SPE 94518
Development and field application of a shallow perforation shut off system for HP-HT
oil wells
Jip van Eijden and Fred Arkesteijn, Shell International Exploration & Production, Diederik van Batenburg, Halliburton,
Jacques van Vliet, Al Furat Petroleum Company
© 2005 Society of Petroleum Engineers Inc.
This paper was prepared for presentation at the SPE 6th European Formation Damage
Conference, Scheveningen, The Netherlands, 25-27 May 2005.
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Abstract
Water production in a oil field in Syria has increased
significantly in recent years. As a result oil production is
currently constrained by facilities throughput. PLT surveys
combined with a reservoir study on the field showed that some
layers still have high hydrocarbon saturation whilst others are
already swept by water. Good-quality sands are not properly
swept, probably due to poor connectivity in the reservoir. By
shutting of the watered-out sands the high oil saturation un-
swept sands can contribute to the production. However, no
mechanical through tubing technologies are currently
available, due to the high expansion ratio, the high differential
pressure (up to 3000 psi) and the high temperature of 150 °C.
A new particle-gel has been developed for solving the
above-described problem in a cost-effective manner. The
particle-gel system is a further development of the previously
published gel-cement system.1 The system may be placed via
coiled tubing similar to a cement squeeze. The particles in the
system will create a diverting filter cake resulting in a uniform
and shallow placement of the gel of typically less than 1 inch.
The gel used as make up water of the slurry will be squeezed
into the matrix creating a shallow matrix shut off after it is set.
Selective perforation of the hydrocarbon zones can re-
establish the oil production. Additionally, the shut off zones
can be re-opened later in the well’s life when artificial lift has
been installed.
The system showed superior shut off performance in the
laboratory compared to normal cement squeeze techniques. In
the first field application the system was tested in vertical oil
well with a static bottomhole temperature of 146 °C. A total of
186 meters of perforations were squeezed of with the particle-
gel in a single attempt. Post-job PLT data confirmed that the
shut off was complete because the sealed zone showed no
inflow.
Introduction
Water drive, either natural or through water injection, is
probably the most important recovery mechanism for oil
production from oil-bearing rocks. Consequently, water is
produced together with the oil. Generally, oil production
decreases with the maturity of an asset while the water
production increases. The costs associated with handling
produced water typically are proportional to the amount of
water produced. Consequently, costs per barrel of oil
produced continue to increase with increasing water
production. Ultimately, individual wells or complete fields are
abandoned when cash flows turn negative because of
excessive water production.
In layered reservoirs water production can be managed by
either controlling the injection profile in the injectors (if water
is injected) and/or by selectively producing different layers in
the producers. The main requirement for this method to work
is zonal isolation between the different layers. This is
accomplished by completing the wells with cemented casing
or liners. Perforating is than used to connect the well to
additional layers. However, the reverse process is not as
straightforward. In a previous paper1 the authors present an
overview of the options available with their respective
operating window.
In the same paper the author’s introduce the idea of using
gel as the “mix water” for a cement squeeze type treatment.
The limited and controlled leak off into the matrix during the
squeeze would enable a controlled depth of invasion. The
resulting gel invasion depth can be designed to be smaller than
the penetration depth of the guns that are used to re-open
layers selectively. This concept is illustrated in Figure 1.
The new concept was successfully applied in several field
trials in wells in Syria in 2003. The field trials, however, also
identified that the gel-cement system could not be applied in
wells with a static bottomhole temperature above 120 °C.
This limitation can be explained as follows. A typical
treatment sequence with coiled tubing consists of four steps:
1. Cool down of the well
2. Placement of the slurry across the perforation
3. Squeeze of the slurry (gel invades the formation)
4. Wash out of excess slurry back to surface
One should realise that the down-hole temperature starts to
increase at the moment the cool-down stage ends. In particular
during the squeeze stage no fluids enter the wellbore and the
well will heat up quickly.
2 VAN EIJDEN ET AL
Figure 1: Principle of gel-cement system.
Temperature simulations are thus essential for a proper
treatment design: the downhole temperature must be reduced
sufficiently by pumping cool down stages in order to create
enough working time. Otherwise the system would set-up too
fast and especially the wash out becomes problematic.
For hotter wells the treatment design becomes
progressively more difficult. Temperature simulations
show(Figure 9) that a cool down of 30 °C can be achieved
realistically in a well of 150 °C. This means that the shut off
system should have a long enough gel-time (4-6 hours) at 120
°C to do the treatment. It was therefore necessary to modify
the system for wells with temperature up to 150 °C as the
original gel-cement systems was designed for a placement
temperature of 90. °C.
The gel-cement contains two thermo-settings systems: a
gel system and cement. Set-times of cements can be readily
adapted to meet the high temperature requirements. The main
problem for retarding the gel is the high pH and high buffering
capacity of the slurry caused by the cement. Additionally, it
was found that cement retarders interacted with the gel.
Omission of the cement would greatly reduce the complexity
of the slurry chemistry.
From the work with the gel-cement it was concluded that
most of the shut off properties came from the gel. The cement
served more as a fluid loss agent. It was anticipated that
replacing the cement by an inert material with the same
particle size distribution would give the same fluid loss
behaviour. The obvious replacement for the cement was silica
flour since it was already present in the original formulation.
Silica flour is inert, cheap and readily available.
The additional advantage of the inert material is that the
risk of getting a solid cement plug in the well no longer exists.
This opens the option of leaving slurry in the wellbore after
the squeeze and consequently simplifies the treatment and
significantly reduces the required working time.
The treatment sequence described earlier would simplify
as follows:
1. Cool down will be less critical with significantly reduced
volumes. It may only be necessary to verify injectivity.
SPE 94518
2. Placement of the slurry will be similar but coiled tubing
may not be required.
3. Squeeze of the slurry will be similar
4. No direct wash out is required. This will eliminate all
cement squeeze wash out problems since the formation is
sealed.
Additionally, longer and/or hotter intervals can be treated
in one day since the time normally required for wash out can
be used for placement. The new system in which most or all of
the cement is replaced by Silica Flour will be called the
particle-gel system. The concept of the system is the same as
depicted in Figure 1.
System development
The particle-gel system is a two-component system consisting
of particles and a polymer/cross-linker system (gel). Silica
Flour or blends of Silica Flour and Standard Dykerhoff Class-
G cement were chosen since it is widely available with a
constant quality at a reasonable price. The gel system2,3
selected is an industry accepted full blocking gel with a proven
track record in field applications. The gel system contains a
water base polymer and an organic cross-linker. A new
retarder for the gel system was tested. A standard cement fluid
loss additive was selected. Reducing the amount of cement in
the formulation to create a soft-setting material does of course
change the properties of the particle-gel slurry compared to
the gel-cement slurry. Rheology, fluid loss behaviour and gel
time of the system will be affected by the change in ratio of
cement and Silica Flour.
Gel-time
The gel-time of the system becomes less critical if the system
can be left in the wellbore to set. However the gel-time of the
slurry should be long enough to allow placement and
subsequent squeeze. It is also still necessary to know if the gel
after squeeze will set in the formation. The latter is not a
trivial issue since during the squeeze a filter cake will be
formed and that could lead to filtration of active ingredients of
the gel system.
In this paper the term t-100 is used to define the working
time. It is defined as the time it takes for the system to reach a
viscosity of 100 mPa.s(see Figure 2).
500
450
400
350
Viscosity (mPas)
300
250
t100
200
150
100
50
0
0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0 4.5
Time (hours)
Figure 2: Definition of t-100 gel time
SPE 94518 DEVELOPMENT AND FIELD APPLICATION OF A SHALLOW PERFORATION SHUT OFF SYSTEM FOR HP-HT OIL WELLS
Rheology - Compared to regular cement slurries the particle-
gel slurry is more viscous because the make up fluid is not
water or brine but a viscous polymer/cross-linker solution. To
be able to pump the slurry through coiled tubing the polymer
loading should not be too high. Addition of chemicals to
improve the rheology of the system was discarded to prevent
the system to become too complex.
Fluid loss - Fluid loss control and node build is crucial during
a normal cement squeeze.4 Too high fluid loss could generate
big nodes that potentially can block the well bore. The fluid
loss of the gel-cement system was tailored (API 70 ml/30 min
or less) to control node build up during the squeeze. This also
limited the amount of gel that could be squeezed into the
formation because high fluid loss behaviour (API 150 ml/30
min) would lead to massive node build up and subsequent well
bore access problems. With the particle-gel system this
problem does no longer occur since the silica flour particles
are inert. Even with the gel set-up in the silica flour it is
expected that this could be easily washed out with coiled
tubing. For the job design of the particle-gel system the total
volume to be squeezed will determine the invasion depth of
the gel.
Shut off Properties - During the squeeze a controlled
invasion depth of the gel is achieved. The 2-3 centimeters (1
inch) of gel in the formation once fully cured must be able to
withstand a differential pressure of 200 bars (3000 psi) at a
static bottom hole temperature of up to 150 °C (300 °F).
Experimental
The gel-time (t-100) of the gel formulations, the particle-
gel slurry and the filtrate of the particle-gel system were
measured with an Antoon Paar Physica MCR1005 at typically
200 s-1. Filtration of the particle-gel system was done over a
500 mD Berea sand stone disc at approximately 50 °C and 5
bars nitrogen pressure. Although the method doesn’t fully
resemble the situation during the squeeze it is a quick
screening method for filtration effects.
For retarding the gel system at 120 °C or new retarding
agent was used. t-100 times were initially measured on the gel
systems without solids (no cement or silica flour). The new
retarder resulted in t-100 times of 3-8 hours at 120 °C
depending on the polymer/cross-linker ratio and the
concentration of retarder. The effect of the retarder reduces
above 1 w/w% of gel. It is also remarkable that the fluid loss
agent had a noticeable effect on the gel-time. Higher
concentrations of the fluid loss agent however are not
acceptable because of the effect on the viscosity of the
formulation.
Figure 8 depicts the t-100 times of gel formulations that
were filtered over a 500 mD Berea sand stone disk.
Formulation #1 and #2 contained the same polymer loading. In
formulation #2 the cross linker concentration was 20% higher
than in formulation #1. All formulations contained 1.2 w/w%
of fluid loss additive. All formulations contained 51% solids
(silica flour + cement). The difference in t-100 times for 0.5%
or 1% retarding agent are negligible for all formulations. This
was different with the measurements on the neat gel where a
significant effect of different concentrations was measured.
3
The differences between no cement and 20% cement (by
weight of the total solids) were marginal. It is however noted
in other experiments that formulation with 10% cement had
consistent longer t-100 times in formulation with 1% retarder.
Also increasing the cement content above 20% of the total
solids resulted in a reduction in t-100 times. Obviously
increasing the cross-linker concentration reduces the t-100
time for all formulations.
The rheology of the particle-gel slurry was measured in a
Fann-35 viscometer. For field application the particle-gel
system had to be placed with a 1.5” coiled tubing. Initially the
solids content was kept equal to the solids in the gel-cement
system. However the formulations were too viscous and the
solids content was lowered to 51% to reduce the viscosity. The
particle-gel system behaves clearly as a power-law fluid. This
is in contrast to the gel-cement system that showed more
Bingham-type behaviour as a result of the physico-chemical
interactions between the cement particles.
The fluid loss properties of the particle-gel system were
measured in a custom built cell as depicted in Figure 3. The
stainless steel cell was placed in a heating cabinet and could
be operated at 130 °C and 200 bars.
Temperature
Fill port
sensor
Rubber
seal
Metal filter
Core
Core
Figure 3: Fluid loss and shut off cell.
Fluid loss was measured on outcrop material with a
permeability that matches the permeability of the formation in
Syria. A small hole (8 mm ID) was drilled into the core to
mimic a perforation. The cement slurry conditioned at 80 °C
was poured into the fill port while the cell was at 80 °C.
Squeeze pressures of up to 80 bars were applied with a back
pressure of 10 bars. Fluids were collected from the outlet and
fluid loss was recorded over time. API fluid loss (ml/30
minutes) was calculated by correcting for the area of the
perforation.
Shut off properties were measured using the set-up as
depicted in Figure 4. In a controlled squeeze (1000 psi) the
fluid leak off penetrated the core approximately 2 cm.
Subsequently the temperature of the heating cabinet was raised
to the required value while maintaining an absolute pressure of
4 VAN EIJDEN ET AL SPE 94518

10 bars. The gel-cement was allowed to cure for 24 to 48 Field application

hours. After the cure pressure was stepwise increased from the The target well was drilled in 1987 as an exploration well. The
back-side (reverse flow) and flow was monitored. Pressure well was completed with a single completion in September
was increased until maximum operating pressure of the set-up 1987. In December 1989 the well was deepened to a lower
was reached (200 bars) or when pumps could not maintain reservoir (zone I, Figure 5) and the well was completed as a
pressure with the observed flow. single selective on two reservoirs. In February 1990 additional
perforations were shot in zone I and the well produced from
Back pressure those sands until August 1991. A zone change took place and
regulator
the well produced from zone II. A work over was carried out
Heating in April 1992 to convert the well into a dual completion. This
cabinet allowed simultaneous production from both zones, thereby
maximizing the benefit of pressure support from water
injection. In May 1998 additional perforations were shot in
Pump
zone I to increase the production potential. These additional
Balance perforations proved successful and the net oil production
increased from 1000 to 2300 bopd. The water cut in zone I
started to develop in June 1998 and increased to 96% in
August 2002.
A production logging tool (PLT) survey to establish the
Data acquisition
source of the water influx into the well and to identify the
scope for water shut-off, was performed in zone I in March
Figure 4: Test set-up for shut off properties.
2003. The PLT showed that the bottom two sets of
Table 1 summarises the shut off results for formulation that perforations in zone I were not contributing, neither with oil or
contain a reduced amount of cement. It is clear from the water. Although the two middle sections produced most of the
results that the shut off properties are related to the starting water (about 70% of the total water), the PLT indicated that
permeability of the core. Pfailure is the differential pressure over water cross flow between these two sections occurred when
the core, and in fact over 2 centimeters of cured gel, at which the well was closed in. Isolating the watered out section in the
the first flow was observed. However the remaining reduction top of zone I with mechanical means was not possible because
in permeability is still very high. of the dual completion installed in the well. Also, a work over
to install a cemented completion inside the existing perforated
Ki Ki/Kf*100% Pfailure liner is not possible because the existing liner is 4-1/2”.
mDarcy % bars Therefore shallow perforation shut off was proposed to
1500 0.003% 60 squeeze off the existing perforations.
500 0.004% 90 For this treatment the formulation with 10% cement was
50 0.02% 180 selected. The 10% cement was added because it resulted in a
slightly longer gel-time at 120 °C. To check the consistency of
Table 1: Shut off properties particle-gel with 10% cement at the cured slurry, cubes (Figure 6) were prepared in a two-inch
150 °C cube mold with the components present in the field. The cube
Table 2 summarises the shut off results for formulation molds were immersed in a water bath of 80 °C for 48 hours.
without cement. In this formulation the cross-linker The samples prepared in this manner were soft and easy to
concentration was increased by 20% compared to formulation deform. This lead to the expectation that the set slurry could
in table 1. Formulation #1 gives shut off properties be removed easily from the well bore with coiled tubing.
comparable to the results achieved with the gel-cement
system. However, the silica flour source appears to have a Wash-out Test - A try-out was conducted in a dead well
great influence on the performance. No explanation has been (watered out) to test under field conditions whether the
found yet for this phenomenon. Both silica flour sources have particle-gel system with 10% cement could be washed out
the same particle size distribution and give the same pH when with coiled tubing after the system had set. For this purpose 10
immersed in water. bbls of particle-gel was spotted in a 7” casing. The bottomhole
temperature of the well was 148 °C. After 48 hours cure
Ki Ki/Kf*100% Pfailure Si flour several attempts were made to wash out the set particle-gel
system with coiled tubing. Several nozzles configurations
mDarcy % Bars
were used with viscosified brine as the carrying fluid. No
750 0.002% 180 Supplier A
progress was made and a wire line bailer run was done to
750 0.009% 180 Supplier A
collect a sample. A solid and partially consolidated material
750 0.27% 30 Supplier B was retrieved from the well.
750 0.20% 58 Supplier B
Table 2: Shut off properties particle-gel with 100 % Si flour
at 150 °C
SPE 94518 DEVELOPMENT AND FIELD APPLICATION OF A SHALLOW PERFORATION SHUT OFF SYSTEM FOR HP-HT OIL WELLS
Figure 5: Completion diagram for target well
Test work in the laboratory was done to simulate the
conditions in the field. The particle-gel slurry with and
without cement was poured into a steel cylinder that contained
a glass frit at the bottom (Figure 7). The steel cylinder was
pressurised with viscofied brine (to prevent fingering) and
approximately half of the column was compressed while gel
was squeezed out of the bottom of the cell. The cylinder was
closed and stored at 150 °C /16 bars for 48 hours. The test
confirmed that under these conditions the set slurry resulted in
rock hard material if 10% of cement was present. A cement
free system resulted in a soft and easy to deform material.
Figure 6: Cured particle-gel system with 10% cement
5
80°C 150°C
brine
SS tube, 30 cm
Gel+particles gel 48 hours/ 16 bars
+ P1 glass frit
Figure 7: Schematic of the set-up for squeeze and wash out
test
Treatment Execution - The shallow perforation shut off
treatment was still executed however it was decided to do the
wash out of the excess slurry immediately after the squeeze
(equivalent to previous jobs with gel-cement). The main
objectives of this treatment were to verify that the new
particle-gel system could be placed in a hot well (146 °C) over
a long perforation interval (186 meters) and would effectively
seal all perforations.
Temperature simulations(Figure 9) showed that a cool
down stage of 500 bbls of brine pumped at 3 bbls/minutes was
required to cool the perforated interval to below 120 °C. The
simulations took into account the facts that prior to the
treatment the well would be shut in for at least one day and
that the surface temperature was 40 °C. The cool down was
pumped with 1.2 bbl/minute of brine through the coiled tubing
and 1.8 bbl/minute through the tubing. The particle-gel system
was placed over the existing perforations with coiled tubing
with 0.8-1 bbl/minute (total volume pumped was 22 bbls). The
particle-gel system was placed with 800-psi overbalance
controlled by choking the coiled tubing/tubing annulus. After
all particle-gel was placed and pumping was stopped the
tubing head pressure raised to 900 psi (well shut in). Surface
squeeze pressure was raised to 1000 psi (approximately 1800
psi overbalance). The total squeeze volume was only 0.5 bbls.
A surface pressure of 1000 psi was maintained for 15
minutes and wash out was started. Excess slurry was cleaned
out by running in coiled tubing and simultaneously pumping
viscofied brine. The overbalance during the clean out didn’t
exceed 1000 psi (800 psi below the overbalance during the
squeeze). During the night it was attempted to keep the surface
pressure between 100 and 200 psi with a maximum of 300 psi.
However surface pressure increased up to 1000 psi. It was
decided to bleed off the well. After 45 minutes the surface
pressure was still at 300 psi and 100% oil at surface was
observed. The well was shut in for the remainder of the night
and surface pressure rose to 975 psi. The well was shut in for
48 hours.
6 VAN EIJDEN ET AL
Treatment Results - A PLT was done to determine if the
squeezed zone was contributing to production. Results of the
PLT clearly indicate that the squeezed zone was not
contributing to the production. The flow from the well
originates from zone II (Figure 5) and finds its way into the
tubing via a leaking 7" packer. It was decided to first repair
the leaking 7” packer prior to re-perforating the oil bearing
zones.
Second Wash-out Test - A second try-out was done in the
well used for the first wash-out test. A column of 80 meters of
cement free particle-gel slurry was placed in the 7” casing. A
squeeze pressure was applied and the system was allowed to
cure for 48 hours. As expected from the laboratory results,
coiled tubing clean out went very smooth. After 40 meters of
cured slurry was washed out the successful test was stopped.
Conclusions
A new system for shallow perforation shut off has been
developed. The system can be used in well up to 150 °C.
The gel time can be varied between 3-8 hours at 120 °C
depending on the gel/cross-linker ratio and the retarder
concentration.
The particle-gel system can withstand differential
pressures as high as 180 bars (@150 °C) with excellent
restrictions in water flow. ki/Kf*100% = 0.002%
Shut off properties of the particle-gel system are
comparable to the results previously published with the
gel-cement system.
Shut off properties varied based on the Silica Flour used
in the system. The reason for this behaviour is still
unknown.
Addition of small amounts of cement to the particle-gel
system results in rock solid material if the slurry is
squeezed and allowed to set reservoir conditions. This
was observed both in the field and in the laboratory.
SPE 94518
Laboratory experiments show that the particle system
without cement result in a soft easy to remove material if
it sets after a squeeze under reservoir conditions.
The second wash out test in the field with cement free
particle-gel system confirmed that cured particle-gel can
be removed easily from a well by coiled tubing clean-out.
The particle-gel system can be placed (squeezed and
washed out) in long vertical wells (180 meters of
perforations) with static bottom hole temperatures as high
as 146 °C.
The particle-gel system has proven to create a seal for
fluid inflow in a well with a static bottom hole
temperature of 146 °C over an interval length of 186
meters.
Acknowledgements
The authors wish to thank Al Furat Petroleum Company, Shell
and Halliburton for their permission to publish this paper.
Special thanks to Omar Well Services, in particular Jasper
Taal for his cooperation and constructive contribution before
and during the treatment.
References
1. Van Eijden, G.J.M., et al, “Gel-cement, a water shut-off system:
qualification in a Syrian field”, SPE88765
2. Hardy, M., et al., “The First Carbonate Field Application of a
New Organically Crosslinked Water Shutoff Polymer System”,
SPE 50738
3. Van der Hoek, J.E., et al., “Full Blocking Mechanism of Polymer
Gels for Water Control”, SPE 68982
4. http://www.myhalliburton.com/portal/server.pt/gateway/PTARGS
_0_289165_1534_0_0_47/http://is.myhalliburton.com/contents/
default/main/myhalliburton/customer_content/cem/contents/Best
_Practices/web/H01929.asp
5. http://www.anton-paar.com/ap/apinternet/html/default/cxsn-
5qudll.be.0.jsp
SPE 94518 DEVELOPMENT AND FIELD APPLICATION OF A SHALLOW PERFORATION SHUT OFF SYSTEM FOR HP-HT OIL WELLS 7

5
Formulation#1 + 0.5% retarder Slurry filtered over 500 mD Berea sand stone
gel-time measurements on filtrate @ 120 °C
4.5 Formulation#1 + 1% retarder
Formulation#2 + 0.5% retarder
4 Formulation#2 + 1% retarder

3.5

3
t-100, hours

2.5

1.5

0.5

0
0 10 20
w/w% Cement in solids

Figure 8: Effect of retarder on the t-100 time at 120 °C with varying cement concentrations

500

1000

1500
Depth, m

2000
SI=1days Volume=400bbls FlowRate=4bpm
SI=1days Volume=500bbls FlowRate=4bpm
SI=1days Volume=300bbls FlowRate=3bpm
2500 SI=1days Volume=400bbls FlowRate=3bpm
SI=1days Volume=500bbls FlowRate=3bpm

3000

3500

4000
40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120 130 140
Temperature, °C

Figure 9: Cool down scenarios with a surface temperature of 40 °C