Improving well performance Minimizing the formation damage has a great impact on improving well performance.

Any phenomenon that causes a distortion of the flow lines from the perfectly normal to the flow direction or a restriction to flow would result in positive skin effect. Positive skin can be created by Mechanical causes (partial completion, inadequate number of perforations), Phase changes (reduction of relative permeability of the desired fluid), Turbulence and damage to the natural reservoir permeability. Negative skin denotes that the pressure drop in the near-wellbore zone is less than would have been from the normal undisturbed reservoir flow mechanisms. Causes of negative skin: Matrix stimulation Hydraulic fracture Highly inclined wellbore Formation Damage: Formation damage refers to the decrease in permeability that can occur in the near wellbore region of a reservoir. This represents a positive skin effect. The three main sources of formation damage are:

A rule of thumb is that one half of the pressure drop between the drainage pressure and the wellbore (the drawdown pressure) should occur no less than 15 feet of the wellbore. Drilling Fluid: Drilling fluid (mud) is used during drilling to remove cuttings from the well. The fluid is pressurized in the well to help prevent formation fluids (gas, oil, water) from escaping during the drilling. It is typically a mixture of clay and water with chemical

additives which are used to control fluid properties such as viscosity. The drilling fluid flows through the well and back to the surface where cuttings are removed in gravitational settlers. The fluid is then recirculated back to the well. As a result, the drilling fluid has a very high solids content. Because it is pressurized, the drilling fluid filtrate (fluid and fine particles) can flow radially into the formation (typically up to 6'). A filter cake or mud cake forms typically within the first twelve inches of the wellbore radius.

Causes of Formation Damage: The main causes of formation damage are:

Pore Obstruction: Pores within reservoir rock represent pathways which vary greatly in shape and orientation. The basic model of a pore is:

The throat of the pore causes the most significant restriction to the flow of fluid and is therefore an important determinant of the permeability. Fine particles can be transported within the network of pores. If the particles deposit near the throat of the pore, they will significantly restrict the flow. In some cases particles can bridge the opening at the throat, blocking the flow. The finest particles in the vicinity of the pores are clay particles, which typically have diameters less than 10 m. Clay particles have negatively charged surfaces (anions) and adsorb positively charged species (cations). Cations can have one or more positive charges, for example: monovalent (K+, Na+), divalent (Ca2+, Mg2+, Ba2+). Clay particles can be found in external fluid mixtures which enter the formation during completion and stimulation including drilling filtrate. Clay particles are also naturally dispersed on the pore surface of the reservoir rock. A change in the salt concentration (salinity) or pH of the reservoir fluid can liberate these clay particles. A change in salinity can also cause the clay particle to swell. The degree to which salinity affects the permeability is known as "water sensitivity".

Clay particle dispersion (release and entrainment) can be limited by controlling the composition of the external fluids: Desired: What we need to do:

Chemical Precipitation: Chemical precipitation causes the formation of fine solid particles. The particles can act to restrict or block the flow of fluid through the pores of the reservoir rock. Precipitation will occur when the reservoir fluid comes in contact with foreign fluids or through changes in temperature and pressure. The precipitates can be inorganic (ex. CaCO3) or organic (ex. waxes or asphaltenes).

Fluid Damage: Fluid damage refers to the reduction in permeability that occurs with a change in the character of the fluid as opposed to a change in the reservoir rock. Reduction in permeability through fluid damage can occur through three main mechanisms:

1. Increase in Water Content From Foreign Fluid:

2. Formation of Water in Oil (W/O) Emulsions

3. Increase in Free Water Content from Change in Wettability:

It is important to test the drilling mud, cementing fluids and stimulation fluids for compatibility with reservoir fluids and rock to reduce the risk of chemical precipitation and fluid damage. In addition, the effects of temperature and pressure on the reservoir fluids must be tested to determine the level of precipitation that will occur. This information is used to define the optimum operating conditions. Mechanical Damage: Mechanical damage results from physical compaction or pulverizing of rock. The collapse of a weak formation is considered mechanical damage but the damage associated with perforation represents the most significant cause. Even though perforation damage is associated with a small region near the wellbore, it can cause a significant restriction to flow.

Perforation: Perforation creates a flow path for fluids from the reservoir through the cement and casing to the wellbore. There are four main methods of perforation:

Jet Perforation Equipment: The gun is inserted into the well either through a hollow steel carrier (for a larger casing gun) or through production tubing (through-tubing gun). The guns are either detonated through an electrical cable originating at the surface or by a detonator attached to the bottom of the gun that is initiated on impact with the bottom of the well. Tunnels which are 0.25 to 0.40" in diameter and 6 to 12" in length are typically created by jet perforation guns. The performance of the jet perforation guns is affected by:

Controlling the pressure in the reservoir

1) Overbalanced Perforating (Pwellbore > Preservoir): Here the primary concern is the
selection of clean (and in some cases acidic) fluid in the wellbore to ensure minimal perforation plugging. The higher wellbore pressure ensures that no reservoir fluid flows to the well.

2) Underbalanced Perforating (Pwellbore < Preservoir): This method is not as safe as

overbalanced perforating since reservoir fluid can flow to the well and cause blowout. Differential pressures are maintained at a low value (200 to 400 psi) to reduce the fluid flow from the reservoir. The advantage of underbalanced perforating is that the amount of shrapnel and other materials entering the reservoir is minimized. The additional resistance associated with perforation may be treated as a separate skin factor rather than part of the skin factor associated with formation damage.

Components of the Skin Effect: Previously, all of the aspects associated Skin Effect and non-Darcy flow were lumped together using two coefficients, S and D. It is often more useful to look at the specific components that make up the skin effect. The most significant components include:

In a well with a large skin effect, it is important to determine the most significant contributors to the restriction before action is taken. Consider the following two cases: Case 1: S = Total Skin = +5: Sd = 0; Sp = +5; In this case the restriction to flow is due to the perforations and not to formation damage. The most effective action is to improve the perforations.

Case 2: S = Total Skin = +5: Sd = +5; Sp = 0; In this case, the same total skin is observed but the restriction is the result of formation damage and no contribution from the perforations. The most effective action is to consider stimulation.

Perforation Skin: The perforation skin (Sp) is a function of perforation length (l), perforation diameter (d), spacing in shots per foot (SPF), and phasing angle ().

OTHER COMPONENTS OF SKIN: Formation Damage: One method of representing this term is through Hawkins formula (as discussed earlier):

Turbulence (Non-Darcy) Skin:

Partial Completion and Slant:

These two skin effects can be determined using the method of Cinco-Ley et al. (1975) using the dimensionless parameters hD = h/rw: zw/h; hw/h and {degrees} where h is the height of the reservoir, hw is the height of the perforation interval, zw is the elevation of the midpoint of the perforations relative to the formation base, and is the slant angle relative to the vertical axis (more information on p. 88 of Course Text).