Determination of Permeability Distribution From Well-Test Pressure Data

The emergence of reservoir characterization has stimulated efforts to obtain improved information on reservoir heterogeneities. This work considers single-phase flow to a well in a reservoir where permeability varies with distance from the well. The authors consider methods for estimating the permeability distribution from well-test pressure data. The methods considered were obtained by modifying and extending elegant seminal works of Oliver and Yeh and Agarwal. This work considers the analysis of pressure data, both drawdown and buildup, obtained at a well producing reservoir in which the absolute permeability varies with position. A new inverse-solution algorithm is presented that can be applied to estimate the reservoir permeability distribution as a function of distance from the well.