A New Methodology for Stimulation of a High-Water-Cut Horizontal Oil Well through the Combination of a Smart Chemical System with Real-Time Temperature Sensing: A Case Study of South Umm Gudair Field, PZ Kuwait

Abstract

This paper presents a case study of a matrix acidizing treatment in a well located at the neutral zone between Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, whereby the combination of a "smart fluid" in a stimulation treatment pumped through a Coiled-Tubing (CT) with the real time distributed temperature sensing (DTS) technology helped improve the real-time decision process of fluid placement, temporary plugging placement, and treatment efficiency evaluation. As part of the analysis process and to facilitate the onsite decision-making process, a temperature inversion technique was also used to translate the actual temperature profiles into fluid invasion profiles across the horizontal open-hole section of the well. Additionally, a full scale acid placement and thermal modeling is proposed in order to perform an in-depth post-treatment evaluation. The bottom hole data evaluation further confirmed the benefits of using a smart fluid. Following the treatment, the well produced at a rate of 1500 bbl/day with 17% water cut, which is well below the field average of ~50%.

Using Fiber-Optic-Enabled Coiled Tubing to Quantify Fluid Placement and Optimize Stimulation Effectiveness During Matrix Stimulation Treatments in Carbonate Reservoirs

“…Aside from guiding the placement of fluid during the subsequent stages of the treatment, one of the benefits of the method is to evaluate the repartition of fluid intake along the wellbore, thus helping with proper management of stimulation fluid resources based on the real needs for the wellbore (e.g., some zones may require less diverting agent/acid than initially thought of during the design phase). As previously stated in earlier studies (Al-Najim et al 2012;Tardy et al 2012), the quantification approach shows some limitations when temperature evolution are limited or noisy, or when the fiber feature some erratic point measurements. The later can be mitigated by a thorough quality control of the acquisition system and its measurements, and by always complementing the inversion algorithm with a qualitative assessment of the DTS evolution, along with the bottom-hole point readings provided by the BHA of the FOECT.…”

“…Amongst these fitting parameters, the injection flow rate along the target zone(s) is of particular interest since it ultimately yields the treatment fluid zonal coverage. Although the injection temperature can be used as another fitting parameter (e.g., method used in Al-Najim et al 2012), the fitting problem can be better constrained when that data is readily available. This is the case when the FOECT is placed to TD and acquires DTS data while injection fluid is bullheaded in the annulus between the CT and the wellbore tubing.…”

“…Al-Najim et al (2012) showed that it could help with continuous job monitoring and evaluating the effectiveness of the diversion fluids. Lopez et al (2013) used the approach for real-time evaluation of the stimulation effectiveness and to obtain flow repartition between perforation clusters.…”

“…The end result is a zonal coverage plot corresponding to the injection stage directly preceding the shut-in DTS acquisition (Tan et al 2012;Tardy et al 2012). Although still fairly new, this interpretation avenue shows interesting potential and prospects, especially when used during the intervention, as shown by Al-Najim et al (2012) and Lopez et al (2013).…”

An Innovative Methodology for Real-Time Control and Optimization of Dual Injection Increases Efficiency of Carbonate Stimulation in Horizontal Openhole Water Injectors

“…It has also provided additional pieces of information about any downhole events occurring during matrix stimulation interventions, so that one can better close the design-executionevaluation loop (Ahmed et al 2014). Many studies are today available to demonstrate not only how DTS can be used to understand where treatment fluids go during a carbonate acidizing treatment (Glasbergen et al 2009;Al-Najim et al 2012;Tan et al 2012;Tardy et al 2012), but also how this measurement can be leveraged to optimize the intervention (Ramondenc and Baez 2013;Inda Lopez et al 2014). Although a step forward towards realizing better fluid placement during an intervention, those methods still rely on the effectiveness of the diversion mechanisms used to control fluid coverage.…”