Analysis of Production Decline Curves

Long ago, engineers recognized the characteristic decline of oil and gas well performance and attempted to predict its course by fitting equations to the production history. This book covers the production characteristics and associated interpretation analyses of petroleum reservoirs in a complete, thorough, and consistent manner. Production decline-curve analyses are the most widely used tool in the industry for oil and gas reservoir production analyses. This book will serve as an authoritative reference on modern production decline-curve analyses, including details of some recent advances in the technology.

Decline curves are probably the most widely used and least understood production-forecasting technique currently in use in the industry. Analysis of decline curves provides an unsophisticated reservoir-evaluation tool, but profound economic decisions often rest on the outcome of the prediction. A simplistic view of decline-curve analysis can lead to wide misuse, often caused by misunderstandings. There has been no single reference book on the meaning of production decline curves, their application, and their use and misuse. The authors have endeavored to provide such a reference.

Steven W. Poston is a retired professor emeritus from Texas A&M University, with more than 12 years of teaching experience at the graduate and undergraduate levels in applied reservoir engineering and subsurface description of petroleum reservoirs. Poston's industry experience includes more than 14 years in a variety of subsurface engineering, geological, and managerial roles for Gulf Oil Exploration and Production Company in Nigeria, Pennsylvania, Louisiana, and Texas. Poston has been the coauthor of numerous industry technical papers; he also has served on a number of SPE committees and was a coauthor of the SPE book Overpressured Gas Reservoirs.

Bobby D. Poe Jr. is currently the reservoir and production engineering advisor in the Schlumberger Data and Consulting Services interpretation development support group in Houston. He has more than 25 years of industrial experience in all levels of well performance and reservoir engineering analyses. Poe holds a PhD degree in petroleum engineering from Texas A&M University; he has served on a number of SPE Re print Series and editorial committees and as a coauthor of numerous technical articles related to production analyses. Poe holds numerous US and international patents related to production engineering analyses and interpretation techniques.