SPE Romanian Section

Traditional formation testing and sampling workflows obtain pressure measurements along a wellbore and clean representative openhole formation fluid samples.  The pressure measurements provide fluid mobility, fluid density gradients and contacts.  Samples are sent to a laboratory for physical and chemical analysis, which can take weeks to months.  Resultant fluid phase behavior measurements are tied to phase a compositional cubic equation of state (EOS).  In combination with pressure measurements and conventional evaluation logs, samples help resolve the reservoir architecture interconnectivity across the field.  Using the field architecture and EOS, a compositional trajectory dependent production may be simulated for different production strategies over the asset lifetime. Thereby completion design and surface facilities capital expenditures may be optimized with respect to the operational costs against the production cash flow.

The historic workflow is predicated on acquiring clean, representative aliquots of formation fluids with sufficient spatial sampling density from ideal locations.  If these conditions are unmet then conservative evaluation assumptions force increased capital expenditures to mitigate the wider uncertainty.  Also, conservative estimates of production potential may lead to bypassed pay.  However, downhole fluid analysis, originally intended to improve sampling statistics, now may directly provide a superior workflow through digital sampling.  Digital sampling acquires chemical and physical downhole fluid information without physical sampling thereby allowing superior spatial density.  New digital sampling workflows can better accomplish the historic goals and when combined with a few physical samples, can provide superior EOS characterization. We should adopt new workflows to prioritize digital sampling relative to physical sampling.

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