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Aramco
Summary
Acidizing jobs involving use of buoyant ball sealers have
been performed on several wells with varied downhole
conditions and productivities. The test objectives were to
determine whether the buoyant ball sealers are more effective than the particulate diverting materials used currently. Complete pre- and post-acidization testing provided accurate data for valid test analysis.
The buoyant ball sealers were effective in every test.
Matrix acidizing of long intervals and multiple sets of
perforations was accomplished successfully. Marked
production improvement resulted from a well previously
acidized with particulate diverting materials. Production
from an old well previously acidized six times was increased to the highest rate in its 16-year producing
history.
Buoyant ball sealers ~re the most effective means of
diverting acid when matrix acidizing perforated
completions.
Introduction
Stimulation in Saudi Arabia is performed primarily to
remove perforation damage and to establish effective
flow paths through formation damage near the wellbore.
Completion intervals in our carbonate reservoirs may be
either openhole or perforations. Production intervals will
vary from 30 to 300 ft [10 to 90 m] in thickness and may
have extreme ranges of porosities and permeabilities.
Various particulate diverting materials-wax beads, benzoic acid flakes, and graded rock salt-have been used
with varying degrees of success. High-density ball
sealers (21 g/cu in. [1.3 g/cm 3]) have been used.
There have been problems with each diverting system.
The particulate diverting system is unreliable and may
damage the reservoir. Insufficient particulate diverting
material will perform little or no diverting. Too much
particulate diverting material will cause excessive plugging, which may not clean up and can damage the formation. An example of excessive plugging occurred in an
exploration well and illustrates the problem. Thirty-five
feet [11 m] of a reservoir were perforated, acidized, and
production tested for 1,000 BID [160 m 3 / d] of oil.
Forty-five feet [14 m] of additional reservoir immediately above this interval were perforated. Rather than setting a bridge plug between the two sets of perforations or
squeezing the acidized interval with cement, particulate
diverting material was added to the first portion of acid
used for stimulating the new perforations. Both sets of
* Now
retired.
0149213618410101-1500 $00.25
Copyright 1984 Society of Petroleum Engineers of AIME
1748
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The conclusions from this test are (1) the cement in the
annulus of the 7-in. [17.8-cm] liner and the 8.5-in.
[21.6-cm] hole failed to isolate Zone 3 from Zone 2, (2)
friction reducer added to the acid improves ball
transport, and (3) the ball sealers were 100% efficient,
effectively diverting acid into every perforation.
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The postacid flowmeter analysis indicates an oil production rate of 6.9 X 10 3 BID [1100 m 3 /d] compared
with 4.6 X 10 3 BID [730 m 3 Id] preacid production. The
producing interval (Fig. 4) was enlarged from a total of
25 to 60 ft [8 to 18 m] and covered the entire top set of
perforations. The flow profile indicated that there was no
production from below the top 60 ft [18 m] of perforations. The use of buoyant ball sealers resulted in 2.4
times as many perforations producing as resulted from
the use of particulate diverters in the previous test.
The ball sealers did not divert the acid across the blank
sections into the three lower perforated intervals, which
have relatively low permeability and low porosity. The
lower perforations would not accept fluid at a sufficient
rate to provide transport of the buoyant ball sealers. The
well had been perforated with IIX6-in. [4.28-cm] guns.
The small perforating guns failed to establish an effective flow path into the reservoir.
This test shows that, when planning buoyant ball
sealer diverting over multiple intervals of perforations,
consideration must be given to ensure that the lowest set
of perforations to be treated will accept the wellbore
fluid at a sufficiently high rate to transport the ball
sealers.
Example 5-Four New Zone 3 Production Tests. Four
wells, Arab D Zone 2 openhole producers, were worked
over and drilled deeper to test Zone 3, the less permeable
portion of the reservoir. A 6.375-in. [I6-cm] hole was
drilled through Zone 3 and a 4.5-in. [II.4-cm] liner was
cemented. Zone 3 was selectively perforated with 2
shots/ft [7 shots/m] and matrix acidized with buoyant
ball sealers. The injection pressure at the perforations
was maintained below formation fracturing pressure. In
all four tests, the initial injection rate of the well fluids
into the perforations was insufficient to transport the
buoyant ball sealers. It was necessary to spot acid to the
perforations before ball transport rate could be obtained.
The jobs were successful in stimulating Zone 3. Pressure
responses from the buoyant ball sealers were recorded on
every job. Logs and production tests indicated that the
acid did not go upward into Zone 2 on any of these
wells.
It was concluded that the use of buoyant ball sealers
OCTOBER 1984
K (MD)
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JPT
Original manuscript received in the Society of Petroleum Engineers office Dec .. 29.
1982. Paper accepted for publication Oct. 27, 1983. Revised manuscript received
June 1, 1984. Paper (SPE 11500) first presented at the 1983 SPE Middle East Oil
Show held in Manama March 14-17.