Fluid Placement and

Pumping Strategy
Introduction

FP is critical to the success of a matrix

stimulation treatment.

Damage depending on fluid-rock

interaction.

Unevenly distributed along the net

thickness.

MS tends to remove or bypass the

damage.

Each additional volume of stimulation

fluid follows the path of least resistance.
 Methods

Nonmechani
cal Include the use of particles
accumulating at the sandface to
form a low-permeability cake

The size of the particles varies from a

few tens of micrometers to a few
millimeters
Methods
Mechanical
The completely shut off a part of the reservoir
to direct all the stimulation fluid to a
subsection of the open zone.

Consist of ball sealers, which are rubber-lined

balls added to treating fluids to plug fluid-taking
perforations which enable isolating a given
zone during a treatment.

Is specific to carbonate formations. It involves

pumping gelled acid, with the viscosity varying
with the degree of spending.
 Choice of pumping strategy
Importance of proper placement
• Matrix stimulation is in multilayer reservoirs containing
zones with wide injectivity contrasts.

different permeabilities

uneven severity of damage

Causes
by vertical heterogeneities within a completion interval

selective damage in some perforations.

 Importance of proper placement

The natural trend of stimulation fluids is to follow the path of

least resistance

to invade the most permeable or least damaged zones

must be least
To optimize permeable
injected in
treatment
significant most damaged
results
volumes zones
 Example three – layer reservoir.

layer 2 is a high injectivity zone of limited thickness with high K=50 md, S=10, NT=50 ft
permeability and a lower skin effect.

K=500 md, S=5, NT=10 ft

The damage is removed more rapidly in the highest injectivity
zone, an even larger volume would be actually required K=100 md, S=10, NT=40ft

the high-permeability layer would initially Assuming that 150 gal/ft of perforated interval is
take 51% of the total flow required in each zone to remove the damage
 Diversion
A technique used in injection
treatments, such as matrix
stimulation.

to ensure a uniform
distribution of treatment fluid
across the treatment interval.

There are two main categories

of diversion:
chemical diversion Without a diverter With a diverter
mechanical diversion
 Chemical diversion
Use of a chemical agent to achieve diversion during matrix stimulation or
similar injected treatments.(Foam, foam has been found to plug the
water zone.

Mechanical diversion
The use of mechanical devices, such as ball sealers, packers and straddle-
packer assemblies, to divert reservoir treatments to the target zone.

Ball sealers and solid-particle diverting agents incorporated into the

treatment fluid form a temporary plug in the perforations accepting the
most fluid flow, thereby diverting the remaining treatment fluid to the less
permeable zones.
 Comparison of diversion methods

Presented a comparative study of the efficiency of the existing

Hill & Rossen (1994) nonmechanical placement techniques.
Also considered particulate diverters, foams and viscous fluids.
they compared the evolution of skin effect for a hypothetical two-layer
case.

Paccaloni & Including the maximum pressure differential and injection rates
Tambini (MAPDIR) technique
(1990)

The MAPDIR technique involves pumping at the highest possible rate

without fracturing.
 (Hill and Rossen, 1994).

Assumed that
initial skin effect of 10

K1=100 md
H1=1 ft first layer
K2=10 md
H2=10 ft Second layer

Involves pumping at the

highest possible rate without
fracturing.

allows the
But of large into the layer
the MAPDIR reduction in terms of
acid volumes with lower
technique fastest of total pumping time
injected damage
skin effect
 MAPDIR method

Suggests pumping treating fluids as fast as possible below the fracturing limit
without using any diversion technique.

It allows a decrease of pumping time and minimizes the risk of treatment

failure caused by low pumping rates.

MAPDIR is not a true diversion technique (not modify the natural flow profile,
nor distribute stimulation fluids or remove all damage)