North America

Matrix acidizing treatments containing hydrogen fluoride (HF) acid have been utilized in stimulation treatments of offshore wells to remove skin associated with fines migration for many years. In the last few years, operators have moved toward the use of organic acid - HF acid treatments due to corrosion concerns in the downhole tubular strings during the initial pumping of live acid and in the Titanium Stress Joints (TSJ) during the acid flow back through the production riser. A corrosion inhibitor to inhibit any unspent HF in the acid flowback returns would be beneficial to operators. Production of spent acid flowing back through the production riser is seriously being considered because significant cost savings may be realized over other acid flowback options. However, although most HF acid systems are mostly and/or highly spent during the reaction time with the formation mineralogy, even small concentrations of remaining free HF in the spent acid returns can result in severe bore surface corrosion (etching) and byproduct hydrogen absorption by the riser system TSJ. Lab studies were performed with several different inhibitor formulations added to two different spent organic - HF acid fluid systems to determine the ability for these candidate inhibitors to thwart corrosion (etching) and corresponding hydrogen uptake on ASTM Grade 29 titanium (Ti-29) test coupons. These candidate inhibitors were subjected to four-hour exposure tests conducted at 170 F under 3500 psi pressure with various inhibitor concentrations to determine if the package could meet screening criteria of corrosion/etch rate of less than 0.5 mils per day (0.5 thousandths of an inch) and hydrogen uptake limits consistent with ASTM product specification limits for the short term exposure (i.e., four hours). These lab test results are compared to those from recent published lab test studies on titanium in live and spent HF containing acid fluids, along with discussion on practical implications and considerations for their field use. Developing a corrosion inhibitor to inhibit the residual HF acid in the spent flowback returns and prevent etching and hydrogen uptake by the TSJ in the production risers not only yields effective protection of the TSJ, allowing flowback fluids to be returned thru the production riser, but also offers a significant operational cost savings.

A multi-phase stimulation treatment was required and subsequently executed in deep-water Gulf of Mexico to remediate a multitude of damage mechanisms resulting from years of hydrocarbon production. Among the many challenges that deep-water operators must face, there is the need for remediation of wells experiencing a decline in production. The execution of these treatments can prove to be very costly and require extensive damage assessments to properly design the most effective stimulation plan. Treatment placement is a major part of the decision process and will impact the performance of the job. A well in the Mississippi Canyon field had an asphaltene deposition issue based on asphaltene onset pressure evaluations as well as suspected fines migration issues. Each requiring its own treatment protocol. This operation required that a rig be moved onto location so that the job could be pumped via coiled tubing to assure injectivity into the zone of interest.

A multiphase approach design included:

Phase I -a screen/near wellbore soak

Phase II- a diverted specialty solvent formation treatment to remediate asphaltene deposition.

Phase III- a diverted mud acid treatment that included specialty stimulation systems to address scaling, clay and fines issues.

The challenge is the difference between utilizing xylene alone for organic deposition removal verses specialty solvent treatments specific to asphaltene removal as well as the use of deep penetrating hydrofluoric acid blends and specialty additive packages.

Utilizing this multi-phase approach resulted in a successful treatment outcome for the operator. An increase in total fluids production, an increase in flowing tubing and a job pay off of less than 30 days was the result of finding a solution to these particular set of challenges.

The paper will include an introduction of dissolvable plug and its development in oil & gas upstream business. Dissolvable plug is a customized tool, and it could be modified by controlling its chemical compound to adjust its dissolving rate. In addition, slim version dissolvable plug is a plug solution with dissolvability originally brought out to overcome the downhole restriction challenge (ID of SSD), namely to pass the downhole restriction then to set in the original casing ID. A case study of its application in offshore squeeze cementing job will be analyzed in this paper, from the plug designing perspective to operational data recap to prove its benefits. Conventional plugs will leave the bottom of the plug body downhole after plugs slip losing integrity during the milling operation, and the remainder leaving downhole will choke the well production or even block the well, however, dissolvable plug remainders will dissolve itself downhole, which will not have an impact on the production.

Shale gas is becoming increasingly important globally. The nature of these reservoirs pose special considerations in reserves estimation. What follows was written in 2001 and needs to be updated based on current experience. Nonetheless, some of the considerations mentioned remain appropriate. As reported in mid-2000, natural gas produced from shale in the US has grown to be[1] approximately 1.6% (0.3 Tcf annually) of total gas production.

Discovered resources of heavy and extraheavy crude oil are estimated to be approximately 4,600 billion bbl, two-thirds of which are in Canada and Venezuela.[1] Bitumen and tar sands are excluded from this estimate. Published data on reserves estimates (RE) from this resource by primary drive mechanisms are sparse. Meyer and Mitchell[2] estimated worldwide ultimate recovery from heavy and extraheavy crude oils to be 476 billion bbl, which is 10% of the Briggs et al.[1] estimate of the discovered resource initially in place. Estimated primary reserves estimates (RE) ranges from 8 to 12% oil-in-place (OIP) for the Orinoco area of Venezuela, where stock-tank gravities range from 8 to 13 American Petroleum Institute (API).[3]

As defined by the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (U.S. FERC), low-permeability ("tight") gas reservoirs have an average in-situ permeability of 0.1 md or less. Others have placed the upper limit at 1 md. Estimates of ultimate recovery from these resources vary widely and depend chiefly on assumptions of wellhead gas price. Methods for estimating gas reserves in moderate- to high-permeability reservoirs are unreliable in very-low-permeability reservoirs. The unreliability can be attributed to the geologic setting in which these reservoirs occur and the completion methods required to make them commercial.

Heavy oil is defined as liquid petroleum of less than 20 API gravity or more than 200 cp viscosity at reservoir conditions. No explicit differentiation is made between heavy oil and oil sands (tar sands), although the criteria of less than 12 API gravity and greater than 10,000 cp are sometimes used to define oil sands.[1][2][3][4] Unconsolidated sandstones (UCSS) are sandstones (or sands) that possess no true tensile strength arising from grain-to-grain mineral cementation.

Solar enhanced oil recovery, or solar EOR, is a form of thermal enhanced oil recovery (EOR), a technique applied by oil producers to extract more oil from maturing oil fields. Solar EOR uses CSP to use the sun's energy to heat water and generate steam. The steam is injected into an oil reservoir to reduce the viscosity, or thin, heavy crude thus facilitating its flow to the surface. Thermal recovery processes, also known as steam injection, have traditionally burned natural gas to produce steam. Solar EOR is proving to be a viable alternative to gas-fired steam production for the oil industry.

In-situ combustion processes are largely a function of oil composition and rock mineralogy. The extent and nature of the chemical reactions between crude oil and injected air, as well as the heat generated, depend on the oil-matrix system. Laboratory studies, using crude and matrix from a prospective in-situ combustion project, should be performed before designing any field operation. The chemical reactions associated with in-situ combustion are complex and numerous. They occur over a broad temperature range.

The identification of a bed's lithology is fundamental to all reservoir characterization because the physical and chemical properties of the rock that holds hydrocarbons and/or water affect the response of every tool used to measure formation properties. Understanding reservoir lithology is the foundation from which all other petrophysical calculations are made. To make accurate petrophysical calculations of porosity, water saturation (Sw), and permeability, the various lithologies of the reservoir interval must be identified and their implications understood. Lithology means "the composition or type of rock such as sandstone or limestone." Lithology focuses on grains, while rock type focuses on pores. The list of rock types contains more than 250 classifications. Another term used in the literature is the Greek equivalent "petrofacies."