Mohamed Salah

Placement & Diversion

Introduction
Why Diverting Agent?
The effective placement of sufficient acid volume along long-interval such as horizontal
wells provides significant challenges in acid diversion due to:
• No uniform damage and permeability heterogeneity in targeted zones cause treating
fluids to preferentially follow the path of least resistance, higher permeability zone
and/or least damaged zone. The result is non-uniform damage removal and economic
failure in most cases.
• Effective diversion of reactive acid to achieve uniform acid distribution of the entire
interval, is necessary for the successful matrix acidizing stimulation treatment.
• Diversion is necessary when treating:
1- Sections greater than 30 ~ 50 m,
2- Multi-layer reservoirs with different permeabilities or uneven damage
3- Horizontal wells due to the significant lengths. Mohamed Salah
Placement & Diversion

Mohamed Salah
Placement & Diversion

Mohamed Salah
 Placement & Diversion
Diversion Techniques
Mechanical methods
 Ball sealers
 Straddle packers
 Coiled Tubing, inflatable packers, …. etc.

Chemical Methods
 Bridging agent (Salts, OSR)
 In-situ crosslinked acid

Foam Mohamed Salah

 Placement & Diversion
1- Mechanical Diversion
Advantages
 Less sensitive to chemical composition of fluid
 Less sensitive to temperature
 Effective isolation throughout the treatment

Disadvantages
 Workover rig
 Special equipment
 No gravel pack
 No open hole
 Operational risks
Mohamed Salah
 Placement & Diversion
A- Packer and bridge plug
• Zonal isolation can be obtained in perforated completion by
packing-off a section of the completion interval, for instance
by straddle assembly.
• This method is very expensive and may require a rig.
• For horizontal wells,
1- Open hole completion with slotted liner, external casing
packers (ECPs), Zonal segmentation is provided by slotted liner
with ECPs, each segment (500 ft long on average) , treated with
retrievable packers .
2- An isolation method has been developed, in which sliding
sleeves replace the slotted pipe between the ECPs. With the use
of coiled tubing and hydraulically actuated tools, the sliding
sleeves can be manipulated for selective treatments in long Mohamed Salah
horizontal wells.
 Placement & Diversion
B- Ball Sealers
• Ball sealers are rubber-coated balls that are designed to seat in the
perforation
• Treating fluids carry the balls and place on the perforation tunnel
of high perm zone, blocks them, diverts acid to other intervals.
• A sufficient rate must be available to maintain a differential
pressure across the perforations to keep the balls in place.

• A rule of thumb for selecting ball size to achieve an adequate seal

is that the ball diameter should be about 1.25 times the perforation
diameter.

• When perforation is covered with ball sealer, the pressure at the

surface should increase. Ball sealers require a pressure differential
of 100 – 200 psi to seat efficiently.
Mohamed Salah
Placement & Diversion

Mohamed Salah
 Placement & Diversion
• Balls are available in a wide variety of materials, densities, sizes.
Type Specific Gravity
Synthetic Foam 0.9 to 1.0
Nylon 1.1 to 1.3
Phenolic 0.9 to 1.4
Aluminum 1.5 to 1.8
• The density of the balls can be chosen such that they will be buoyant in the treatment fluid,
Buoyant balls have a higher seating efficiency than non-buoyant balls.

• Balls should be used in the proper temperature and pressure differential ranges.
• Biodegradable ballsealers have been developed, there is no issue of plugging or recovery
 Placement & Diversion

B- Ball Sealers

Mohamed Salah
 Placement & Diversion
C- Coiled tubing (CT)
• Coiled tubing (CT) is a very useful tool for improving acid placement.

• The combination of employing coiled tubing and a diverting agent, has

proved effective in carbonate formations

• Coiled tubing can be used to spot fluids along the zone, while drawing or
reciprocating the tubing along the zone of interest.

• CT-based methods in matrix acidizing of horizontal wells involve either

circulating up the CT/tubing annulus, or bullheading acid or an inert fluid
along this annulus.
Mohamed Salah
 Placement & Diversion
2- Chemical Diversion
Are materials insoluble in acid but highly soluble in water or hydrocarbons, have been used
either to form a low-permeability filter cake to reduce the injectivity of high-permeability
zones with the injection of a viscous polymer slug.
1- Physical requirements
• Cakes created on the reservoir walls by agents, impermeable to the acid for the maximum
diverting effect.
• Deep invasion of diverter to the reservoir rock must be prevented for minimum problems in
cleanup SO, optimum particle size must be determined.
2- Chemical requirements
• Compatibility—Diverting agents must be compatible with the treatment fluid and with other
additives, such as corrosion inhibitors, surfactants.
• Cleanup—Diverting agents must be soluble in either the production or injection fluids. They
should undergo rapid and complete cleanup. Mohamed Salah
 Placement & Diversion
2- Chemical Diversion
The general types are:
1- Bridging agents (60 mm).
2- Particulates (4 to 60 mm),
3- Viscous solutions (gels) and
4- Foams.

Mohamed Salah
 Placement & Diversion
A) Bridging and plugging agents
• Fine particles are added and placed against the high permeable/less
damaged zone.
• Creates a relatively low permeable filter cake on the formation face of
high perm zone.
• Resists flow of treating fluid to high permeable zone and divert the fluid
to the zone of interest zone interest and should be soluble in the
produced fluids.
1- Water-soluble bridging agents, including rock salt (Not to be used with
HF treatments) and benzoic acid;
2- Oil-soluble resins (OSRs), Naphtalene flakes, Wax beads. Sized to form
an external filter cake on the formation face Mohamed Salah
 Placement & Diversion
A) Bridging and plugging agents
Benzoic acid is slightly soluble in acid, at concentrations of less than 1
kg/m3 no cake will be formed.
This solubility increases with temperature. the solubility of benzoic acid/
Napthalene in hydrocarbons varies directly with temperature is so high, that
its use becomes impractical.

Mohamed Salah
 Placement & Diversion

A) Bridging and plugging agents

Advantages

 No rigs
 No downhole tools
 Open hole
 Harmless
 No operational risks
Mohamed Salah
 Placement & Diversion
A) Bridging and plugging agents
Disadvantage,
• Oil soluble resins are not completely oil soluble, and sometimes
plugging by these resins may not be temporary.
• Water-soluble agents are also slightly soluble in acid
• Incompatibility of diverting agents with additives used in the same stage
or in adjacent stages can cause diverter flocculation.
• Benzoic acid flakes or powder are soluble in toluene, xylene, alcohol,
and some condensate fluids.
• Compatibility, Rock salt should never be used as a bridging agent in
hydrofluoric acid (HF) treatments because it may increase the risk of
sodium fluosilicate precipitation. Mohamed Salah
 Placement & Diversion
B) Emulsified acids
• The use of emulsions in carbonate formations, with acid (typically HCl of
varying strengths) as the internal phase (acid completely encapsulated
within the oil carrying fluid) is one of the best ways to retard the acid
reaction rate. Their delayed nature will create deeper acid penetration
and wormholes.
• A retardation factor of 14 to 19 times compared to conventional HCl, will
bypass deeper damage.

• The high viscosity (10-100 times the bottomhole viscosity of HCl) helps
control fluid loss. This will result in improved wellbore coverage,
diverting more fluid to the low permeability and/or damaged zones.
Mohamed Salah
 Placement & Diversion
C) In-situ crosslinked acid

• Viscosifiers should be stable enough to provide significant resistance to

flow, but they must degrade fast and completely so that they do not impede
production.

• Acid modified with polymer/surfactant.

• Preferably, Acid enters into the high perm zone and increases the viscosity
in-situ during acid spending process.
• Diverts remaining acid to the low perm or more damaged zone

Mohamed Salah
 Placement & Diversion

Acid diversion process

Mohamed Salah
 Placement & Diversion
C) In-situ crosslinked acid
Self-diverting acid (SDA)
 It consists of HCl mixed with a gelling agent and a PH-sensitive
crosslinker.
 Crosslinking occurs at intermediate values of pH (typically from 3 - 4)
corresponding to partially spent acid.

 The lower fresh acid viscosity allows penetration in wormholes and fractures until
acid reaction increases the pH and causes crosslinking, thereby diverting the
following acid stages to other portions of the reservoir

 Once fresh acid injection is stopped and the acid is allowed to spend completely.
Gel breaks at a PH above 4, flowback presents no problem.
 self-diverting acids are pumped in several stages, alternating with regular acid
stages and is ideally suited for acid diversion in long intervals Mohamed Salah
Placement & Diversion

Mohamed Salah
 Placement & Diversion
Self-diverting acid

SDA Principle

0 2 4 6
pH
Mohamed Salah
 Placement & Diversion
C) In-situ crosslinked acid
Viscoelastic Diverting Acid (VDA)

Mohamed Salah
 Placement & Diversion

C C
n pH > 2 Hydrocarbon C

C C
Solvent

Viscoelastic Surfactant Spherical Micelles

Low Viscosity
Entangled Worm-like
Low Viscosity Micelles
High Viscosity

Mohamed Salah
Placement & Diversion

Mohamed Salah
 Placement & Diversion
C) In-situ crosslinked acid
Viscoelastic Diverting Acid (VDA)

Mohamed Salah
Placement & Diversion

Mohamed Salah
Placement & Diversion

Mohamed Salah
 Placement & Diversion
C) In-situ crosslinked acid

Fiber Laden and VES – Self Diverting Acid

 Naturallyfractured
formations
 Formations with very high
perm contract

Mohamed Salah
 Placement & Diversion
Fiber Laden and VES

Mohamed Salah
 Placement & Diversion
D) Foamed fluids
• Foams are stable mixture of liquids and
gases.
• In oil field, foam is produced by
injecting Nitrogen into water mixed
with foaming agent.
• foams has a high apparent viscosity thus
in high permeability rock, implying the
diversion of flow from higher
permeability to lower permeability or
more damaged intervals
Mohamed Salah
 Placement & Diversion
D) Foamed fluids
Foam behavior
 A stable emulsion of gas in liquid

 Foam quality:

Q = Vg
Vg + VL
Vg = Volume of gas phase
VL = Volume of liquid phase

 Foam is strongest at qualities

Mohamed Salah
Q = 52% - 96%
 Placement & Diversion
Foam Diversion Process: Step 1

Clean the near wellbore region using brine containing a mutual solvent to remove all oil
from the near wellbore matrix and to water-wet the formation.
Mohamed Salah
 Placement & Diversion
Foam Diversion Process: Step 2

Mohamed Salah
 Placement & Diversion
Foam Diversion Process: Step 3

Mohamed Salah
 Placement & Diversion

Foam Diversion Process: Step 4

- A 10 -minute shut-in time to allow the injected foam to develop the highest
diversion qualities
Mohamed Salah
 Placement & Diversion
Foam Diversion Process: Step 5

Mohamed Salah
 Placement & Diversion
Pumping strategy
Bullheading with diversion

• Simulations have indicated, however, that bullheading of acid with

continuous diversion in carbonates, may result in poor coverage.
• Apparently the acid rapidly creates a thief zone at the entrance of the
interval, and conventional chemical diversion techniques become
ineffective.
• Field results indicate that bullheaded treatments without diversion or
placement techniques may result in only 5-15% of the interval length
being treated.
Mohamed Salah
 Placement & Diversion
Pumping strategy
Coiled Tubing
• The use of coiled tubing can be considered for the placement of matrix treating
fluids, both in cased and open hole situations, especially when long intervals in
horizontal wells are to be treated.

• The combination of employing coiled tubing and a diverting agent, has proved
effective as a diversion process in carbonate formations in horizontal wells. Coiled
tubing is often used to help place treating fluid or diverter throughout the interval.
• CT-based methods in matrix acidizing of horizontal wells, involve bullheading
acid or inert fluid along this annulus. Moreover, the use of CT provides an
excellent means of establishing direct communication of the acid with the
formation face in long open hole sections Mohamed Salah
 Placement & Diversion
Pumping strategy
Fiber optic enabled coiled tubing (FOECT)

 This new approach deploys fiber optic telemetry inside

the coiled tubing string. The fiber optic telemetry
allows distributed temperature surveys (DTS)
recording for obtaining temperature profiles across the
entire wellbore.
 A temperature log can be calculated along every meter
of the fiber. By monitoring thermal profiles of
production and injection wells, operators can identify
the time, location. Real-time monitoring DTS profiles
accompanied with downhole pressure data
interpretation enables real time diagnostic of downhole
events between the stimulation stages providing an
important aid to further optimize and improve the
performance of stimulation treatments.
Mohamed Salah
 Placement & Diversion
Pumping strategy
Fiber optic enabled coiled tubing (FOECT)

• The FOECT provides a real time downhole events

and measurements conveyed on fiber-optic,
telemetry-enabled coiled tubing capable of
measuring downhole pressure, temperature, casing
collar locator, gamma ray, coiled tubing (CT)
tension compression measurements and distributed
temperature survey.

• This real-time CT system provides the opportunity

to monitor and evaluate job progress, optimize
treatment results, and intervene with one trip in the
hole.
Mohamed Salah
 Placement & Diversion
The FOECT system consists of 3 main components:
1- Optical Fiber cable,
Acts as a continuous temperature sensor along the length of the CT and a medium to
transfer the downhole measurements to the surface acquisition system, which allows
monitoring the downhole DTS profiles.
The optical fiber cable has 0.071-in outside diameter thus, allowing standard
operations normally to be carried out, including pumping corrosive fluids and
dropping balls.

Mohamed Salah
 Placement & Diversion
The FOECT system consists of four main components:

2-Bottom-hole assembly,
a downhole package Connected fiber
optic telemetry inside the coiled
tubing string (Figure-3). The
downhole sensor package provides
real time temperature, pressure and,
depth readings with a casing collar
locator and CT tension compression
measurements, allowing the operator
quantitative feedback of downhole
conditions during treatment.
Mohamed Salah
 Placement & Diversion
The FOECT system consists of four main components:
3-Surface data acquisition
consists of a distribution box
mounted on CT reel that converts
the fiber-optic signal into
wireless signal that received by a
computer software located on the
control cabin which displays and
monitor the treatment parameters
in real time thus, improving the
job performance. Mohamed Salah
 Placement & Diversion
Optimization of Matrix Stimulation Process – DTS profiling analysis
• The fiber optic enabled coiled tubing system allows the real time monitoring of
the temperature variation induced by treating fluid during injection generating
thermal profiles along the coil.

• A thief zone will be characterized by a cool-down after injecting fluid and by a

heat-up after injecting acid, due to its exothermic reaction within reservoir that
produce sufficient heat to even push bottom hole temperature

• DTS profiling analysis is attainable to capture the bottomhole events in real time
that enables identification the thief zones which were taking the acid and the
distribution of acid along the entire wellbore lateral section. This allows a
continuous qualitative interpretation of the fluid placement that can be used to
confirm acid placement, diverter efficiency and treatment progress.
Mohamed Salah
 Placement & Diversion
• Run in hole with the FOECT to the total depth and record the DTS for geothermal
base line.

• Pump acid wash and pre-flush along the entire open hole, record a new DTS, stop
pumping and record DTS and observe the warm-back toward the geothermal
baseline.
• The DTS events interpretation allows monitor and identify the potential intake and
tight zones.
• Selectively placed the chemical diverter in the intake zones to improve acid
distribution along entire wellbore.
• Pump the main acid treatment and monitor DTS profile to compare between pre
and main acid stages and ensure a better acid distribution (Repeat stages until
planned acid placement is achieved).
Mohamed Salah
Placement & Diversion

Mohamed Salah