Detection of permeability anisotropy in the horizontal plane with a formation testing tool

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9759059-B2
Application number	US-201313923220-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 20, 2013
Priority date	Jun 20, 2013
Publication date	Sep 12, 2017
Grant date	Sep 12, 2017

Abstract

A method including positioning a formation testing tool within a wellbore formed within a subsurface reservoir, wherein the tool has a focused opening to enable fluid communication with the reservoir, and the tool has a horizontally-displaced observation probe configured to obtain pressure data; determining one of horizontal permeability and horizontal mobility of the reservoir based on measuring a flow response of the subsurface reservoir one of at and adjacent to the observation probe; and determining orthogonal components of one of the horizontal permeability and horizontal mobility based on the measured flow response.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method, comprising:
positioning a formation testing tool within a wellbore formed within a subsurface reservoir, wherein the tool has an opening to enable fluid communication with the reservoir, the tool has a horizontal observation probe configured to obtain data, and the horizontal observation probe is disposed 90 degrees away from the opening;
measuring a flow response of the subsurface reservoir using the horizontal observation probe disposed 90 degrees away from the opening;
determining via a processor of the formation testing tool at least one of horizontal permeability and horizontal mobility of the reservoir based on the measuring of the flow response of the subsurface reservoir;
determining via the processor of the formation testing tool orthogonal components of at least one of the horizontal permeability and horizontal mobility based on the measured flow response;
determining via the processor of the formation testing tool a permeability anisotropy in a horizontal plane of the subsurface reservoir based on the determined at least one of horizontal permeability and horizontal mobility of the reservoir and orthogonal components of at least one of the horizontal permeability and horizontal mobility; and
conducting an operation to the subsurface reservoir based on the determined permeability anisotropy in the horizontal plane of the subsurface reservoir.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the opening is a focused opening.

3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the horizontal observation probe is configured as a horizontally displaced observation probe.

4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the horizontal observation probe is configured to obtain pressure data.

5. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the determining the one of horizontal permeability and horizontal mobility of the reservoir based on the measuring of the flow response of the subsurface reservoir is at the observation probe.

6. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the determining the one of horizontal permeability and horizontal mobility of the reservoir based on the measuring of the flow response of the subsurface reservoir is adjacent to the observation probe.

7. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising:
comparing the determined orthogonal components of the at least one of the horizontal permeability and horizontal mobility.

8. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the measuring the flow response of the subsurface reservoir is performed by the probe.

9. An article of manufacture having a processor readable code embodied on the processor, said processor readable code for programming at least one processor to perform a method comprising:
positioning a formation testing tool within a wellbore formed within the subsurface reservoir, wherein the tool has an opening to enable fluid communication with the reservoir, the tool has a horizontal observation probe configured to obtain data, and the horizontal observation probe is disposed 90 degrees away from the opening;
measuring a flow response of the subsurface reservoir using the horizontal observation probe disposed 90 degrees away from the opening;
determining via the processor of the formation testing tool at least one of horizontal permeability and horizontal mobility of the reservoir based on the measuring of the flow response of the subsurface reservoir;
determining via the processor of the formation testing tool orthogonal components of at least one of the horizontal permeability and horizontal mobility based on the measured flow response;
determining via the processor of the formation testing tool the permeability anisotropy in the horizontal plane of the subsurface reservoir based on the determined at least one of horizontal permeability and horizontal mobility of the reservoir and orthogonal components of at least one of the horizontal permeability and horizontal mobility; and
conducting an operation to the subsurface reservoir based on the determined permeability anisotropy in the horizontal plane of the subsurface reservoir.

10. The article of manufacture according to claim 9 , wherein the opening is a focused opening.

11. The article of manufacture according to claim 9 , wherein the observation probe is configured as a horizontally displaced observation probe.

Assignees

• Schlumberger Technology Corp
• Schlumberge Tech Corp

Inventors

• Hegeman Peter
• Ayan Cosan
• Gisolf Adriaan

Classifications

• E21B49/00 Primary

  Testing the nature of borehole walls; Formation testing; Methods or apparatus for obtaining samples of soil or well fluids, specially adapted to earth drilling or wells · CPC title

• E21B47/00 Primary

  Survey of boreholes or wells (monitoring pressure or flow of drilling fluid E21B21/08) · CPC title

• E21B49/008 Primary

  by injection test; by analysing pressure variations in an injection or production test, e.g. for estimating the skin factor (measuring pressure E21B47/06) · CPC title