Development Of An Integrated Evaluation Methodology On Scale Management Pre- and Post-Production: An Engineer’s Perspective

Abstract

Scale formation can have a detrimental impact on production if left unchecked. Similarly, scale management can be costly without proper evaluation and planning. Developing a cost-effective scale management strategy during field development planning phase is imperative to assist decision making. Furthermore the strategy must address the procedures to explicitly assess the well and field performance during production, to optimize the production over the field life.In the past, the assessment of potential for scale formation was performed based on static scaling risk assessment method, which relied solely on the output from static thermodynamic scale prediction models. In this document, we introduce a systematic methodology to assess the scale formation risk as time dependent by coupling dynamic modeling with static scaling risk assessments; where streamline simulation technique has been used to predict scale precipitation in the reservoir and the consequent in-situ stripping of scaling ions. Extending the use of the dynamic simulation tools to assess the scaling risks in reservoir and near wellbore will assist in field development planning, development, as well as production operation, monitoring and optimization.Workflows developed on a North Sea field development (pre-and post-production) are described, including results from analog/synthetic datasets as examples. Our work indicates that both in-situ ion stripping and drainage patterns significantly influence chemical requirements and treatment frequencies for squeeze treatments following in-situ scale deposition. It also shows from a historical perspective how scale has impacted production in analogue wells and more importantly to characterize the location of the precipating scale. Finally, we highlight limitations in current industry tools and workflows, and what can be done to reduce uncertainties during the development of a scale management strategy.