PICS Halliburton Competition

This article is about

Stimulation Techniques in Carbonates: Matrix Acidizing

By

Name AUC-ID
Hassan Amer 900141840
AbdelRahman Hassan 900141420

Presented to Halliburton Judging Committee

(AUC, Cairo, 2017)

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Abstract

In this article, the authors are going to explore the main stimulation techniques used

to enhance the productivity in carbonate reservoirs, mainly Limestones and Dolomites.

Poor Boy, Hydraulic Fracturing, and Matrix Acidizing are commonly used; however, this

article focuses on the most economic feasible option: matrix acidizing. Initially, the well is

selected based on screening criteria for stimulation, based on the Inflow-Performance-

Curve, or the Pressure Transient Analysis for skin evaluation. Secondly, the damage type

is qualitatively identified, to opt out the mechanical limitation hindrance to production.

Then, stimulation engineers design their treatment recipes for the handicapped wells,

imposing the main design stages of the acid with the appropriate placement. Finally, post-

treatments techniques (i.e. Paccaloni, or PTA) are used to evaluate the job’s success.

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Table of Contents

Abstract ............................................................................................................................... 2

1. Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 4

1.1. Candidate Selection for Matrix Acidizing. .............................................................. 4

1.2 Damage Types and Classification. ............................................................................ 4

2. Carbonates Matrix Acidizing. ......................................................................................... 5

2.1. Matrix Acidizing Stages. .......................................................................................... 6

2.2. Matrix Acidizing Placement..................................................................................... 7

2.3. Post-treatment evaluation. ........................................................................................ 7

3. References ....................................................................................................................... 8

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1. Introduction

1.1. Candidate Selection for Matrix Acidizing.

Normally, the IPR curve is inspected first, alongside with PTA, in order to get a

rough estimate of the total skin in the well.

stotal  sMechanical  sCompletion  sDeviation  sDrilling.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ......(1.1.1)

In Figure (1), we find that positive

skin values tends to make the Inflow curve

steeper (i.e. red line exhibits the highest

positive skin value).

Alternatively, we could use PTA in order to

Figure 1: Skin effect of IPR curve.
get the total skin found in the tested

reservoir block. Figure (2) shows a

typical log-log plot for a drawdown

well test, the hump in the pressure

derivative curve is used in the Figure 2: A log-log plot of a typical drawdown test.

curve-matching technique to estimate the total skin by hand, or by a well testing software

(e.g. Saphire).

1.2 Damage Types and Classification.

The most common damage types encountered in the carbonates are as follows.
• Emulsions: they form as a consequence of mixing oil with water due to the changed in

temperature and pressure in the near-wellbore-region. They need a system of mutual

solvents, in adding to the main acid treatments.

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• Organic Deposits: when asphaltenes and heavy crude oil solidifies form the produced

effluent due to the pressure and temperature drop near the wellbore.

• Water Block: this phenomenon occurs due to the increase of water saturation near the

perforation tip due to the invasion of water-based mud filtrate, water coning, or the wrong

placement of TCP in water-out zones.

• Organic Deposits: this kind of damage occurs in all places, including the tubing string,

perforation tunnels, and the formation. This results also due to the presence of high-

molecular-weight components with the crude that get solidified due to pressure drops

encountered throughout the production 01288964034

2. Carbonates Matrix Acidizing.

There are many different approaches used to stimulate carbonates. Firstly, “Poor

Boy Technique” is applied by closing the choke, wait for two minutes until the bottomhole-

flowing- pressure stabilizes, and open at full choke. Repeating this procedures for 10-15

times, and flow the well again. Secondly, Hydraulic Fracturing is a technique where an

acid is pumped against the producing formation at injection pressures, and rates, higher

than the expected breakdown pressure of the formations. This creates a high-conductive

channels, or fracture half-length, that connects the reservoir to the wellbore. It requires an

intensive design with an appropriate volumes in pads, displacement, and x-linked gels used

in place. Thirdly, matrix acidizing is used to improve the productivity as well. It restores

the reservoir’s initial productivity by by-passing the damage in carbonates and creating

new conductive passages, through the wormholing stage. Acids’ stages and placement must

be optimized for an efficient acidizing job.

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2.1. Matrix Acidizing Stages.

The typical optimized stages of carbonate matrix acidizing are as follows.

• Tubing Pickle: To clean the tubing string ahead of the Stimulation treatment. Removal

of Organic / inorganic scales, asphaltene and precipitations. Usually the volume is usually

¾ of the tubing volume, reciprocated several times up and down the tubing string until

confirmed clear with Slick line-gauge cutter.

• Preflush: normally HCl, or diesel oil, is used before the main treatment to prepare the

rock surface for being treated with acid, by lowering the pH of the minerals found.

• Main Treatment: we usually use Hcl with different concentration in carbonate

stimulation, mixed with additives such as corrosion inhibitor, emulsifying agent,

surfactant, each additive for a specific task. The main purpose of the main treatment is to

remove the damage in the area near wellbore and to by-pass the damage and create what

is called wormholes. (Wang, 1993)

• Overflush; we use HCL with different concentration. The main purpose of the overflush

is displace the live acid or main treatment deep in the formation to make sure that the

damage has been removed.

• Nitrogen; to recirculate the spent acid up to the surface to avoid the creation of new

damage. We use nitrogen as a way of cleaning up the well

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2.2. Matrix Acidizing Placement.

When stimulating a

horizontal well with acid, we must

pay attention to not only stimulate

the part near the wellbore or in other

words, the heel part of the well. The

most challenging part in horizontal

Figure 3:horizontal well stimulation
stimulation is the stimulating the toe

part of the well. Most acids will not reach the toe part of the well especially if we used

bullhead technique. In order to overcome such problem we need to use coiled tubing,

diverter and we also need to pump down near the toe part and the excess acid would reach

the heel part. (Thomas, Milne, 1995)

Figure (3) shows us how the acid is

dispersed over the heel, middle and toe

part of the horizontal well when we use

bullhead to pump acid and when we

pump using coiled tubing.

Figure 4: Paccoloni technique

2.3. Post-treatment evaluation.

There are several techniques that we could use to

evaluate the effect of the treatment on the value of

the skin. Paccaloni is one of the most famous

technique that will help us evaluate the value of

the skin after the treatment. Figure (4) shows

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Figure 5; Evaluation method
paccoloni graph where the injection rate and the injection pressure are known, and we can

get the damage ratio which is directly proportional to the skin. So, a decrease in the value

of the damage rtion value means a decrease in the value of the skin. This means that my

stimulation technique is successful. There is another way to evaluate the stimulation

technique. Figure (5) shows a graph between pressure and time where we can evaluate the

stimulation after it is done.

There are three main scenarios that we could get out of this figure:

1- If the pressure increases significantly, this means that the acid job is damaging the

well

2- If the pressure decreases slowly, this means that the damage is deep and that we are

going to need larger volume of acid to treat

3- If the pressures decrease rapidly, this indicates that my stimulation job is very

successful.

3. References

Economides, Michael J., and Kenneth G. Nolte. Reservoir stimulation. J. Wiley, 2000.

Thomas, R.l., and A. Milne. “The Use Of Coiled Tubing During Matrix Acidizing Of

Carbonate Reservoirs.” SPE Asia Pacific Oil and Gas Conference, 1995.

Wang, Y.: “Existence of an Optimum Rate in Carbonate Acidizing and the Effect of Rock

Heterogeneity on Wormholes Patterns,” PhD dissertation, The University of Texas

at Austin, Austin, Texas, USA 1993.