Data acquisition in land oil and gas exploration environments can be limited because of the commoditized nature of services, as well as cost constraints related to remote environments. These limitations rendered the implementation of an extended drillstem test cost prohibitive for an upcoming exploration well for Cairn Oil & Gas, Vedanta Limited in India. The operator needed to acquire interpretable downhole pressure data necessary for accurate reservoir characterization to fulfill responsibilities to shareholders and regulating agencies.
Wellbore storage effects are known to affect the interpretation of downhole pressure-transient data. The effects can mask important near-wellbore formation characteristics, which can be key to determining a well’s production potential. The effects also impact the interpretation of the late buildup phase from which key reservoir information is derived and used for reserve quantification and booking.
The quality and interpretability of the data acquired using the testing approach enabled by the BEST™ tool contributed to the assessment of the well that the operator declared as a discovery. The operation was completed with zero HSE incidents or nonproductive time. Cairn Oil & Gas plans to adopt this well testing technique for other exploration wells in the project and additional scopes of work.
