he push for a more digital oilfield has led to the creation of numerous software tools to take advantage of newly available real-time well data. The waterfall of data that is now being captured has resulted in the need for productivity solutions to help engineering teams focus on the conclusions provided by the data, not data management itself. Engineers now have a variety of options to help them visualize and analyze data during just about every point of a well’s life. However, one segment has been left behind on the path to a digital oilfield–unconventional well flowback and well testing.
Early-time flowback data provides one of the first glimpses of valuable information to manage a well’s drawdown and evaluate reservoir responses and well performance. Yet many in the industry are not leveraging this data to optimize their completions and well production. One of the primary reasons being the poor data quality traditionally being captured during this period, often making analysis difficult or even impossible. Additionally, the fact that this data is still typically recorded manually and sent in an email or text message makes using and managing the data a time-intensive process.
Instead, simple production targets, drawdown limits or even rules of thumb are often used to manage the well startup. Most engineers don’t have the time or expertise to spend their days compiling and analyzing flowback data to optimize their choke and drawdown management.
Revo Testing Technologies has recently released the Revo iQ software package to solve these problems and give operators the opportunity to effectively manage this crucial period of a well’s life. The system helps modernize flowback operations and give engineers the tools they need to tailor a drawdown strategy to every well, without spending all day sorting through flowback reports.
With Revo iQ, data is streamed live from the field to a PC or mobile device so that well result updates are instantly available. Data can be captured by Revo’s automated flow testing hardware, existing SCADA equipment, or by service provider in the field as soon as they take their measurements. Well information is all stored in the cloud and can be connected back to internal databases or any other software packages. Rule-based alerts can be setup to push to a mobile device notifying the user of production milestones, potential measurement issues, well performance changes or any other monitoring metric.
It first must be understood how bottomhole pressure (BHP) is changing during initial the production period. To accomplish this, Revo built a series of real-time BHP calculations into Revo iQ systtem allowing the ability to model BHP on a wide variety of well types. The BHP data and rate data is then used in two new tools to automate the analysis of flowback data, RAPD and APEX. These tools can be used to flow a well back as fast as possible while maintaining the effectiveness of the completion and reducing damage to the reservoir. The goal of the automated analysis is to allow operators to stay in this sweet spot of increasing production as fast as possible, without damaging the reservoir.
RAPD performs an automated analysis on every data point to determine how fracture conductivity is changing over time and from one choke change to the next. Analytical models are matched automatically to each transient to understand changes in conductivity. The analysis results are then fed into gauges and colored histograms showing how performance is changing throughout the flowback period. RAPD gives operators the ability to let well results drive choke management allowing the drawdown strategy to be tailored to every well. The APEX tool works alongside RAPD to help operators to understand how current well performance compares to peak performance.

(Source: Revo Testing Technologies)
The optimized flowback strategy resulted in a reduction in sand production of 42%, eliminating the need for additional sand management equipment, thereby decreasing the cost of the flowback. In addition, the Revo optimized flowback helped Well A achieve a 53% increase in cumulative production.