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Informational Letter IL 83-1

13 January 1983

To: All Oil, Gas, and Oil Sands Operators

RESERVOIR LIMIT TESTS ON DISCOVERY OIL WELLS: A GUIDE

This informational letter supplements IL 81-12.

To assist operators in designing and applying for a reservoir limit test, the Energy Resources Conservation Board has prepared a guideline (see attachment) which discusses the need for, and the precautions concerning the practicality of, reservoir limit tests in bounded reservoirs.

As stated in IL 81-12, the Board has granted a test allowance of 500 m³ to be used during the first three calendar months following commencement of production from a newly completed oil well. When combined with the well's initial allowable, this normally provides adequate production flexibility to obtain diagnostic reservoir information by flow and pressure testing early in the life of a well.

During the past year, the Board's Oil Department received a number of requests for permission to exceed the overall allowable restriction on new oil discoveries for the purpose of conducting reservoir limit tests. In dealing with such requests, the Board's approach has been first to establish whether the test has sound technical merit and is feasible. If so, the practice has been to grant a special test volume which, produced at a predetermined rate, would be sufficient to ensure that the pressure transients would extend to an area of about two drilling spacing units.

Alternatively, where the proposed reservoir limit test appears impractical for technical or conservation reasons, the practice has been to deny the request. In some particular instances, however, substantive reservoir pressure and production data that serve to demonstrate potential reservoir size by material balance may be obtained via high production rates over a very short time. In such instances the practice is to propose such an approach as an alternative to a reservoir limit test.

[Original signed by]

N. Strom
Board Member

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