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U.S. Department of Energy
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Transient pressure testing of fractured water injection wells

Conference ·
OSTI ID:6432020

This paper describes the application of pressure falloff tests in fractured water injection wells to determine fracture lengths and fracture opening pressures. An improved method of calculating fracture lengths from pressure falloff test data is presented. This method is based on a linear flow model which simulates conditions present during the early time period after shutting in an injection well. Fracture lengths can be calculated directly by this method if formation permeability is known. A graphical technique is presented that provides fracture lengths based on permeabilities calculated from normal falloff tests, where those permeabilities are adjusted for flow geometry. Test results from 2 injection wells are presented. These show that fracture opening pressures indicated by the step rate injectivity tests are approximately equal to bottomhole treating pressures during previous fracture treatments. Application of the fracture length equation to generated falloff data for a fractured system is shown to yield good estimates of known fracture lengths.

OSTI ID:
6432020
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English