, causes the wellbore storage
SPE meetings are subject to publication review by Editorial Committees of the Society of
Petroleum Engineers. Electronic reproduction, distribution, or storage of any part of this paper
coefficient to decrease during build-ups and to increase during
for commercial purposes without the written consent of the Society of Petroleum Engineers is drawdowns. While the impact of phase change on the pressure
prohibited. Permission to reproduce in print is restricted to a proposal of not more than 300
words; illustrations may not be copied. The proposal must contain conspicuous behaviour is usually limited to early times, WPR may
acknowledgment of where and by whom the paper was presented. Write Librarian, SPE, P.O.
Box 833836, Richardson, TX 75083-3836, U.S.A., fax 01-972-952-9435.
dominate a well test for several hours. When WPR occurs,
derivative shapes can be easily misinterpreted as being due to
Abstract double porosity, partial penetration or composite behaviour.
Pressure transient analysis is a well established reservoir Typical derivative shapes (for gas condensate fields) due to
evaluation method. By analysing pressure and pressure WPR are reported in Fig.1, where curve 5 is typical of
derivative curves from build-up and drawdown tests, it is situations where the denser phase re-enters into the formation.
possible to identify reservoir characteristic parameters and
heterogeneities. However, much of the pressure data recorded
during a well test may be dominated by wellbore effects that
can mask reservoir characteristics and lead to erroneous well
test interpretations. This is particularly true when the well
production rate is controlled at surface and more than one
phase is flowing. These effects, which are transient in nature,
include phase change, flow reversal, and re-entry of the denser
phase into the producing zone.
This paper presents the results of experiments carried out at
Imperial College to investigate the effects of phase
redistribution and phase re-injection on pressure build-up data.
Single-phase and two-phase flow tests were conducted with
air and water. An experimental rig was designed to emulate a
reservoir connected, via a resistance, to the base of a flowing
well. The “reservoir” is recreated by a pressurised vessel,
while the “well” is simulated by a vertical pipe. The “well”
was flowed at controlled rates to mimic those encountered in
Fig.1: Log-log derivative plots, increasing wellbore storage due to phase
gas condensate reservoirs. After steady-state conditions had redistribution in the wellbore1.
been attained, the “well” was shut-in at the top of the rig (i.e.
at surface) and the associated transient phenomena monitored Pressure transients in a wellbore imply transient
via distributed measurements of pressure, temperature, liquid multiphase flows, opposite the producing reservoir zones and
hold-up and wall shear stress. Pressure build-up data were higher up in the tubing. Gravity, friction and acceleration
interpreted using established well test analysis techniques. effects play an important role in this scenario, as they
The experiments provide a qualitative and quantitative determine the pressure profile and the flow regime in the well.
understanding of the effects of gas rates, liquid rates and rising To date, there has been limited research into wellbore
gas bubbles on wellbore phase redistribution and re-injection. phenomena during well testing. Initial research has focused on
The results yield an insight into the corresponding impact on empirical models to identify and match WPR, but these
well test transient pressure behaviour. models do not account for the underlying physical
mechanisms that cause it. More recently, robust mechanistic
 2 SPE 96587

modelling of multiphase flows has been proposed to rate prior to shut-in. Such investigations may produce a
characterise wellbore phenomena. method of eliminating or at least reducing WPR.
Stegemeier et al.2 were the first to provide a physical An added benefit of this study has been the gathering of
explanation for the anomalous pressure hump observed in experimental data for future WPR mechanistic modeling
build-up data from South Texas oil fields. 75% of wells Imperial College.
showed the effects of WPR. Fig.2 shows the relationship To achieve these objectives, an experimental rig was
between the size of the pressure hump and the productivity designed and tests performed, the results of which were then
index. The extent of the pressure hump was found to be analysed using a commercial well test interpretation package.
higher in wells with low productivity index, associated to low
permeability and skin.
Experimental setup and procedure
100
The experiments described in this paper were carried out in
the LOTUS (LongTUbeSystem) facility at Imperial College.
A simplified diagram of the rig is shown in Fig.3. LOTUS is a
vertical two-phase air-water system that was originally built at
the Harwell Laboratory of the UKAEA in the early 1960’s. It
Size of pressure hump-psi

was relocated to the pilot plant area of the Chemical

Engineering Department of Imperial College in 1992. The
10
vertical tube is mounted over three floors of the pilot plant and
the test spools for data collection are located at the top and
bottom of the rig. The tube is attached to a vertical fixed
beam, carefully aligned to guarantee the alignment and
straightness of the tube. LOTUS measurements include
pressure, liquid film thickness, wall shear stress and
1.0 temperature. The tube section used to simulate the wellbore
0.01 0.1 1.0 10 has an internal diameter of 31.8mm and an active length of
Productivity index, bbl/day-psi 10.3m. Various flanged pipes were used to accommodate all
the necessary test sections and all the data gathering tappings.
The reservoir is simulated by a pressure vessel of dimensions
Fig.2: Size of pressure hump as a function of productivity index for South
Texas oil wells2. 1500mm in length and 508mm in diameter. Air and water are
both introduced into the system at the bottom of the tube. Air
When a two-phase (liquid and gas) fluid is flowing in a into the rig is from a compressed air supply at about 90 psia. It
well which is shut-in at surface, the denser phase will travel is then passed through orifice plates in order to meter the air
toward the bottom of the well while the lighter phase will rise flow rate by means of differential pressure transducers. Water
to the surface. Due to compressibility effects, this wellbore is introduced using compressed air through the pressure vessel
phase redistribution causes a net increase of wellbore pressure. simulating the reservoir, and metered via rotameters.
In build-up tests, the increased pressure is dissipated through V23
Vent
Water
the formation until there is equilibrium between reservoir and supply

wellbore. However, in low permeability reservoirs, it may take V22

some time for this overpressure to be dissipated and this rd
3 floor
causes the anomalous pressure hump at early times. Height Water
tank
10.5m from
Pitzer et al.3 validated and extended the considerations mixer

made by Stegemeier and Matthews. They suggested that the

size of the pressure hump is related to the amount of gas in the Drain
valve
wellbore. Pitzer et al. also identified downhole shut-in as the 2rd floor Height
way forward to eliminate the effect of afterflow and wellbore 5.71m from
mixer
phase redistribution on well test data. Reliev Water
valve supply Mezzanine Floor
Since the papers of the 1950’s, no further relevant Height 2.44m
mixer
investigations were done on the subject of WPR. Air
supply
Gas-condensate and volatile oil reservoirs have become Water Mixer, Inlet
0.9m from
more important as more fields enter maturity and the Water
Tank ground
V52
worldwide production of condensates and NGL’s grows4,5. drain Air
supply

Objectives
The main objective of this study was the development of an
experimental system capable of simulating the effects of WPR
on pressure-transient data. The aim was to investigate WPR
effects during build-up tests as a function of the production
Fig.3: Experimental set-up.
SPE 96587 3

The experiments were organised into three groups: (1) n

1  p   p  
single- and two-phase flow tests to illustrate phase m( p ) = 2∑   +  µZ   ( pi − pi −1 )
[2]
i =2 2  µZ  i −1  i 
redistribution; (2) phase re-injection tests and (3) closed
system tests to investigate the effects of gas migration on
bottomhole pressure. where the base pressure p0 is an arbitrary pressure (usually the
Fluids (air and water) are flowed through the tube at a lowest end of the range of pressure of interest during the test),
steady-state surface rate prior to “the well” being shut-in at µ is viscosity, Z is the compressibility factor. For the
surface. To see WPR, the results are compared with those analysis of single-phase air tests and annular flow tests, rate
obtained with single-phase flow. normalised pseudo-pressure was used.
Single-phase flow pressure transients were conducted to
• Test 1 (phase redistribution). The pressure vessel illustrate the deviation of pressure change and pressure
(“the reservoir”) is filled with water, compressed air derivative in two-phase flow.
is introduced at the top and the water is pushed into
the tube (“the well”) due to the pressure gradient as Test 1 (phase redistribution). To illustrate the effect of WPR,
in an actual reservoir. The pressure applied to the single-phase pressure transient build-up tests were performed.
water is kept at 40 psia. The water flow rate is Both single-phase air and single-phase water experiments
controlled using a calibrated rotameter with two were carried out. Fig.4 shows the pressure build-up results for
valves to choke the flow. When steady-state is single-phase water. At early times, wellbore storage,
reached, the exit valve (Fig.3, valve23, the “well characterised by a unit slope, was observed, followed by
head”) is closed. As the inlet valves stay open stabilization and boundary effects. As the water flow rate
throughout the test, fluids continue to flow into “the increases, the wellbore storage decreases. This was found to
wellbore”, thus emulating afterflow during a build-up be consistent throughout the range of flow rates investigated.
test. Data are recorded throughout the process.
Experiments were run for 150 seconds, of which 20
seconds of steady-state conditions.
• Test 2 (phase re-injection). The procedure for this test
was the same as for Test 1. However, the air and
water flow rates were kept constant while varying the
vessel pressure (“reservoir” pressure). See Table1 for
more details on these experiments.
• Test 3 (closed system). This test was designed to
illustrate the relationship between bubble migration Water rate
and bottomhole pressure. Three cases were bbl/d

investigated: single-phase water, bubble flow and

slug flow. These were qualitative as no flow rate
measurements were taken. Both air and water were
introduced into the well using same procedure as for
Test 1 and 2. After establish the desired steady-state
flowing conditions, the data were logged and valves Fig.4: Log-Log plot of pressure and pressure derivative vs. elapsed time.
v52, v23 and v5, shown in Fig.3, were simultaneously Comparison of single-phase water pressure responses for different water flow
rates.
closed.

For Test 1 and Test 2, annular flow conditions were Fig.5 compares single-phase air pressure transient data with
established prior to shut-in, while Test 3 was conducted at two-phase data. At early times, the two-phase flow test
different flow regimes. exhibits a decrease in wellbore storage compared to single-
phase flow. There is a slight humping effect in the pressure
change, which explains the observed pressure derivative
Results response. This behaviour is also present in the single-phase
The experimental data were analysed using a commercial well flow test, but to a lesser degree. At middle times, there is an
test interpretation package. Pressure change and pressure additional stabilisation, which is absent in single-phase flow.
derivative are used to illustrate the effect of WPR. The At late times, both the two-phase and single-phase pressure
viscosity and compressibility of real gases are strongly related derivative responses show a similar upward trend with roughly
to pressure. The pseudo-pressure concept is used to account the same slope. Close examination of the two-phase flow
for these effects. pressure derivative shows a rather sharp V-shape, which is
pp indicative of a late phase redistribution or even re-injection.
m( p ) = 2 ∫ dp [1]
p0 Zµ

The integral of this equation yields:

 Run Liquid rate Gas rate Reservoir
(bbl/d) Mscf/d Pressure
(psia)
nm(p) Change and Derivative (psi)

10
1 220 115 35
2 220 115 40
3 220 111 45
4 220 114 50

1 Table 1: Rates and vessel pressures used in Test 2.

Pressure
Fig.7 compares runs 1 to 4 shown above in Table 1. At early
bbl/d
Water Mscf/day Pressure derivative times, the data show WPR, illustrated by the hump in the
220 97
pressure change. Phase re-injection is clearly illustrated by the
0.1 0 97
V-shape in the pressure derivative and was also visually
0.1 1 10 100
Elapsed time (s) observed at the pressure vessel. The magnitude of the V-shape
Fig.5: Log-log plot of rate normalised pseudo-pressure change and pressure depression is much deeper and occurs earlier at lower vessel
derivative vs. elapsed time. The comparison between single- and two-phase pressures than at higher vessel pressures. The humping effect,
flow shows WPR.
which is indicative of phase re-injection, is only visible at low
vessel pressures. At late times, all derivative responses are
Fig.6 illustrates the effect of reduced gas flow rate
compared to that shown in Fig.5. The pressure change and
pressure derivative responses exhibit similar shapes in both
cases. However, for single-phase air flow, the lower the rate,
the smoother the response. For two-phase flow, the lower the
air rate, the less pronounced the V-shape (which is indicative
of WPR) in the pressure derivative. At late times, for two-
phase flow, the pressure derivatives show similar slope in both
cases (high and low air rate).
nm(p) Change and Derivative (psi)

10

1 seen to follow the same trend and slope.

Fig.7: Log-log plot of rate normalised pseudo-pressure change and pressure

derivative. Two-phase flow, phase re-injection.
0.1

bbl/d
Water Mscf/day Pressure
Pressure
derivative
Test 3 (closed system). Three different cases were investigated
220 14
with Test 3: two-phase bubble flow, two-phase slug flow and
0 14 single-phase (water) flow.
0.01
0.1 1 10 100 Fig.8 shows the results obtained with bubble flow regime,
Elapsed time (s)
with water as the dominant phase. Normal pressure is used
14 Mscf/d instead of normalized pseudo-pressure for the interpretation of
Fig.6: Log-log plot of rate normalised pseudo-pressure change and pressure the results. Bubble flow regime is unlikely in gas condensate
derivative vs. elapsed time. Single- and two-phase flow rate at low air rate. reservoirs. However, this test was intended to illustrate the
impact that rising gas bubbles could have on the pressure
Test 2 (phase re-injection). Phase re-injection is a major gauge.
problem in well dynamics. It has been noted in the literature to During the first seconds after shut-in, a straight line with a
have a significant effect on the pressure profile. The following unit slope (which is indicative of wellbore storage) is observed
experiments were designed to illustrate the effects of phase re- in the log-log plot, followed by a wave-type response that
injection. The methodology and procedure were the same as causes instability in the pressure derivative. At middle times,
before, the only change was the pressure at which the vessel the pressure change data become less noisy and increase
(the “reservoir“) was kept, which was manipulated as shown steadily, as does the pressure derivative. At late times, no
in Table 1. All of the other test procedures stayed the same. further pressure change takes place and the pressure derivative
goes to zero, as in a closed system.
SPE 96587 5

Fig.8: Log-log plot pressure change and pressure derivative vs. elapsed time. Fig.10: Log-log plot of pressure change and pressure derivative vs. elapsed
Bubble flow regime, phase redistribution without afterflow effect. time. Single-phase water, hammering effect.

Fig.9 shows shows the results obtained with slug flow

Discussions
regime. The pressure rise takes longer to stabilise than for the Test 1 (phase redistribution). The conditions reproduced by
case of bubble flow and the magnitude of WPR is greater. Test 1 were the closest to an actual reservoir-well system. As
This is illustrated by the continuous fluctuation of the pressure soon as “the well” was shut-in, afterflow from “the reservoir”
change and by the sharper V-shape in the pressure derivative. took place and the pressure in “the well” built up to that of
At late times, no further pressure change takes place and the “the reservoir”.
pressure derivative goes to zero, as in a closed system WPR and phase re-injection were investigated as a function of
air and water rates prior to shut-in. All the results in two-phase
flow conditions showed the existence of WPR.
WPR was found to take place prior to the end of wellbore
storage, because of the limited pipe length that caused liquid
to drop much faster than it would be the case in real wells.
Fig.5 and Fig.6 showed that, the higher the rates in two-phase
flow, the higher the magnitude of WPR (indicated by the
deviation of the pressure change and pressure derivative from
the single-phase air case). In particular, WPR was found to be
a strong function of air rate, for a given water rate. It is
difficult to draw a firm conclusion from the data collected
during Test 1, but it is believed that the behaviour observed is
a consequence of the fact that annular flow was the
predominant flow regime for the experiments.
One important anomaly to report is that, at high air rates,
even the single-phase air tests showed pressure change and
Fig.9: Log-log plot pressure change and pressure derivative vs. elapsed time. pressure derivative deviations. Similar anomalies were also
Slug flow regime, phase redistribution without afterflow effect. reported by Gringarten et al.1 for a dry gas well in Canada.

Fig.10shows results from a shut-in test with single-phase Test 2 (phase re-injection). Test 2 investigated the effects of
water. The purpose of this test was to illustrate the phase re-injection, which usually takes place in damaged wells
significance of sudden momentum changes, called water and in low-permeability formations. In these experiments, the
hammering in hydraulics. pressure at the vessel was manipulated to simulate a low-
During the first seconds after shut-in, the pressure change productivity reservoir. Fig.7 showed higher phase re-injection
increases and then decreases with a wave-type response, due at lower vessel pressures, in agreement with the findings by
to the incompressibility of the fluid, and is typical of water Stegemeier et al.2.
hammering. The pressure stabilises after the hump.
Test 3 (closed system). The tests with the closed system
allowed the investigation of WPR without afterflow and
without re-injection.
The results for bubble flow were found to be consistent
with what reported by Stegemeier et al.2 and, more recently,
6 SPE 96587

by Kabir et al.6. In bubble flow build-up tests, the gas bubbles 4. BP Review of World Energy 2005, downloaded from the
rise through the liquid column in the well. However, the gas bp website.
cannot expand in the closed system and therefore it exterts a 5. IHS Energy's Report on 10-Year Petroleum Trends, 1994-
pressure on the liquid at the gas-liquid interface, which causes 2003, published in 2004.
6. Hasan, A.R., Kabir, C.S.: “A Mechanistic Approach to
an increase in bottomhole pressure. Understanding Wellbore Phase Redistribution,” SPE 26483
When comparing the results for bubble flow with those for presented at the SPE Annual Technical Conference and
slug flow, it was noted that the pressure change in bubble flow Exhibition, Houston, Texas, October 3-6, 1993.
took longer to stabilise. Also, the pressure waves shown in
slug flow were more pronounced than for the case of bubble
flow.
The results for single-phase water showed a wave-type
response in the pressure change after shut-in similar to that
caused by water hammering. The results also showed that the
rise in pressure change, seen with bubble and slug flow at
middle times, did not take place with single-phase water. This
suggests that the rise in pressure change seen with bubble and
slug flow was only due to gas rise.

Conclusions and recommendations for future work

• An effective experimental set-up and methodology
was developed for the study of WPR. A pressure
vessel was found to represent the reservoir
satisfactorily.
• WPR was found to occur in two-phase flow tests
before the end of wellbore storage.
• Air flow rate was found to have a higher effect than
water flow rate on WPR. This was most probably due
to annular flow being the predominant flow regime
for the experiments.
• Phase re-injection was successfully simulated. The
lower the “reservoir” pressure, the higher the liquid
re-injection, an analogue to low-permeability
reservoirs.
• For a closed system, WPR was shown to take place.
Rising gas causes an increase in bottomhole pressure.
• More experimental investigation of WPR is
necessary for a better understanding of its impact on
pressure-transient data. In particular, a wider range of
flow conditions should be considered and a porous
medium should be used to simulate the “near-
wellbore region” between “the reservoir” and “the
well”. Research is currently ongoing at Imperial
College to combine the experimental investigation of
WPR with the modelling of the associated transient
flow phenomena.

References
1. Gringarten, A.C., Al-Lamki, A., Daungkaew, S., Mott, R.
and Whittle, T.M.: “Well Test Analysis in Gas Condensate
Reservoirs,” SPE 62920 presented at the SPE Annual
Technical Conference and Exhibition, Dallas Texas,
October 1-4, 2000.
2. Stegemeier, G.L. and Matthews, C.S.: “A Study of
Anomalous Pressure Buildup Behaviour,” J. Pet. Tech.
(February 1958) 44-50; Trans., AIME 213.
3. Pitzer, S.C., Rice, J.D. and Thomas, C.E.: “A Comparison
of Theoretical Buildup Curves with Field Curves Obtained
from Bottomhole Shut-in Tests,” Trans., AIME 216, 416-
419, 1959.