Chapters authored
Damage Formation: Equations of water block in oil and water wells
Water block or invasion of water into the pores of reservoir forms during the operations of water-based drilling, injection, many perforations, completion fluids, and some other particular processes in the reservoir (such as fingering and conning). Subsequently, the alteration in the shape or composition of the fine particles such as clay (water-wet solids), as a result of the stress on it, in the flow path of the second phase can lead to the permeability decline of reservoir. Consequently, the solvents such as surfactants (as demulsifiers) to lower the surface tension as a phenomenon associated with intermolecular forces (known as capillary action) during flowback are consumed to avoid the emulsions and sludge mostly in the near-wellbore zone or undertreatment and under-injection radius of the reservoir. However, in addition to surging or swabbing the wells to lower the surface tension, using solvents as the wettability changing agent along with base fluid is a common method in the water block elimination from the wellbore, especially in the low permeability porous media or the reservoirs latter its average pressure declined below bubble point. For more profitability, after using solvents in various reservoir characterizations, the trend of their behavior variations in the different lithologies is required to decide on the removed damage percentage. The investigations on this subject involve many experimental studies and have not been presented any mathematical formulas for the damage of water block in the water, oil, and gas reservoirs. These formulas determine selection criteria for the applied materials and increase variable performance. An integrated set of procedures and guidelines for one or more phases in a porous media is necessary to carry out the step-by-step approach at wellhead. Erroneous decisions and difficult situations can also be addressed in the injection wells or saltwater disposal wells, in which water block is a formation damage type. Misconceptions and difficult situations resulting from these injuries can increase water saturation in borehole and affect the fluid transmissibility power in reaching far and near distances of the wellbore, which results in injection rate loss at the wellhead. Accordingly, for the equations of water block here, a set of variables, of a particular domain, for defining relationships between rock- and fluid-based parameters are required. For these equations, at first, the structural classifications of fracture and grain in the layers (d1, d2, and d3) are defined. Afterward, the equations of overburden pressure (Pob) for a definite sectional area surrounding the wellbore for any lithology (in the three categories relative to porosity) are obtained by these structural classifications and other characteristics of rock and fluid. Naturally, prior to equations of overburden pressure in a definite layer or a definite sectional area around the wellbore, the overburden pressure of a point in a layer in the first four equations is expressed. In the second, the estimated overburden pressure equations are applied in driving the equations of removed water block (Bk). The equations of removed water block, themselves, are divided into two groups of equations, i.e., equations of oil wells and equations of saltwater disposal wells, and each group of equations is again classified based on the wettability of reservoir rock (oil-wet or water-wet) in the two ranges of porosity. In the third, after describing these equations (i.e., equations of Bk), the other new variable included in the equations of removed water block, that is, the acid expanding ability (Ik) for a definite oil layer around the wellbore, is presented, which is extracted from (1) the full characteristics of reservoir (including experimental and empirical equations of overburden pressure), (2) the history of producing well, (3) core flooding displacement experiments at laboratory, and (4) the acidic and alkaline solvent properties. Finally, the rate of forming water block (q) is calculated using the value calculated for the removed water block, and, additionally, the trend of using solvents is determined for different rocks using these sets of equations. The acceptance criteria are the nature of rock and fluid in the reservoir circumstances. Equations as a quick and cost-efficient method are also introduced, providing computational methods to determine how much and how the blocked fluid in the reservoir layers is removed from the definite strata around the wellbore after injection operation of acids and solvents, with various degrees of acidity, to the types of lithology during acidizing operations. Moreover, these equations can calculate the removed water block (Bk) after injecting solvents to the different acidic properties in the acidizing, for two categories of porosity which cover all lithologies. The equations also ascertain in the current reservoir conditions how much solvent for a type of lithology is to be mixed with other base fluids.
Part of the book: Oil and Gas Wells