13.

7 ACID DIVERSION 383

A new correlation to predict the conductivity of acid fractures was developed by Deng et al.
(2012) based on statistical variations of the formation properties. The fracture conductivity at zero
closure stress for permeability-distribution-dominant cases can be presented as


wkf
0
5 4:48 3 109 w3

pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
1 1 a1 erf ða2 ðλD;x 2 a3 ÞÞ 2 a4 erf ða5 ðλD;z 2 a6 ÞÞ ðeσD 2 1Þ (13.25)
a1 5 1:82 a2 5 3:25 a3 5 0:12 a4 5 1:31 a5 5 6:71 a6 5 0:03
where λD is the normalized correlation length, σD is the normalized standard deviation, and w is
the average fracture width in inches. λD and σD can be quantified by using the semi-variogram
model. For high leakoff coefficient ( . 0.004 ft/(min)0.5), the average width can be predicted by

w 5 0:56erf ð0:8σD Þw0:83

i (13.26)

For the medium leakoff coefficient (B0.001 ft/(min)0.5) with uniform mineralogy distribution,
w 5 0:2erf ð0:78σD Þw0:81
i (13.27)
Then the correlation for overall fracture
wkf 5 αexpð 2βσc Þ
h
2:8

 0:4 i0:52
α 5 ðwkf Þ0 0:22 λD;x σD 10:01 12λD;z σD (13.28)

β 5 ½14:9 2 3:78 lnðσD Þ 2 6:81 lnðEÞ 3 1024

where σc is the closure stress in psi and E is Young’s modulus in Mpsi.

13.7 ACID DIVERSION

Acid placement is the key factor for a successful acidizing treatment in multi-layered formations.
Without any control, acid injected will flow through the path with least resistance. In other words,
acid will flow into zones with higher permeability and lower damage skin, leaving zones with
severe damage untreated. To evenly distribute acid among different zones, diversion is necessary.
Diversion is a method to temporarily block zones that receive most acid, and force acid to flow
into other zones. There are mainly two types of diversion methods: Mechanical diversion methods
and chemical diversion methods.

13.7.1 MECHANICAL DIVERSION METHODS

Mechanical diversion is to plug or block the high-perm zones with mechanical methods, including
ball sealers and fibers.
Ball sealers are a commonly used diversion method in acidizing treatments. It can be only
applied in cased and perforated completion. During acid injection, balls will be dropped into the
wellbore. These balls will flow with acid and try to seat on perforations in zones that are taking
most acid. Once seated, ball sealers will block the acid flow into these zones and divert fluid flow
384 CHAPTER 13 ACIDIZING

into other zones. Once the acidizing treatment is finished and wells are back on production, ball
sealers will be unseated from perforations and flow back to surface. Thus, they will not affect pro-
duction from the zones which are temporarily blocked.
Fibers can be mixed with acid or nonacid fluid and injected into the wellbore. Fibers will form
a filter cake inside perforation tunnels for cased and perforated completion, or on the wall of well-
bores for openhole completion. The filter cake has a designed permeability which adds extra resis-
tance for acid to enter these zones. Fibers used for acidizing treatments are degradable, dependent
on the downhole temperature and pH value of the fluid environment. Typically, fibers can be fully
degraded at downhole environment with presence of acid in less than a day. Thus, fibers will not
introduce extra damage for production.

13.7.2 CHEMICAL DIVERSION METHODS

Unlike mechanical diversion methods, chemical diversion methods are commonly dependent on
viscosity of injected fluids. Gelling agents or surfactants are mixed with base fluid, either acid
or nonacid, to create a chemical diverter. For some chemical diverter containing acids, the
viscosity of the fluids depends on pH value. When acid injected into the high-perm zones is
partially spent or pH value is higher, the fluid will viscosify and create more resistance in these
zones, and force the acid to enter zones with low permeability or high damage skin. If wells
are put back to production or acid is fully spent, the high viscosity fluid will be broken in
contact with hydrocarbons or in even higher pH environment, allowing the high-perm zones to
produce. The main disadvantage of chemical diversion is the potential risk of introducing extra
damage to the formation. If the high viscosity fluid cannot be broken properly, production of
the well will be affected.

13.8 ACID PLACEMENT DIAGNOSIS

To execute an evaluation of an acidizing treatment or optimize the design of acidizing treatments,
it is necessary to diagnosis acid placement in a multizone formation. The most common methods
are to apply production logging tools (PLT) and distributed temperature sensing (DTS) tools.
Typically, a production logging tool will be deployed in the wellbore to measure the production
contribution from each zone or layer before treatments. This data will provide information on dam-
age skin factor for each zone if zone permeability and zone pressure are predetermined. After
acidizing treatments, another PLT run will be carried out. By comparing the pre-treatment and
post-treatment PLT data (Fig. 13.5), one can determine which zones have been treated successfully
and contributing more production, and which zones need more acid injected. However, since this
comparison can only be done after treatments, it can only benefit future acidizing treatment design
for this particular well.
Most recently, distributed temperature senor has been used in the oil fields for different
purposes, including diagnosing acid distribution in the formations, either postjob or real-time. DTS
can provide a continuous temperature measurement along wellbore with very small time intervals
by using optical fibers, during acid injection, shut-in, and flow-back. DTS can be either installed