American Oil and Gas Reporter - June 2016 - 57

SpecialReport: Permian Basin Update

KYLE D.
SCOTT

Kyle D. Scott is a staff reservoir engineer on the Permian Basin asset team
at Pioneer Natural Resources Company,
where his recent focus has been on utilizing downhole pressure gauges to optimize well spacing and improve well
performance analysis. Scott joined Pioneer in 2008. He has worked various
assets focused on well spacing, performance analysis, rate transient analysis,
reservoir simulation, and reserves and
field development. He previously worked
for four years designing the Joint Strike
Fighter at Lockheed Martin. Scott holds
a bachelor's in aerospace engineering
and a master's in petroleum engineering
from Texas A&M University.

conventional Resources Technology Conference, held July 20-22 in San Antonio.
The authors acknowledge the numerous
Pioneer Natural Resources colleagues who
helped develop the work, and company
management for its support.

Editor's Note: The preceding article
was adapted from URTeC 2154675, a
technical paper presented at the 2015 Un-

FIGURE 6
Insights on Horizontal Well Depletion with Respect to Distance,
Direction and Time using Offset Vertical Well Shut-In Pressures
Frac
gradient

(Side view)

Horiz well frac
operations
Fluid
leak-off

Very close proximity

Horiz well
opened

Horizontal well

Shut-in vertical well with
5 zonal-isolated gauges

Depletion from horiz
well production

Lost Data

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pressure buildups for reservoir analysis
during extended shut-ins.
❒

Bottom-Hole Pressure

and time-all of which improve the understanding of the fracture system feeding
the well.
These pressure responses also provide
some additional benefits. Pressure buildups
prior to horizontal well completion provide
valuable zonal-specific information that
otherwise would be very costly and difficult to observe from a fully commingled
vertical well. The pressure response peaks
during horizontal well completion provide
direct measurement of zonal frac gradients.
Zonal fluid leak-off rate is measured directly in the period between horizontal
well completion and production. The
gauge with the strongest connectivity
shows distinct responses to horizontal
well compressor downtime, and provides

Reaction to horiz well
compressor downtime
Variation in
zonal depletion

Pressure buildup during
horiz well shut-in

Pressure buildup

Time

WEI-CHUN
CHU

Wei-Chun Chu is an engineering technical specialist on the Permian asset team
at Pioneer Natural Resources. He has 35
years of experience in well testing, and
pressure transient and production data
analysis for conventional and unconventional reservoirs. Chu previously worked
for OMV, Marathon Oil Company, and
Johnston-Macco Flopetrol Schlumberger.
He holds a B.S. in chemistry from New
Mexico Tech and a Ph.D. in petroleum
engineering from the University of Tulsa.

RAYMOND W.
FLUMERFELT

Raymond W. Flumerfelt is senior engineering manager on Pioneer Natural
Resources' Permian asset team, where
he is focused on field development, production enhancement, well spacing, and
completions optimization. During his 10
years at Pioneer, he has held a variety
of positions, including senior staff engineer, manager of corporate engineering,
and manager of corporate reservoir engineering. Prior to joining Pioneer,
Flumerfelt held technical and leadership
positions at Shell, S.A. Holditch & Associates, Cabot Oil & Gas and Matador
Resources. He holds a bachelor's and a
master's in petroleum engineering from
Texas A&M University.
JUNE 2016 57

American Oil and Gas Reporter - June 2016

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