Stimulating Low Permeability Carbonate Reservoirs by Applying Acid Fracturing with Open-Hole Multi-Stage Completions Combining Sliding Sleeves and Swellable Packers for Effective Fracture Placement

Abstract

Low permeability oil and gas-bearing carbonate formations are routinely completed with open hole horizontal laterals and multistage fracturing treatments to achieve maximum reservoir contact and enhance production of the formations. This completion technique has been successfully used in previously non-economical reservoirs — in North America and around the globe — to make them commercial. Open hole multistage fracturing technologies have been deployed in tight gas carbonate reservoirs to improve well productivity while using reservoir simulations to optimize the fracture design. When applying multi-stage fracturing one of the key aspects is to assure the isolation between the stages to induce independent fractures. This goal becomes even more challenging to achieve when the process is an acid fracturing treatment. Hydraulic communication between the fracture stages has been previously observed, which has prevented the creation of separate fractures transverse to the wellbore, thereby resulting in fewer and shorter fractures, mostly created along the wellbore plane. In many cases, new fractures could not even initiate and only matrix acid treatments could be conducted. To overcome the isolation challenge during an acid treatment, a multistage completion assembly based on sliding sleeves and swellable packers has been devised and implemented to conduct selective acid fracturing in low permeability carbonate reservoirs. This combined system has mechanically simplified the multistage fracturing job, reducing costs and complexity compared with traditional cement and perforating methods. The system provides excellent isolation between consecutive treatments by providing positive annular barriers. The technology ensures that the entire lateral is treated uniformly and according to the design, enhances proper fracture placement, increases reservoir contact area, and improves well productivity. This paper describes and addresses the successful deployment of this completion and fracturing technology. The success resulted from careful planning, fluid testing, and a comprehensive completion design that was fit-for-purpose to provide optimal stimulation treatment and productivity enhancement.

Evaluation on the Seal Performance of SMP-Based Packers in Oil Wells

“…Packers are an important downhole tool for sealing the annulus and isolating the oil and gas layers to implement production operations [ 17 ]. However, conventional mechanical packers have poor reliability, large size, difficult downhole access in complex wells, and high construction risks [ 18 , 19 ]. In contrast, packers made of thermally actuated shape memory polymers have a compact design, easy processing, and flexible adaptability [ 20 ].…”