As with most engineering disciplines, well test engineering can be complex. There are a lot of things to consider and plan around, and it's easy to get so caught up in the details that you lose sight of the end goal. There are a lot of things you can learn from a well test: permeability, skin factor, boundary conditions, reservoir pressure, flow geometry, deliverability , fracture pressure...the list goes on. All this information is collected in different ways, and many of them require completely different types of well tests. Stop and ask yourself, "why am I doing this test?"
Ensuring that the money you invest yields a good ROI is crucial. Specifically, you must ensure that your investment gives you the information you want.
Some of you are probably saying, "No kidding, Captain Obvious." Of course you would want to understand your objectives before moving forward with a project, but I have seen far too many instances where someone chooses a well test procedure because, "that's the way we've always done it".
Does this sound familiar? Someone designs a well test in 1984 with a specific goal in mind. 40 years later, a new batch of engineers working for the same company, is still running that same well test, but they're not really sure why. In situations like this, there is probably a lot of room for improvement and optimization. It is likely that some of the objectives and/or standards have changed in the past 40 years, and there is probably a better well test design out there.
Do you want to update your well testing procedure, but don't know where to start? That's what we are here for. Well testing is our bread and butter and we help oil and gas companies design better well testing programs all the time.
Better Test Design + Better Data Collection = Better Analysis
By the way, this concept can also be applied to a lot of other types of projects, not just well testing. If you are working off an old, archaic procedure, ask yourself if there is a better procedure out there.