Over the past decade, formation testing has emerged as one of the most critical reservoir evaluation activities in petroleum exploration and production. As a result of increased drilling and testing costs in deep water, high-pressure, high-temperature, environmentally sensitive and other frontier areas, modern formation testing has become the primary (and often the only) source of information on fluid properties. Additionally it has provided insights into reservoir architecture issues that were previously the sole territory of conventional well testing.

This training course is designed to provide people who work in petrophysics, formation evaluation or reservoir modelling in general with a good overview of the state of the art in formation testing and its changing role vis-à-vis other technologies and disciplines. We will review the fundamentals as well as highlight applications that push the very edges of the technology. This will help the participants separate the myths from the realities. Examples from the Middle East and elsewhere will be shown to cement the learnings and to highlight the value of real-time workflows and the importance of integration.

• Introduction: 15 minutes
• Pressure and gradient testing: 90 minutes
• Break: 15 minutes
• Fluid sampling: 90 minutes
• Luncheon: 60 minutes
• Fluid characterisation and downhole fluid analysis: 90 minutes
• Break: 15 minutes
• Reservoir characterisation and permeability measurements: 90 minutes
• Integration examples: 30 minutes

Hani Elshahawi leads FEAST, Shell's Fluid Evaluation and Sampling Technologies centre of excellence, responsible for the planning, execution and analysis of formation testing and fluid sampling operations. He has over 20 years of experience in the oil industry and has worked in both service and operating companies in over 10 countries in Africa, Asia and North America during which he has held various positions in interpretation, consulting, operations, marketing and technology development. He holds several patents and has authored close to a hundred technical papers in various areas of petroleum engineering and the geosciences. He has been active with the SPE and the SPWLA. He was the 2009−2010 president of the SPWLA and was a 2010−2011 distinguished lecturer for the SPE and the SPWLA.