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Introduction
The offshore field, located in the Arabian Sea off the western coast of India, has
been on production since 1997 (Fig. 1).
The field covers an area of 1471 km2 and
lies 160 km north/northwest of Mumbai.
The reservoir consists of a stacked series
of sands deposited in the Lower Miocene
and Oligocene. The field has up to 13 different Olio-Miocene gas-bearing sands
separated by shales. Reservoir-sand permeability ranges from 100 md (in shaly
beds) up to 5,000 md in clean sand beds.
Because of the unconsolidated nature of
the reservoir sands, gravel-pack screens
are a typical well completion in the field.
Mineralogy
Pakistan
India
Gujarat
Gulf of Kutch
Arabian Sea
Gulf of Cambay
Fig. 1Gulf of Cambay.
This article, written by JPT Technology Editor Chris Carpenter, contains highlights
of paper SPE 164631, Overcoming Challenges While Acidizing Sandstone Formation
Successfully in the Gulf of Cambay, Offshore India, by Sergey Stolyarov and Anwar
Alam, Baker Hughes, prepared for the 2013 SPE North Africa Technical Conference
and Exhibition, Cairo, 1517 April. The paper has not been peer reviewed.
acid) or calcium-chelating agents (carboxylate salts). Chemical treatment combined with coiled-tubing/nozzle injection
can augment the scale-removal process,
especially for very hard wellbore scale.
The only method available for removing clay and non-clay siliceous formation
fines without rig involvement is the use of
hydrofluoric-acid (HF) -based acid systems. Because of complex field mineralogy, this rock is susceptible to damage during acidizing with conventional HF/HCl
mud acid. Conventional mud-acid systems will preferentially attack the clay
particles, resulting in precipitation of
secondary- and tertiary-reaction products. This precipitation will cause severe
reduction of permeability and well productivity. Another aspect of these inherent problems is that the formations
themselves are unconsolidated or poorly
consolidated and therefore require gravel
packs and screens for sand control. The
action of mud-acid systems can result in
further weakening of theformation.
A modified HF system using an organophosphonate acid (HV) has been
proposed. The new system (HF/HV) is
designed to use less HCl to convert all
the ammonium bifluoride (ABF). The HCl
concentration in this system is approximately 0.73% before it reacts with ABF.
For a limited time, the complete paper is free to SPE members at www.spe.org/jpt.
JPT JUNE 2014
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HCL/Acetic Acid
HF/HV
Core Testing
A formation-core-flow study was performed to evaluate the regained permeability after HF/HV stimulation. A core
pack of 1.5-in. diameter and 2.0-in.
length in a core sleeve was used for the
core-flow test. The test-fluid procedure
was to first inject 5 pore volumes (PV)
of the 5% ammonium chloride (NH4Cl)
preflush water and then measure initial
permeability; then, 5 PV of the HF/HV
was injected, and then the final permeability was measured. Results of flow testing indicate that the HF/HV treatment
improved permeability by 44.4%.
Acidizing History
90
MS164631.indd 90
in addition to the previously mentioned cases. Wells with depleted reservoir pressure were chosen for this campaign. Additionally, these candidates
suffered from liquid loading, and no
separator was available on an offshore
platform for unloading these wells. A
pressure-buildup test was performed on
each well to identify stimulation candidates, and, in all cases, wellbore damage
was indicated. The atomized-acid technique has been proposed to avoid water-
loading problems and to eliminate the
skin. The acid was injected as a fine
mist of droplets in the continuous nitrogen phase. A 2:1 nitrogen/liquid ratio
was used.
Well x-10. This well is a cased-hole
gravel-pack completion with net pay
greater than 400 m. A sudden drop
in production was observed in 2009.
Coiled-tubing intervention was performed to restore production in late
2009. An obstruction was encountered
at the top of the gravel-pack screen
(2677 m). Attempts were made to clear
the obstruction by pumping 15 bbl of
7.5% HCl. Though the obstruction
could not be cleared, there has been a
gain in production; original production
level was restored after the intervention
(38MMscf/D). A similar drop in production was observed in April 2010. Average initial rates dropped to 20 MMscf/D
in June 2010 and to 4.3 MMscf/D in
September 2010. Taking into account
the previous success with 7.5% HCl,
it was decided to pump the same acid
formulation again. It was believed that
the tubing and gravel-pack screens were
plugged with HCl-soluble CaCO3 scales.
Again, an atomized acid treatment was
pumped, with 7.5% HCl dispersed in
nitrogen (70:30 nitrogen/acid ratio).
The well started to flow almost immediately after the treatment was completed. Several weeks after the job, the
well was producing at 35 MMscf/D. Preand post-treatment production is shown
in Fig. 3.
Well x-11. This is a fracture-pack completion with net pay greater than 30m. The
well showed the first sign of water breakthrough in January 2008. The water/gas
ratio has increased to 80 bbl/MMscf as
compared with an earlier water/gas ratio
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40
35
35
30
25
20
15
15
10
5
4.3
0
0
before
after
before
x-10
after
x-11
before
after
x-12
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