Integrated Evaluation of Formation Damage/Remediation Potential of Low Permeability Reservoirs

Abstract

Oil or gas effective and relative permeabilities can be reduced to a great extent due to the invading liquid phase of the drill-in or completion fluid, contrary to the misconception that formation damage is less of a concern in lower permeability reservoirs (e.g., less than 5 md). Many laboratory, well logging, and formation tester data proved that mud filtrate (both from water- and oil-based muds) can deeply invade the formation enhanced by capillary forces. This will result in reduction of the oil or gas effective permeability, especially if the formation exhibits fluid emulsion blocks and phase trapping. Unfavorable interaction of the filtrate with the reservoir fluids and rock minerals can generate emulsions and precipitates. The same scenario may occur in hydraulically fractured formations. An integrated multidisciplinary approach is pursued in this study to evaluate formation damage/remediation potential of low permeability reservoirs. The techniques involve different formation evaluation methods including core analysis, well logging, and well testing along with various cleanup scenarios. Furthermore, results from petrographic analysis and laboratory experiments (Micro and Macroscopic scales) are related and correlated with the larger Mesoscopic and Megascopic scales of well logs and well testing, respectively. Results of these efforts lead to the following technical contributions; a) Delineation of the low permeability heterogeneous reservoirs, e.g. the Leduce carbonates, into their hydraulic units. b) Determination of the undamaged formation absolute and relative permeabilities along with the diameter of filtrate invasion. c) A rule of thumb is to minimize or prevent damage from taking place by selecting a drilling fluid that quickly forms an easily removable mudcake. d) Cleaning up damage due to water filtrate may be accomplished by just flowing the well and can be accelerated using solvents or surfactants. However, once the formation reaches its irreducible water saturation, remediating water saturation below the irreducible value may not significantly improve its permeability.

Laboratory Study on a New Composite Plugging Material with High Bearing Strength and High-Temperature Resistance

“…On the basis of (1), (2), and (3), a novel plugging drilling fluid was developed. e objective of the laboratory experiments includes two parts, fractures and core plugging, to investigate the plugging effectiveness of drilling fluid for fractures and holes, respectively.…”

“…However, natural fractures also lead to drilling fluid loss and formation damage [1]. Liquid and solid particles penetrate deeply into the reservoir and cause serious damage [2][3][4]. Particle invasion, phase trapping damage, and rock-fluid incompatibility are the main causes of formation damage [5][6][7].…”

Avaliação do potencial uso de bioglicerina como base para formulação de fluidos de perfuração aquosos para poços de petróleo e gás

“…Além disso, o uso destas bioglicerinas como base para fluidos reduziria os gastos com produtos específicos e de alto custo, como surfactantes especiais que normalmente são utilizados em fluidos nos quais a água é a base. [44][45][46][47] …”