Perforation

WELL STIMULATION TECHNIQUES

Faisal Zainal Abidin

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 Learning Outcomes

At the end of this lecture, student should be able to:

Understand the concept of perforating.

Understand the importance of charge design and what factors influence

performance.

Describe how charge performance is measured.

Describe the perforating gun systems and their operational

consideration.

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 Introduction

Needs of perforating

To provide the communication path between the well-bore and all desired zones.

To evaluate and optimize production rate/injectivity as well as oil and gas recovery
from each zone.

Perforating

produce holes through the wall of the casing, the cement sheath and penetrate into
the formation.

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 Introduction

The perforating operation maximises well productivity/injectivity by:

Bypassing formation damage.

Providing selectivity between intervals through flow control from

different layers between incompatible reservoir fluids.

perforations allow avoidance of weak zones which may lead to sand

production.

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 Shaped Charge Characteristic and Performance

Principles of Shaped Charges

The basic shaped charge consists of:

A conical liner.

A primer explosive charge.

The main explosive charge.

A charge case or container.

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 Shaped Charge Characteristic and Performance

The main explosive charge is extremely powerful in

energy releasing specific energy per unit weight of
explosive. Detonation of the main charge is complete
after only 100 - 300 micro seconds.

This fast reaction time is of importance in that it

concentrates the detonation energy of the exploding
charge to very limited target area.

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 Shaped Charge Characteristic and Performance

Charge container can be either a metal or a disintegrateable

case e.g. ceramic. A metal case can assist in directing the
force of the explosion on a specified target area. A conical
liner concentrates the explosive force so that it provides
maximum penetration of the target over a limited area.

(a) A flat ended charge spreads the force of the explosion

over a wide area of the target with very limited penetration.

(b) A conical shaped charge concentrates the force of the

explosion and provides greater penetration.

(c) The penetration is greatly increased by a lined conical

cavity.

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 Principle of Shaped Charges

The penetration process is

controlled by the characteristics
of the high velocity jet as it
impacts the target. The area of
the target affected will be directly
proportional to the diameter of
the jet produced while the depth
of penetration depends on the
speed of the jet and its diameter.

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 Principle of Shaped Charges

The angle of the cone and the liner

material determines the penetration
depth and the perforation's diameter
(for a given charge weight). A
copper liner gives a wide diameter
hole (< 1.0 in.) as used for sand
control or popped hydraulic
fractured completions, while a deep
penetrating charge (~ 0.5 in.
diameter) uses a sintered metal liner.

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 Principle of Shaped Charges

Properties and extent of the crushed zone will depend upon a number
of factors including:

 Size of perforation charge

 Casing wall thickness and strength

 Cement sheath thickness and strength

 Grain composition, size and shape of the formation rock

 Stress conditions in the near wellbore region

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 Principle of Shaped Charges

Charge Performance Parameter

 Penetration length

 Perforation diameter

 Perforation hole volume

 Burr height on the inside of the casing around the perforation entrance hole

 Impact on casing integrity

 Perforation flow performance

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 Principle of Shaped Charges

The inflow performance is affected by the:

 Perforation length (L) - longer perforations are more productive

 Perforation diameter (Dperf) - wider perforations will show a reduced frictional

pressure loss

 Perforation density (n) - reducing the distance between perforations will increase
the well productivity

 Perforation phasing - reducing the angle between adjacent perforations will

increase the well productivity

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 Factors Influencing Charge Performance

Gun Size/Explosive Charge Size

 The size of the

perforating gun will
dictate the maximum
explosive load which
can be accommodated
in the charges.

Effect of gun size on entrance hole diameter and penetration depth

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 Factors Influencing Charge Performance

Well-bore Fluid Pressure, Temperature and Density

 if the fluid in the well-bore were very dense, then it could reduce the jet
velocity and impair its physical performance

Gun Clearance

 maximum entrance hole size is achieved with a gun clearance of 1/2 inch

 in general both penetration and entrance hole size decrease with

increasing clearance

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 Factors Influencing Charge Performance

Typical results of perforation with 1 11/16” through tubing gun in a deviated

production casing
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 Perforation Charge Arrangement

The orientation of perforations defined as the angular phasing can be:

 0° or in-line firing which can provide the minimum clearance for all
perforations if the gun is positioned to fire on the low side of the hole

 45° to 90° phasing which provides the nearest approximation to radial

flow

 180° phasing in either of the two planar directions

 120° phasing either with all 3 shots firing at 120° to each other or omitting
1 charge such that the 2 shots fire at +60° and -60° angular phase

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 Perforation Charge Arrangement

Perforation shot density:

Example of 4 shots/foot in
line firing and 90o phasing

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 Factors Influencing Charge Performance

For this particular example, avoiding

tortuous flow paths associated with 0º
phasing perforations will force the
fluids to flow “round the casing” has a
greater influence on the well
productivity than the perforation
density

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 Perforation Charge Arrangement
 Depth and Permeability reduction caused by Formation Damage - formation Damage has limited effect on
well productivity provided it is penetrated by a substantial length of the perforation.

 Permeability and depth of crushed zone around the perforation - perforation clean up procedures should be
designed to remove this impaired crushed zone prior to production.

 Formation vertical and horizontal permeability - reduced vertical permeability impedes well production
when the perforations are far apart (low shot densities).

 Drawdown and properties of the produced fluids - high gas and very high oil flow rates through the
perforation lead to extra pressure losses from non- Darcy flow effects.

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 Perforation Charge Arrangement

The figure illustrates how the effect of an unfavourable vertical permeability

can be overcome by placing the perforations closer together. Also, it can be
seen how a well completed in a formation with a vertical permeability similar
to the horizontal permeability can have a productivity approaching that of an
open hole completion, even when there is a low perforation density.

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 THANK YOU

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