WELL STIMULATION TECHNIQUES

PCB 4323
FORMATION DAMAGE PART II
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WELL STIMULATION TECHNIQUES

By

Ms. Haizatul Hafizah Hussain

haizatulhafizah.hus@petronas.com.my
Office Ext. : 7373
Office Room : J3-02-25

LEARNING OUTCOMES
At the end of this lecture, students should be able to;
Explain the formation damage created by drilling operation
Explain the formation damage created by cementing operation
Explain the formation damage created by perforation operation
Explain the formation damage created by production operation

Explain the formation damage created by work over operation

LECTURE OUTLINES
Formation damage created by drilling operation
Formation damage created by cementing operation
Formation damage created by perforation operation
Formation damage created by production operation
Formation damage created by work over operation

FORMATION DAMAGE
DRILLING OPERATION
Most of the drilling fluids are made up from
particulate materials and drill cuttings.
Pressure balance required between the

drilling

fluid and the reservoir pressure to keep the well

under control will results in these mud particulates
being

forced

into

the

formation

(unless

underbalance drilling is performed).

A filter cake will be formed on the surface of the
wellbore and some particles invade into the
formation.
Figure 1 : Filter cake formation

Formation damage : when the flow back of the solid

is not easy.
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FORMATION DAMAGE
DRILLING OPERATION
The permeability from both this filter cake and the

formation influence the rate at which the drilling

mud filtrate invades the formation.
Figure 2 (bottom) shows two regions :
When the filter cake has much lower permeability
than that of the formation, the invasion rate is
controlled by the properties of the filter cake.
The horizontal portion for each formation
permeability

indicates

that

the

formation

permeability has become the dominant factor in

Figure 2 : Typical relationship between
drilling fluid type, cost and the risk of
formation damage

controlling the leak off rate.

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FORMATION DAMAGE
DEPTH

Drilling
Fluid

Formation
Properties

Overbalance

Openhole
Time

Borehole
Dynamics

FORMATION DAMAGE
DEPTH
Controlled by:
1. Drilling fluid
2. Formation properties
An increased depth of drill fluid invasion is often observed when larger
pore size or higher permeability formation is being drilled

3. Openhole time
The longer the open hole is exposed to the drilling mud, the greater the
invasion depth

FORMATION DAMAGE
DEPTH
4. Overbalance
Invasion depth increases as the difference in pressure between the
drilling mud and the reservoir pressure (overbalance) increases.

5. Borehole Dynamics
The use of long and/or wide bottom hole assemblies and the carrying
out of many round trips will result in frequent mechanical scraping of the

mud cake.
High circulation rates will increase the dynamic overbalance and the
high fluid velocities will erode the mudcake.

LEAK OFF VOLUME

The relationship between the invasion and leak off volume may be
quantified by a simple volumetric calculation.
Leak off volume = +

= wellbore radius
r = depth of invasion
h = perforation interval

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FLUID LOSS
The mechanisms by which the drilling mud filtrate that leaks off through the
filter cake into the formation include:
1. Increasing the water saturation in the near
wellbore area. This is particularly important
for low permeability rocks where the removal
of the extra water saturation may take a
long time i.e. clean up may take many months.

In fact, it may not prove possible to initiate

production in a reasonable time if the well
Figure 3 : Formation impairment due to
water block

drawdown is not sufficient since the relative

permeability of the hydrocarbon phase has

become low.

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FLUID LOSS
2. In a gas reservoir the addition of a (third)
oil phase to the already existing gas/water
phases will reduce the relative permeability
to gas.

Figure 4 : Addition of third phase reduces

gas flow

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FLUID LOSS
3. Surfactants present in the drilling fluid
may change the formation wettabilities (oil
relative permeability is lower in an oil wet
formation than in a water wet formation).
Further extraction of the surfactants present
in the mud filtrate e.g. from an invert oil
Figure 5 : Formation Impairment due to
water in-oil formation

emulsion mud; may cause the generation of

a viscous water in oil emulsion present in
the formation.

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FLUID LOSS

Figure 6 : Formation Impairment due to polymer absorption

4. The connate water and the mud filtrate or injection fluid may be
incompatible resulting in precipitates being formed. Such precipitates will
reduce the permeability of the near wellbore formation. Similarly, polymer

dissolved in the mud filtrate may absorb on the formation surfaces,

restricting the area open to flow.
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CLAY CHEMISTRY

Figure 7 : Formation Impairment due to fines migration

1. The filtrate may react with the minerals which make up the formation
rock. This interaction may express itself in terms of (clay) particle migration
(or mobilization). These mobilized clay particles can then block the pore
throats, leading to permeability reduction through internal filter cake
formation.
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CLAY CHEMISTRY
Figure 8 : Formation
Impairment due to clay
swelling

2. A second form of interaction is clay swelling in which water is absorbed between the
clay particle layers as shown in Figure 8. This clay particle expansion leads to a reduction
in overall rock permeability. The magnitude of this permeability reduction will depend
on the clay morphology e.g. The effect will often be small if the clay particles are situated
on the walls of the pore bodies; but will be much greater if they are present in the pore
throats where small dimensional changes can significantly effect the flow.

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FILTER CAKE FORMATION

Experiments have shown that the particles
in the drilling mud can form such external
filter cakes when the diameter of the pore
throat to be bridged is not more than 3

times the typical drilling mud particle

diameter.
The objectives are to promote filter cake

formation and to prevent uncontrolled

losses of large volumes of drilling mud.
Figure 9 : Filter cake formation
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FILTER CAKE FORMATION

Figures b and c illustrate what happens
when an external filter cake is not formed :

the mud particles can now invade the pore

themselves.
They may either adhere to the surface of
the pore wall. If the particles do not adhere
to the wall they can continue to an internal
pore throat where blocking may now occur

(Figure c).
Figure 9 : Filter cake formation
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INVASION PROFILE
SUMMARY

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FORMATION DAMAGE
CEMENTING OPERATION
The success of a casing or liner cementation is
dependent, among other things, on the removal of the
mud cake.
This is often achieved by pumping various washes
and/or

spacer

containing

dispersant

additives

(surfactants). The removal of mud cake triggers

increased fluid loss.

Filtrate lost from a cement slurry is highly reactive
Figure 10 : Cementing operation

to any formation clays due to its highly alkaline

nature. It also has a high concentration of Calcium

cations which can lead to precipitation of calcium
carbonate, calcium hydroxide, or calcium silicates.
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FORMATION DAMAGE
CEMENTING OPERATION
Cement slurries have a very high natural fluid loss
unless controlled by suitable additives. Proper fluid loss
control is a necessity since excessive dehydration of the
slurry will lead to failure of the cement job.
If this occurs, the slurry becomes too viscous to pump,
halting displacement of the cement, possibly with some of
the cement slurry remaining in the casing itself.
Thus, despite the damaging nature of the cement fluid
loss, it is not normally a problem since the filtrate volume
Figure 11 : Cemented and
perforated liner or casing

(and depth of invasion) is limited and can be bypassed

by the perforations.

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FORMATION DAMAGE
CEMENTING OPERATION
The second form of formation damage occurs when
cementing a formation which is naturally fractured. Cement
slurry will flow into the fractures, potentially permanently
blocking them.
The perforated well productivity will now be much lower
than the equivalent value for an open hole completion.
Chance of the completion design to open hole is the simplest
way to avoid this problem. The integrity of the hole may be
Figure 12 : Slotted liner or screen

protected by a slotted liner or screen. This is normally possible

since the formation must be strong enough to support open

fractures under the prevailing reservoir stress conditions.

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FORMATION DAMAGE
PERFORATING OPERATION
The effect of drilling an over gauge hole on the
perforating efficiency is also of concern. The figure

shows the power of the perforating gun was

sufficient for the vertical perforations to penetrate
the cement sheath. It was insufficiently powerful
to penetrate the cement in the horizontal direction.
This contributes to positive skin.
On-gauge drilling of the pay zone can avoid this
Figure 13 : Effective and
Ineffective Perforation

problem.
What is on-gauge drilling?

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FORMATION DAMAGE
PERFORATING OPERATION
This damaged area results in a reduced inflow into
the perforation. However, the measured well

Productivity Index (i.e. fluid production per unit well

drawdown) sometimes increases with time as the
well is produced.
This cleaning up process is often ascribed to the
progressive removal of perforating debris (charge
Figure 14 : Perforation Operation

debris, rock fragments and the low permeability

crushed zone); all of which reduce the well inflow.

This removal increases the transmissibility between

the well and the formation.
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FORMATION DAMAGE
PERFORATING OPERATION
Further, some originally completely blocked perforations
may open to flow as the well drawdown increases. This
clean up process can be accelerated by specific well

treatments such as:

Acidising (to dissolve the impairing material)
Perforating with the well underbalance (the crushed
and impaired permeability rock as well as the charge
Figure 15 : Perforation Operation

debris are removed as soon as it is formed)

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FORMATION DAMAGE
PRODUCTION OPERATION
Typical

production

formation

damage

phenomena that lead to reductions in well

productivity are:
Fines movement
Use of incompatible fluids

Inorganic and organic scale

Pressure reduction
Figure 16 : Production Operation

Stimulation

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FORMATION DAMAGE
WORK OVER OPERATION
One of the areas where formation damage
frequently occurs during the life of a producing
well is during workover operations. This is due to
impairment of the producing formation by solid
particles.
Any solids present in the workover fluid, will be
injected into the reservoir during well killing
operations. This is shown in Figure 17 where the
Figure 17 : Well productivity reduced after well
killing operations

well productivity was reduced by nearly a third

when the well was killed with drilling mud during

a tubing change-out operation.

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FORMATION DAMAGE
WORK OVER OPERATION
Figure 18 : Workover
Fluid Losses

These plugging solid particles may also be

generated by drilling cement, scraping

casing, milling operations etc. Figure shows

how

workover

fluid

losses

into

the

formation were relatively constant for

7 days when a packer was being milled.
Once the workover operation progressed to milling on a fish that was lodged across the
perforations; the losses decreased by 50% for the next two days, dropping virtually to zero
after day 13. It is very likely that the originally open perforations had become completely
blocked by the end of the operation. A reduced well production can be expected when the
well was returned to production.
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HAVE YOU ACHIEVED THE

LEARNING OUTCOMES TODAY?
ANY THOUGHTS?

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THANK YOU
2016 INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY PETRONAS SDN BHD
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