Common DFIT Mistakes

Common DFIT mistakes and issues and how to avoid them.

If you are performing and analyzing DFIT data there’s a lot of ways such a simple test can go wrong. In order to improve your test quality and success rate we highly recommend checking out the following paper.

SPE-169539-MS — Diagnostic Fracture Injection Tests: Common Mistakes, Misfires, and Misdiagnoses by R.D. Barree, J.L. Miskimins, and J.V. Gilbert, Barree & Associates.

Over the last twenty years, Diagnostic Fracture Injection Tests, or DFIT’s, have evolved into commonly used techniques that can provide valuable information about the reservoir, as well as hydraulic fracture treatment parameters. Thousands are pumped every year in both conventional and unconventional reservoirs. Unfortunately, many tests that are pumped provide poor or no results due to either problematic data acquisition or incorrect analysis of the acquired data.

This paper discusses common issues and mistakes made while acquiring DFIT data, and provides details of what the author believes to be guidelines and rules of thumb on how to avoid them. It goes on to addresses potential problems that can occur during DFIT analysis, and more specific issues such as poor ISIP data from perforation restriction, loss of hydrostatic head, gas entry and the resulting phase segregation, and the use of gelled fluids.

Although industry thought-processes may have changed slightly since the paper was published in 2014, the ideas presented by the author are as relevant as ever — remember, you only have one shot at performing a DFIT correctly!

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