University of Zakho Supervisor: Mr.

Barham S Mahmood

Collage of Engineering Name: Lulav saeed sadiq

Petroleum Engineering department Date: 16/12/2020 , 4th stage

Formation Damage
Damage is anything which push the formation fluid into well and then to the
surface and most commonly happen during drilling operation. This damage maybe
occurs in the formation (Reservoir), lift system, perforation, and restriction along
the flow system. Formation damage is defined as the damaging in permeability of
the formation near the wellbore by various processes. In addition formation
damage defined in difference explanation by some famous personalities such As
expressed by [Amaefule et al. (1988), “ he said that Formation damage is an
expensive headache to the oil and gas industry.” Bennion (1999) defined
formation damage as, “The impairment of the invisible, by the inevitable and
uncontrollable, causing in an indeterminate reduction of the unquantifiable!”]
[ CITATION Civ15 \l 1033 ]. Also formation damage maybe affect only near wellbore
region of a well, only a few centimeters or it could be extend deep into the
formation. Based on the type of well operation, reservoir and fluid condition there
is four main categories of formation damage mechanisms which are mechanical,
chemical, biological and thermal which they can be divided into smaller categories.
Each of those categories represents some causing of formation damage.

 [Mechanical damage: is defined as the reduction of permeability causing by

nonchemical interaction between equipment or fluids and the formation. For
example, Fines migration is one of the most common mechanism, which
present to the movement of naturally existing, fine-grained quartz or clay
particles in the pore system as a result of high fluid-shear-rates. Perforation
damage occurs when explosions caused by perforation gun charges fracture
rock grains into finer grains. External solids entrainment occur when
particles from introduced fluids enter and plug formation pores. Phase
trapping and blocking occur when wellbore fluids contact a formation and
cause a reduction in water saturation. Glazing and mashing occur when the
drill bit or rotating drill string damages the formation at the face of the
wellbore. Proppant crushing and embedment happens when increased
stress or force on the rock and proppant during hydraulic fracturing causes to
 proppant embedment into fracture faces and crushes the proppants, and this
fines production impairs fracture performance.

 Chemical damage mechanisms: this mechanisms are generally divided into

adverse rock-fluid interactions, adverse fluid-fluid interactions and near-
wellbore wettability alteration. Clay swelling is one of the common
chemical damage mechanism in which hydrophilic materials in the
formation, such as reactive smectite and mixed layer clays, are hydrated and
expand when interacting with fresh or low-salinity water. Clay
deflocculation, is one of another common chemical damage mechanism,
causes from rapid changes in pH or salinity
 Biological formation damage: this mechanisms occur when bacteria and
nutrients are move into the formation. The main categories of biological
formation damage are: plugging, corrosion and toxicity. Some bacteria
present hydrogen-reduction reactions which can cause corrosion, pitting and
stress cracking of downhole and equipment at the surface.
 Thermal damage mechanisms: this type of mechanism occur in high-
temperature operations, such as steam injection and in-situ combustion. Also
temperatures may resulting in mineral dissolution and transformation of
mineral, in which minerals are catalyzed and transformed from nonreactive
clays to reactive products that can swell, merge and decrease formation
permeability.][ CITATION Ire16 \l 1033 ]

If we cover our subject, formation damage is an accident which occur naturally

inside the formation or by some factors such as some errors in the field while
drilling or production operation. This formation damage will be causing in some
problems especially economic problem because it will affect the ROF (recovery oil
factor) by reducing the permeability of fluid from the reservoir into the wellbore.
Formation damage have a four main type based on type operation, fluid and
reservoir conditions. Formation damage should be minimized to increase our ROF
by improving permeability near the wellbore and increasing productivity. So in
order to minimizing the degree of the damage or to identify damage mechanisms
and aid in determining options for avoiding or removing the damage we should
obtain drilling, completion, and workover data from the field and analysis them by
laboratory test. [Also laboratory tests are used to model the effective-ness of
remedial treatments, because some types of formation damage can be difficult or
impossible to reverse, avoidance may be the best approach][ CITATION Ire16 \l 1033 ].
Also the indicators of formation damage include permeability impairment,
decrease of well performance, and skin damage.

References
1. Civan, F. chapter1 overview of formation damage. s.l. : Gulf Professional Publishing., 2015,
p. 1.

2. The Defining Series: Formation Damage. Irene Faergestad, Editor. s.l. : Schlumberger,
2016.

From all those link (references) I get the idea:

1. https://www.iapg.org.ar/sectores/eventos/eventos/eventos_iapg/2006/produccion/Espejos/
JUEVES%2021-9/16.00%20CIVAN.pdf
2. https://booksite.elsevier.com/samplechapters/9780750677387/Sample_Chapters/02~Chap
ter_1.pdf
3. https://www.slb.com/resource-library/oilfield-review/defining-series/defining-formation-
damage#:~:text=The%20four%20main%20categories%20of,be%20divided%20into
%20smaller%20categories.