Scale Deposition

Scale Deposition Causes

• As brine, oil, and/or gas proceed from the formation to the surface, pressure
and temperature change and certain dissolved salts can precipitate. This is
called “self-scaling.”
• If a brine is injected into the formation to maintain pressure and sweep the
oil to the producing wells, there will eventually be a commingling with the
formation water. Additional salts may precipitate in the formation or in the
wellbore (scale from “incompatible waters”).
• The most common oilfield scales are:
• Calcite
• Barite
• Anhydrite
• Gypsum
• Iron sulfide
• Halite
 Identifying scale occurrence
• The simplest method of physically detecting scale in
the wellbore is to run calipers down the wellbore and
measure decreases in the tubing inner diameter.
• Gamma ray log interpretation has been used to
indicate barium sulfate scale because naturally
radioactive radium (Ra226) precipitates as an insoluble
sulfate with this scale. An example of this technology is
shown in Fig. 1. Visual observation with the
appropriate wireline tools has also been used to show
the presence of calcite and halite solids within the
wellbore.
• reduction in oil production is a sign of
potential scale problems.
• Injection-water breakthrough is generally
signaled by dramatic changes in the
concentrations of scaling ions, such as barium
or sulfate, which coincide with reduced oil
production.
• Scale remediation
• Milling
• Impact bits and milling technologies have
been developed to run on coiled tubing inside
tubular using a variety of chipping bits and
milling configurations.
• Jetting
• These tools can be used with chemical washes to attack soluble deposits
where placement is critical.
• Water jetting can be effective on soft scale, such as halite, but is less
effective on some forms of medium to hard scales such as calcite and
barite.
• The use of abrasive slurries greatly improves the ability of jets to cut
through scale but can damage the steel tubulars and valves.
• “Sterling beads” is an alternative abrasive material for scale removal by
jetting.[9] This material matches the erosive performance of sand on hard,
brittle scales, while being 20 times less erosive of steel. Sterling beads do
not damage the well if prolonged jetting occurs in one spot. The beads
are soluble in acid and have no known toxicity, simplifying use and
cleanup. Hard scales, such as barite, are removed at rates > 100 ft/hr. This
tool is capable of descaling configurations other than wellbore tubing
(e.g., removing hard barite scale deposits on two gas lift valves in a
multiple-mandrel gas lift completion).
• Chemical dissolution
• Chemical dissolution of certain wellbore scales is
generally relatively inexpensive and is used when
mechanical removal methods are ineffective or costly.
• Carbonate minerals are highly soluble in hydrochloric
acid; therefore, they can easily be dissolved.
Bullheaded “acid washes” are commonly used to
remove calcite accumulations within the wellbore.
• Sulfate scale is more difficult to remove from the
wellbore because the scale has a low solubility in acid.
Chelating agent (scale dissolvers) have a high
thermodynamic driving force for dissolving sulfate
scales such as barite.
• Inhibition
• Inhibitors are typically used after remediation to prevent
further scaling. Obviously, this same technology can be used
to do pre-emptive scale control. The effectiveness of inhibition
is related to the degree of scale super saturation—the higher
this value, the more difficult it is to inhibit. For example, barite
solutions with saturation indices > 350 are particularly difficult
to inhibit.
• Most inhibitors for inorganic scales are phosphorous
compounds:
• Inorganic polyphosphates
• Organic phosphate esters
• Organic phosphonates
• Organic aminophosphates
• Organic polymers
• Read reference