First Successful Application of Temporary Gel Plug Replacing Calcium
Carbonate Chips to Isolate Depleted Reservoir, Case Study from Saudi Arabia Gas Field Abdullah Bin Ziad, Dmitrii Gromakovskii, Abdulaziz Al-Sagr, and Saad Al-Driweesh, Saudi Aramco
Copyright 2016, Society of Petroleum Engineers
This paper was prepared for presentation at the SPE International Conference & Exhibition on Formation Damage Control held in Lafayette, Louisiana, USA, 24 –26 February 2016.
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Abstract Deposition of scale is one of the most common and serious problems seen in HPHT gas wells in Saudi Arabia. A Coiled Tubing intervention to mechanically clean out the scale deposits from the production tubing and liner has been the most common approach to address the problem. Since reservoirs get depleted with time, lost circulation becomes a severe issue. In wells that cannot support a column of fluid due to low reservoir pressure, the reservoir (open-hole, perforations) needs to be isolated to regain full circulation that allows to lift the milled scale to surface. A conventional procedure to isolate the reservoir is to use Calcium Carbonate chips until leakoff into the formation is controlled. This approach is successful in isolating, but presents significant disadvantages regarding the amount of chips needed to successfully isolate, and, more importantly, the cleanout of this solid material once the de-scaling operation has been concluded. This paper discusses the first successful reservoir isolation using exclusively a temporary gel plug that allowed safe and successful execution of a mechanical de-scaling operation without using CaCO3 chips. Temporary gel plugs are normally polymers dispersed in water that can be either crosslinked or non-crosslinked. Well variables like well configuration, bottom-hole temperature; desired plug stability as well as operational variables such as pump rates and placement times are used in selection and design of the type of plug to be used. In the specific case of the reservoir isolation needed to perform a de-scaling operation, a delayed crosslinked polymer gel plug that generates over time a firm and highly viscous gel was used. This temporary gel plug was placed by bullheading two batches of this system down to the top of the openhole wellbore section and allowing an 8 hours setting time to crosslink and isolate the low pressure zone where fluid will leakoff thus generating a lost circulation. The reservoir isolation was confirmed by positive pressure testing the plug. The specific temporary gel plug was designed to be readily soluble in acid in order to restore communication with the reservoir and resume gas production without a need for any additional cleanout runs with Coiled Tubing and use of large fluid volumes. 2 SPE-178986-MS
Introduction As oil and/or gas proceed from the formation to surface together with formation water, pressure and temperature change and certain dissolved salts can precipitate. This is the process that commonly called self-scaling. If brine is injected into the reservoir to maintain its pore pressure and sweep hydrocarbons to the producing wells, there will eventually be a commingling with the formation water. Additional salts may precipitate inside the reservoir or in the wellbore. Many of these scaling processes can and do occur simultaneously. Scales tend to be mixtures. For example, strontium sulfate is frequently found precipitated together with barium sulfate. In Saudi Arabia, where scale deposition is a common and serious problem, clean out operation with coiled tubing has a long history in high H2S (sour) gas wells that goes back to 2005. Besides this challenging work environment, loss of circulation while cleaning out the wellbore was expected. Clean out with foam is known and proven effective method to address the similar situations. However, a complex well completion and trajectory, heavy and hard scale materials and high H2S content has made foam cleanout job more challenging and could result in unexpected complications during the operation. Temporary isolation and conventional mechanical descaling became best practice for a safer cleanout operation. Reservoir isolation is normally done by using calcium carbonate chips. In most cases this material is relatively hard to remove after the operation and can jeopardize production after cleanout. Customizing isolation technique with proper placement and intervention strategies based on well conditions are critical aspects in meeting completion objectives. Isolating zones using polymers are proven to be successful in eliminating the risk of formation damage created by calcium carbonate chips since polymers are easier to cleanout than calcium carbonate chips.
Temporary Gel Plug (Organic Crosslinked Polymer)
To meet the requirement to completely seal off the depleted reservoir, a temporary gel plug was selected. This polymer is a gelled diverting agent for hot wells that forms a solid impermeable seal. It can also be used to isolate zones in workover operations and to seal lost-circulation zones. This material maintains a low viscosity at ambient conditions and is dependent on a temperature increase for hydration to occur to form a solid gel. This polymer maintains a low viscosity during mixing and placement. It hydrates to form an impermeable gel when the temperature is elevated and reverts to a liquid for removal. A water soluble retarder is also used for applications in which the bottomhole temperature exceeds 250°F. The crosslinking rate is dependent on temperature, salinity, pH, base polymer and crosslinker concentrations. The temporary gel plug provides the following key features: ● Low viscosity fluid system (2 to 30 cp) that can be easily injected deep into the matrix without undergoing hydrolysis and precipitation. It is well known that chrome based systems tend to hydrolyze and precipitate especially with increasing pH and temperature. ● The system will give flexibility to have adequate pumping time in and environment up to 350°F (177°C) before the system undergoes the phase change from liquid to a three dimensional gel structure. Fig 1 shows a typical gelation time curve for the temporary gel plug system (viscosity vs time). The inflection point of the curve corresponds to the gelation time of the system. This transition time is completely controllable and predictable with the crosslinker and retarder concentration for a given temperature. SPE-178986-MS 3
Figure 1—Typical gelation time for the system.
● Effectively reduces water permeability, endures high drawdown pressure and prevents water and gas flow. The system provides sufficient strength to withstand differential pressure of 4,000 psi. ● Will form stable sealing gel at temperatures up to 350°F (177°C).
Field Applications The Xk formation is characterized as deep, high temperature gas reservoir underlying the world’s biggest oil/gas field in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. The reservoir has an average pressure of 7,000 psi and temperature of 270°F to 315°F (Naser-El-Dine et al 2007) and depth up to 15,000 ft. The X well was drilled through the Xk reservoir and considered as sour gas producer with H2S level as high as 8% mol and CO2 concentration to 4% mol. Well X was completed with 4-1/2⬙ slotted liner at bottom and 4-1/2⬙ tubing at the top. The initial production of this well was up to 16.1 million standard cubic feet per day (MMSFCD) with a flowing wellhead pressure (FWHP) of 1,424 psi. The well has been flowing for 7 years and production decreased significantly over the period. A 3.0 inch gauge cutter (GC) drift was run to confirm the wellbore access and tagged at 8,885 ft. A sample of scale was collected later on. It was then decided that the reservoir needs to be isolated for the scale cleanout operation. A solution had to be developed to temporary isolate the depleted reservoir without jeopardizing the existing productive zone after the operation. For the above mentioned reason, an isolation method with temporary gel plug was selected for the well X. The volume of gel plug was designed such that it is covering the production liner down to the top of the slotted liner. 4 SPE-178986-MS
Figure 2—Temporary gel plug placement
Job Execution First, an injection test was performed to determine reservoir parameters prior to treatment design, which included the treatment volume and recipe of the temporary gel plug. The purpose of the injectivity test was to know how fast the fluid can leak off into the reservoir at a certain pressure. Due to reservoir pressure depletion, there was no pressure response during the injection test up to 5 bpm. As a result, it was necessary to pump more than one batch of temporary gel plug in order to isolate the reservoir. The first batch of gel plug (30 bbl) was pumped at 5 barrel per minute (BPM) average pumping rate. During the treatment, the average wellhead pressure (WHP) was 75 psi. There was no indication of formation isolation during this first attempt. Based on the indication from the first batch, it was decided to pump a second batch which consisted of the same gel volume. Again, the treatment was pumped at an average of 5 BPM with average well WHP of 100 psi in the beginning. Once the gel plug hit formation, the WHP started to increase and showed a good indication of formation plugging. SPE-178986-MS 5
Figure 3—Isolation stage
After the second batch was flushed and set, an injectivity test was performed at a maximum surface pressure of 950 psi to confirm reservoir isolation. Once the pump was shut in, WHP started to decrease slowly which indicated a certain rate of fluid leak off into formation. WHP went down to 0 psi in 50 minutes. Is was decided that the loss rate is acceptable to procede with the scale cleanout operation. Coiled tubing was deployed to clean scales out of the wellbore with the bottomhole assembly (BHA) that consisted of coiled tubing connector, motorhead assembly, stabilizer, downhole motor and mill. Coiled tubing tagged scales at a depth of 8,859 ft. A total of 2,303 ft of scale deposits were cleaned out down to the depth of 11,162 ft. Throughout the job, the wellhead pressure was restricted to a maximum of 300 psi in order not to compromise the integrity of the temporary gel plug (as seen in Fig. 4).
Figure 4 —Scale cleanout stage
6 SPE-178986-MS
After the successful scale cleanout operation with HPCT, the well was shut in for further workover operation. Until the time this paper is published, the well is still in shut in condition. Based on the lesson learned from this operation, a temporary gel plug can be used as an excellent replacement of calcium carbonate chips for reservoir isolation. The design can be optimized to minimize the chances that the second batch is needed. Conclusions The following conclusions were made as a result of the operation: – The isolation technique for depleted reservoir of well X needed to be customized by utilizing the temporary gel plug to seal off the productive zone. – The temporary gel plug proved to be effectively sealing the reservoir during the cleanout process. – The reservoir condition was restored after the operation. This proved that the temporary gel plug is easily removed using regular jetting nozzle with HPCT. – The successful isolation of the reservoir eliminated the use of solids such as calcium carbonate chips that brings higher risk of damaging the reservoir.
Acknowledgements The authors would like to thank Saudi Aramco, Halliburton and SPE to publish this paper. Special thanks go to Saudi Aramco and Haliburton engineering and operation teams who participated in this operation.
Nomenclature MMSCFD ⫽ Million Standard Cubic Feet per Day FWHP ⫽ Flowing Wellhead Pressure GC ⫽ Gauge Cutter TD ⫽ Target Depth FT ⫽ Feet BBL ⫽ Barrels PSI ⫽ Pounds per Square Inch BPM ⫽ Barrel per Minute BHP ⫽ Bottomhole Pressure BHA ⫽ Bottomhole Assembly
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