Instructor: Hugh Reid

Includes: refreshments, class notes, and PDH certificate

Geologists, engineers & technicians who encounter or utilize DST results and reports in their exploration & production decisions. In fact any professional who needs to make more sense of the numerous old DSTs which are present in so many wells, often with confusing results. Particularly appropriate for those prospecting for bypassed pay using logs and geology, who may wish to verify their conclusions from the DST or for regional geologists using show maps of DST results.

Objectives

By the end of the course participants should be able to accomplish the following:

• understand DST pressure charts to identify obvious formation damage & depletion (small reservoir) and mechanical problems (eg. tool plugging).
• recognize high vs. low permeability tests.
• understand why data from cores and logs often conflict with DST data.
• “make more sense” of DST results printed in PI well cards and field reports where no chart is available and even estimate approximate permeability & damage in some cases.
• identify presence of limited natural fractures.
• appreciate where recoveries of “oil cut mud” and gas rates of “TSTM” may be significant from an exploration standpoint.
• determine when a gas test is co-producing water.
• identify gas presence even where no gas was reported in certain tests.
• identify potential oil zones from DSTs which recovered no oil (from the chart shape and air blow description).
• estimate the approximate gas rate in DSTs of “GTS TSTM” by knowing the time gas took to reach the surface and the air volume of the test string.
• make a decision as to whether old DSTs can be recompleted as commercial wells today from limited information.

Content

This course is a non numerical introduction to understanding DSTs & DST pressure charts focusing on pattern recognition and practical “quick look” techniques. Numerous field examples & case histories are utilized and theory is kept to a minimum. Course manual contains numerous DST charts which can be used for trouble shooting problem DSTs later. It is a permanent reference source. To avoid problem of attendees forgetting procedures taught at the course, all techniques are given in cookbook format ‘fill in the blanks’.

A key emphasis of the course is to show how to identify missed (damaged) pay in competitor’s ‘dry’ wells & additional pay in your own producing wells. This is an important skill to complement log skills!

In summary, the course is designed to provide participants with information not normally encountered in routine service company training seminars and to impart some interpretive skills gained by the instructor in over 25 years of experience.