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1 Advances in Carbonate Stimulation
1 Advances in Carbonate Stimulation
Copyright 2005, CIPM. Este artículo fue preparado para su presentación en el cuarto E-Exitep 2005, del 20 al 23 de febrero de 2005 en Veracruz, Ver., México.
El material presentado no refleja necesariamente la opinión del CIPM, su mesa directiva o sus colegiados. El artículo fue seleccionado por un comité técnico
con base en un resumen. El contenido total no ha sido revisado por el comité editorial del CIPM.
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average reaction rate constant (Rk at 100°F using
the average dolomite reaction order, Ro, of 0.44)
was 5.30E-5 with an Ea of 5.88 kcal/mole. This
average can be used as default reactivity data for
dolomites, if no reactivity information is available on
a specific formation. However, some dolomites are
as reactive as an average limestone.
FRACTURE ACIDIZING
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fracturing, a screen-out is incredibly difficult to
Reactivity Control achieve and rarely occurs, even with excessive fluid
loss. The absence of the feedback provided by a
The first fundamental issue involved in successful screen-out has made it easy for our industry to
fracture acidizing is reactivity control. Dissolution of ignore the issue of excessive fluid loss during
carbonate is the means by which conductivity is fracture-acidizing treatments. Yet, if fluid efficiency
generated. The dissolution is controlled by drops to the point where the treating pressure no
reactivity, which is affected by both carbonate longer stays above fracture-extension pressure,
composition and temperature. An improper then all the acid will leak off into the formation.
understanding of reactivity may lead to a choice of When this happens, the treatment has become a
fluid that is inappropriate for the reservoir large matrix acidizing treatment and the etched
conditions. Therefore, it is very important to length will be quite short. The result will be a well
understand the issues of reactivity discussed with a high flush production that falls to a much
earlier. There was a time when almost everyone lower value over the long-term. The properties that
considered reactivity control to be the single-most provide good long-term production increase are the
important issue in providing effective fracture conductivity and etched length. Although non acid
acidizing treatments. This assumption was based fluids might be used to create a long fracture,
on an improper understanding of both limestone excessive fluid loss (of acid) can result in a very
reactivity and the lack of effective fluid-loss control short etched length, and consequently, a
measures provided by synthetic polymer gelled disappointing long-term production increase.
acids. Currently, reactivity control has been
sufficiently achieved such that fluid-loss control has The single-most significant step to improve fluid-
been clearly exposed as the next dominant barrier loss control in fracture-acidizing treatments is to
to effective fracture-acidizing treatments. viscosify the acid. All other efforts to improve fluid-
loss control will be relatively useless unless the first
Guidelines have been developed for choosing an step is using viscous acid.
appropriate method for achieving reactivity control. There are a number of ways to viscosify acid,
Low-reactivity carbonates at cool reservoir including:
conditions require acid systems that will not further • natural polymers
lower the acid reaction rate constants. Foamed acid • synthetic polymers
and surfactant gelled acids are examples of • surfactants
systems known to be quite effective in low reactivity • foams
carbonates. • emulsions
Moderate reactivity carbonates can also be treated Laboratory testing using hollow limestone cores
with foamed acid and surfactant gelled acids, but under severe fluid-loss test conditions, has clearly
synthetic polymer gelled acids provide a level of demonstrated that viscosity has a powerful effect on
reactivity control and fluid-loss control that makes providing the first level of fluid-loss control.7 This
them widely applicable. first level of fluid-loss control can be achieved with
as little as 20 cP of viscosity at 511/sec at BHST.
Treatments on high-reactivity carbonates, or This benchmark viscosity provides a good guideline
moderate-reactivity carbonates at high temper- when determining a sufficient viscosity for first-level
atures, should generally employ acid systems using fluid-loss control. The benchmark level is generally
synthetic polymers to viscosify the acid. These a sufficient viscosity in situations where matrix
systems provide excellent reactivity control and permeability is less than approximately 1 md. Under
mass transport control. such conditions, the choice of viscosifier will largely
be driven by the reactivity issues mentioned earlier.
Fluid-Loss Control
Some formation conditions require more fluid-loss
The second fundamental issue of successful control than that provided by first-level approaches;
fracture acidizing is fluid-loss control. This issue is these wells may therefore require a second-level of
perhaps the primary cause of failure for many fluid-loss control. The second level of improved
fracture-acidizing treatments. In sand fracturing, fluid-loss control can be achieved using either large
excessive fluid loss can result in “screen-outs” and solids or much higher fluid viscosities. Studies have
a premature shut-down of the treatment. In acid shown that large solids can be very effective in
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providing this second level of fluid-loss control. The down a fracture well beyond 200 ft when proper
solids should be at least 100-mesh in size, and can reactivity control is addressed. This can lead to
easily be 40- to 60-mesh solids. The solids must be thinking that if acid gets there, conductivity will be
large because of the relatively larger diameters of there. Unfortunately, the situation is a bit more
wormholes caused by acid leakoff (as compared to complicated. Simple calculations can highlight the
the original pore-throats). Pore-throats can be issue.
bridged with particles of a few microns in diameter,
but wormholes require much larger particles. The Fig. 4 shows the results from calculations of
solids can be sand, oil-soluble resins, or anything created length based on simple mass balance. A
else deemed useful. Concentrations should start at fracturing simulator was used to estimate a nominal
0.25 lb/gal and should be increased in 0.25-lb/gal created width of 0.15 in. using a 20 cP fluid, which
increments if an acid stage does not maintain is the design criterion for the first level of fluid-loss
fracture-extension pressure. Fracture-acidizing control. Several fluid efficiencies from 5 to 30%
treatments using 1 to 2 lb/gal of solids have been were used to calculate the created length vs.
successfully conducted and provided significantly injected fluid volume. Notice that for a created
improved sustained production increases. length of 200 ft, it is relatively easy to create such a
fracture, even with poor fluid efficiencies. At a fluid
If higher viscosities are chosen for achieving the efficiency of only 10% (meaning 90% of the fluid is
second level of fluid-loss control, the target leaking off into the matrix), approximately 400 gal/ft
viscosities should be in the range of a few hundred is required to create two 200-ft fracture wings, but at
centipoise, perhaps 100 to 300 cP under downhole a fluid efficiency of 30%, only 130 gal/ft is needed to
conditions. This can be achieved with live acid create two 200-ft fracture wings.
crosslinkers, such as zirconium, and near-spent
acid crosslinkers. Live acid crosslinkers provide
high viscosity in the fracture itself, while near-spent
acid crosslinkers provide high viscosity in the matrix
after leakoff and at the leading edge of acid flow in
the fracture. Foams and emulsions can also provide
these higher viscosities. The choice of fluid may
depend on such factors as acceptable friction
pressures in the tubing, the availability of materials
such as nitrogen, and whether leakoff is perceived
to be dominated by matrix loss or natural fracture
loss. The higher live acid viscosities may be
preferable when leakoff is dominated by natural
fractures.
Conductivity Generation
Fig. 4—Created fracture length.
The third fundamental issue of effective fracture The situation is much different when considering the
acidizing is the generation of acceptable rock-dissolving power. Fig. 5 shows the results of
conductivity. The first two issues, proper reactivity calculations of etched length based on simple mass
control and proper fluid-loss control are pre- balance. A nominal etched width of 0.10 in. was
requisites for obtaining good conductivity. The first used based on laboratory observations that
two issues assure that it is possible to dissolve rock conductivity doesn’t usually rise above 2000 md-ft
at a significant distance from the wellbore in the unless the etched width reaches 0.10 in., or 0.05 in.
created fracture. However, they are not sufficient to from each face of the fracture. It was assumed that
assure that good conductivity is truly generated. 15% HCl was used to etch the fracture, and so a
Conductivity generation requires that two additional rock-dissolving power of 1.8 lb/gal was used in the
goals be met: (1) sufficient carbonate must be calculations. Finally, several rock dissolving
removed, and (2) the carbonate must be removed in efficiencies ranging from 20 to 70% were used to
an uneven manner, so that good conductivity can calculate the possible etched length vs. injected
be generated. acid volume. The rock-dissolving efficiencies
Sufficient rock removal is an easy issue to overlook. recognize that under high fluid-loss conditions,
Simulations readily show that live acid can travel
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much of the rock-dissolving power goes to creating MATRIX ACIDIZING
wormholes and not etched width.
In 1979, SPE published Monograph Volume 6 of the
Henry L. Doherty Series entitled Acidizing
Fundamentals, which was coauthored by Bert
Williams, John Gidley, and Robert Schechter.8
Matrix acidizing of carbonates is extensively
discussed in the Acidizing Fundamentals
Monograph. A method is given for calculating the
spending of acid down a dominant wormhole in
either turbulent or laminar flow. Calculations of acid
spending lengths can be performed with or without
fluid leakoff. Unfortunately, three fundamental
questions remained unanswered at that time that
prevented use of the published concepts:
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required, and that most often multiple PVs may be the leading edge of invasion is near the optimum.
required to reach a certain distance from the Sets of wormholes die out as their length from the
wellbore. In addition, the simplification brought wellbore to the tip become the same as their
about by the new theory made general matrix separation along the length of the wellbore.
acidizing treatment designs a simpler process. Wormhole die-out occurs due to pressure
interference between the sets from the 3-D leakoff,
The new theory is in fact complementary to the as manifested by 3-D wormhole branching. As a
detailed understanding of wormhole development result, the number of dominant wormhole sets
that was revealed by the years of linear flow decreases during the course of fluid injection. Fluid
experiments. The effect of the Damköhler number loss is dominated by 3-D wormhole branching and
on wormhole structure and the existence of an not really by wall leakoff, as is the case in fracture
optimum Damköhler number are clearly correct. acidizing.
However, the primary revelation of the modeling
work from the new theory is that wormhole The fundamental driver for all these manifestations
penetration distance is not really controlled by in the new theory is that wormhole patterns and
reactivity, but by volumetric invasion issues that are symmetry arise as a consequence of normal fluid
controlled by the accessible porosity of the matrix, flow through the porous media. Wormholes are not
the rheological nature of the acidizing fluid, and the created in an independent fashion that follows
native permeability contrasts of the matrix. paths of unpredictable direction. Stated differently,
Furthermore, permeability improvement of a wormholes follow behind fluid invasion, and fluid
carbonate above 100-fold renders that portion of the invasion is controlled by the native permeability
matrix “invisible” from a production viewpoint. This contrasts in the formation.
principle is shown in Fig. 6 by comparing the
calculated skin at several levels of permeability
improvement. As such, knowing the exact nature
and structure of the wormhole pattern becomes a
moot point. It is sufficient just to know that the
permeability has been improved by at least 100-fold
by the acidizing process.
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optimum Damköhler number. As such, a 30-ft zone cumulative zone height vs. permeability. The
requires an injection rate of 3 bbl/min or higher for average permeability for the formation is approxi-
good zonal coverage. A pump rate of 10 bbl/min mately 5 md, but the permeability ranges from 0.1
to 280 md. The dashed lines show that only 10% of
into a long horizontal well will probably only treat the the total zone height is in the range of 28 to 280 md,
first 100 ft of zone, unless extraordinary efforts are or the top decade of permeability. As a result,
taken to achieve diversion. achieving good zonal coverage will be an
extraordinary challenge with non-mechanical
ZONAL COVERAGE approaches. In addition, it can readily be under-
stood that about 30% of the zone, with permeability
An important aspect of acidizing carbonates is ranging from 0.1 to 3 md, will probably not
contribute significantly to production until the higher
achieving good zonal coverage with the acid. If the permeability sections have been substantially
zones are relatively short, this can likely be depleted.
accomplished simply with rate, or perhaps rate and
a little viscosity in the acid.17 However, once the
zone becomes longer than about 100 ft, zonal
coverage becomes much more difficult. If the
producing interval is in the range of 1,000 ft, not
only is good zonal coverage difficult, it is also very
expensive. Questions naturally arise: (1) How much
of the zone is really going to be productive? (2)
Does the entire horizontal interval need to be
acidized well?, and (3) What is the best way to get
acid all the way to the bottom (or toe) of the well?
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The 75-25 Rule zones of 3 skin (or better), and (2) the resistance of
forcing the original non-acid wellbore fluids into the
Horizontal wells present a unique challenge due to damaged or unstimulated sections at the bottom of
the extended lengths of interval as compared to the well before the acid arrives.
typical vertical wells. Acid designs based on vertical
guidelines, such as 100 gal/ft of 15% HCl to achieve Simulations suggest that an effective solution to this
a skin of -3 or better, become prohibitively problem is to pre-acidize the bottom of the well to
expensive for a 3,000-ft horizontal well. Several create a “thief zone” of 3 skin or better. The zone
investigators have used numerical simulations to will not act as a true thief zone, such as that of a
study ways of optimizing acid designs for horizontal highly naturally fractured section, but it will more
wells.19,20 These and other studies are in general easily enable the original wellbore fluids to be
agreement with one another and indicate two quickly displaced by the acid treatment. The thief
important results. zone at the bottom can be created using coiled
tubing and a small amount of acid. A typical design
First, suppose that costs restrict the size of an acid would include pumping 2,000 gal of 15% HCl at 2
treatment to only 15 to 35% of a full classical bbl/min through coiled tubing positioned at the
design. The question arises as to whether it is bottom (or toe) of the well. The tubing is then
better to treat the entire zone evenly with the acid, retrieved and the acid treatment pumped at high
or acidize a few places well. The results from the rates using viscous acid and effective diverting
calculations clearly indicate that it is far better to methods. This method has been applied
acidize a few places well than to acidize everything successfully in long vertical wells and can be used
poorly. in horizontal wells of perhaps less than 1,000 ft of
length.
Second, a decision must be made as to how much
of the zone to acidize properly, perhaps 15%, 25%, CONCLUSIONS
or 35%. The calculations indicate that the more
horizontal length that is acidized, the more The study of carbonate acidizing has progressively
production is possible. However, an evaluation of improved the success of acid stimulation
the trends indicates that acidizing 25% of the treatments. While much of the science can be
horizontal length properly will provide approximately considered quite complex, a number of simplifying
75% of the productive potential if all of the length guidelines have been developed that can improve
has been acidized properly. For this author, this the application of modern acidizing theories. These
important result became the 75-25 rule. theories have provided the following conclusions:
Furthermore, technical conversations with others • The reactivities of oilfield carbonates have been
who have independently verified these calculations measured in the laboratory and exhibit fairly low
suggest that the 25% of length should be broken energies of activation, consistent with a mass
into 5 to 9 pieces along the length of the horizontal transport dominated process.
well. The choice of the number of pieces and their • New default reactivity values for limestones and
positions may be dependant on identifying preferred dolomites have been proposed.
locations with logging techniques, or may be
• The average limestone and dolomite have
selected by simply choosing locations of conven-
similar reactivities above approximately 200°F.
ience, or may be based on other design
considerations. • Carbonate spending is often a mass transport
dominated process, but it is not a mass
Create a Thief Zone at the Bottom transport limited process.
• The three fundamental issues that must be
Experience has demonstrated that during bull- addressed for successful fracture acidizing are
headed treatments of long intervals, it is difficult to reactivity control, fluid-loss control, and
get acid to travel much beyond the end of the pipe conductivity generation.
without effective diversion. Even with effective • Reactivity control is most easily achieved by the
diversion, experience and numerical simulations proper choice of acid viscosifier.
demonstrate that the bottom 30% of the zone can
• The first level of fluid-loss control must be to
be very difficult to stimulate. The source of this
viscosify the acid to at least 20 cP at BHST
challenge is considered to be a combination of (1)
conditions.
the ease of continued acid flow into stimulated
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• The second level of fluid-loss control can be 6. Gdanski, R.D. and Norman, L.R.: “The Effect
either choosing large solids or acid viscosities in of Filterable Solids on Acid Reaction Rates,”
the few hundred cP range. SPEPE (March 1986) 111-116.
• Proper conductivity generation requires 7. Gdanski, R.D.: “Fluid Properties and Particle
pumping sufficient acid volume, good zonal Size Requirements for Effective Acid Fluid-
height coverage, and uneven etching of the Loss Control,” paper SPE 25894 presented at
fracture face. the 1993 Rocky Mountain Regional/Low
• A new matrix acidizing theory based on Permeability Reservoirs Symposium, Denver,
symmetry has significantly improved the CO, April 12-14.
understanding of the performance acid 8. Williams, B.B., Gidley, J.L. and Schechter,
treatments. R.S.: Acidizing Fundamentals, Monograph
• Wormhole length in matrix acidizing is Volume 6, Henry L. Doherty Series, SPE-
dominated by volumetric issues such as AIME, Dallas (1979).
accessible porosity, permeability contrast, and 9. Hoefner, M.L. and Fogler, H.S.: “Pore
acid volume. Evolution and Channel Formation During Flow
and Reaction in Porous Media,” AIChEJ 34 1
• Acidized permeability improvement is provided
(1988) 45-54.
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spending issues such as reactivity, carbonate 10. Fredd, C.M., Tjia, R. and Fogler, H.S.: “The
composition, acid strength, and contact time. Existence of an Optimum Damköhler Number
for Matrix Stimulation of Carbonate
• Potential zonal coverage for diverting matrix
Formations,” paper SPE 38167 presented at
acidizing treatments is often subject to the Top
the 1997 European Formation Damage
Decade Rule.
Conference, The Hague, The Netherlands,
• An optimum length of horizontal well to be June 2-3.
acidized can be calculated by the 75 25 Rule. 11. Wang, Y., Hill, A.D. and Schechter, R.S.: “The
• Creating a thief zone at the bottom of a well Optimum Injection Rate for Matrix Acidizing of
with a small amount of acid can significantly Carbonate Formations,” paper SPE 26578
improve the success of bull-headed, diverted presented at the 1993 Annual Technical
acid treatments. Conference and Exhibition, Houston, TX,
October 3-6.
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