Formation Damage Part 2

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Formation Damage

Part 2

WELL STIMULATION TECHNIQUES

Faisal Zainal Abidin

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Learning Outcomes

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

Explain the formation damage created by drilling operation

Explain the formation damage created by cementing operation

Explain the formation damage created by perforating operation

Explain the formation damage created by production operation

Explain the formation damage created by work over operation

Secret
Formation Damage – Drilling Operation

 A filter cake will be formed on the surface of


the wellbore.

 Pressure balance required between the


drilling fluid and the reservoir pressure to
keep the well under control will results in
these mud particulates being forced into the
formation (unless underbalance drilling is
performed).

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Formation Damage – Drilling Operation

 Typical relationship between drilling fluid


type, cost and the risk of formation damage.

 The permeability from both this filter cake


and the formation influence the rate of mud
filtration. The figure shows two regions :

 When the filter cake has much lower


permeability than that of the formation, the
invasion rate is controlled by the properties
of the filter cake.

 Otherwise, formation permeability has


become the dominant factor in controlling
the leak off rate.

 Secret
Formation Damage – Depth

Controlled by: An increased depth of drill fluid invasion is often


observed when larger pore size or higher
permeability formation is being drilled
Drilling fluid

Formation properties The longer the open hole is exposed to the


drilling mud, the greater the invasion depth
Openhole time

Overbalance Invasion depth increases as the difference in


pressure between the drilling mud and the
Borehole Dynamics reservoir pressure (overbalance) increases

• The use of long and/or wide bottom hole assemblies and the carrying out of many
round trips will result in frequent mechanical scraping of the mud cake
• High circulation rates will increase the dynamic overbalance and the high fluid
velocities will erode the mudcake

 Secret
Leak Off Volume

Secret
Fluid Loss

The mechanisms by which the drilling mud


filtrate that leaks off through the filter cake into
the formation include:

i.Increasing the water saturation in the near


wellbore area. This is particularly important for
low permeability rocks where the removal of the
“extra” water saturation may take a long time
i.e. clean up may take many months. In fact, it
may not prove possible to initiate production in
Formation impairment due to water block
a reasonable time if the well drawdown is not
sufficient since the relative permeability of the
hydrocarbon phase has become low.

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Fluid Loss

Addition of third phase reduces gas flow

ii. In a gas reservoir the addition of a (third) oil phase to the already existing
gas/water phases will reduce the relative permeability to gas

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Fluid Loss

Formation Impairment due to water in-oil formation

iii. Surfactants present in the drilling fluid may change the formation wettabilities
Further extraction of the surfactants present in the mud filtrate e.g. from an invert
oil emulsion mud; may cause the generation of a viscous water – in oil emulsion
present in the formation

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Fluid Loss

Formation Impairment due to polymer absorption

iv. The connate water and the mud filtrate or injection fluid may be incompatible
resulting in precipitates being formed. Such precipitates will reduce the
permeability of the near wellbore formation. Similarly, polymer dissolved in the
mud filtrate may absorb on the formation surfaces, restricting the area open to
flow.

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Clay Chemistry

Formation impairment due to fines migration

i. The filtrate may react with the minerals which make up the
formation rock. This interaction may express itself in terms of
(clay) particle migration (or mobilization). These mobilized clay
particles can then block the pore throats, leading to permeability
reduction through internal filter cake formation.

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Clay Chemistry

Formation impairment due to Clay swelling

ii. A second form of interaction is clay swelling in which water is absorbed


between the clay particle layers as shown in Figure . This clay particle
expansion leads to a reduction in overall rock permeability. The magnitude
of this permeability reduction will depend on the clay morphology e.g. the
effect will often be small if the clay particles are situated on the walls of the
pore bodies; but will be much greater if they are present in the pore throats
were small dimensional changes can significantly effect the flow.

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Filter Cake Formation

Experiments have shown that the particles


in the drilling mud can form such external
filter cakes when the diameter of the pore
throat to be bridged is not more than 3
times the typical drilling mud particle
diameter.

The objectives are to promote filter cake


formation and to prevent uncontrolled
losses of large volumes of drilling mud.

Figures b and c illustrate what happens


when an external filter cake is not formed
– the mud particles can now invade the
pore themselves. They may either adhere
to the surface of the pore wall. If the
particles do not adhere to the wall they can
continue to an internal pore throat where
blocking may now occur (Figure c)

Filter-Cake formation

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Invasion Profile Summary

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Formation
Invasion
Damage
Profile –Summary
Cementing Operation

 The success of a casing or liner cementation is


dependent, among other things, on the removal of
the mud cake.

 This is often achieved by pumping various washes


and/or spacer containing dispersant additives
(surfactants). The removal of mud cake triggers
increased fluid loss.

 Filtrate lost from a cement slurry is highly


reactive to any formation clays due to its highly
alkaline nature. It is also has a high
concentration of Calcium cations which can lead
to precipitation of calcium carbonate, calcium
hydroxide, or calcium silicates.

Secret
Formation
Invasion
Damage
Profile –Summary
Cementing Operation

 Cement slurries have a very high natural fluid


loss unless controlled by suitable additives.
Proper fluid loss control is a necessity since
excessive dehydration of the slurry will lead to
failure of the cement job.

 If this occurs, the slurry becomes to viscous to


pump, halting displacement of the cement,
possibly with some of the cement slurry
remaining in the casing itself. Thus, despite the
damaging nature of the cement fluid loss, it is not
normally a problem since the filtrate volume (and
depth of invasion) is limited and can be bypassed
by the perforations.

Secret
Formation
Invasion
Damage
Profile –Summary
Cementing Operation

 The effect of drilling an over gauge hole on the


perforating efficiency is also of concern. The
figure shows the power of the perforating gun was
sufficient for the vertical perforations to
penetrate the cement sheath. It was insufficiently
powerful to penetrate the cement in the horizontal
direction. This contributes to positive skin.

 On-gauge drilling of the pay zone can avoid this


problem.

 What is on-gauge drilling?

Secret
Formation
Invasion
Damage
Profile –Summary
Cementing Operation

The second form of formation damage occurs when


cementing a formation which is naturally fractured.
Cement slurry will flow into the fractures, potentially
permanently blocking them.

The perforated well productivity will now be much


lower than the equivalent value for an open hole
completion.

Chance of the completion design to open hole is the


simplest way to avoid this problem. The integrity of the
hole may be protected by a slotted liner or screen. This
is normally possible since the formation must be strong
enough to support open fractures under the prevailing
reservoir stress conditions.

Secret
Formation
Invasion
Damage
Profile–Summary
Perforating Operation

 This “damaged” area results in a reduced inflow


into the perforation. However, the measured
well Productivity Index (i.e. fluid production per
unit well drawdown) sometimes increases with
time as the well is produced.

 This “cleaning up” process is often ascribed to


the progressive removal of perforating debris
(charge debris, rock fragments and the low
permeability crushed zone); all of which reduce
the well inflow. This removal increases the
transmissibility between the well and the
formation.

Secret
Formation
Invasion
Damage
Profile–Summary
Perforating Operation

Further, some originally completely blocked


perforations may open to flow as the well
drawdown increases. This “clean up” process
can be accelerated by specific well treatments
such as:

Acidising (to dissolve the impairing material)

Perforating with the well underbalance (the


crushed and impaired permeability rock as well
as the charge debris are removed as soon as it is
formed)

Secret
Formation
Invasion
Damage
Profile –Summary
Production Operation

Typical production formation damage


phenomena that lead to reductions in well
productivity are:

Fines movement

Use of incompatible fluids

Inorganic and organic scale

Pressure reduction

Stimulation

Secret
Formation
Invasion
Damage
Profile–Summary
Work Over Operation

One of the areas where formation damage


frequently occurs during the life of a producing
well is during workover operations. This is due
to impairment of the producing formation by
solid particles.

Any solids present in the workover fluid, will be


injected into the reservoir during well killing
operations. This is shown in the figure where
the well productivity was reduced by nearly a
third when the well was killed with drilling
mud during a tubing change-out operation.

Secret
Formation
Invasion
Damage
Profile–Summary
Work Over Operation

These plugging solid particles may also be

generated by drilling cement, scraping

casing, milling operations etc. Figure shows

how workover fluid losses into the formation

were relatively constant for 7 days when a

packer was being milled.

Once the workover operation progressed to milling on a fish that was lodged across the

perforations; the losses decreased by 50% for the next two days, dropping virtually to zero

after day 13. It is very likely that the originally open perforations had become

completely blocked by the end of the operation. A reduced well production can be

expected when the well was returned to production.


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