By Larry Lockwood

and Walt Kordziel

TULSAA new acid stimulation treat-
ment has been developed that is showing
significant improvement worldwide. From
the Caspian Sea to the Middle East to
North Dakotas Williston Basin, the
degradable diversion acid system is breath-
ing new life into old wells in carbonate
formations without requiring a rig.
Because of its unique design, the new
treatment stimulates natural fractures and
high-permeability zones first, then auto-
matically diverts to steer the treatment
acid to attack lower-permeability zones.
The result is an evenly distributed treatment
that opens large volumes of the reservoir
with high conductivity back to the com-
pletion. The diversion media consists of
degradable fibers that temporarily block
the high-conductivity zones and force
the acid to open new paths through the
rock. Within hours after the treatment is
finished, the fibers dissolve and full post-
treatment permeability is restored across
the completion.
The system combines nondamaging
viscosity-based viscoelastic fluid with
degradable fibrous particles. It gains vis-
cosity as it reacts with the calcium car-
bonate in the rock, and the fibrous particles
then form a network that strengthens the
diversion capability. All acid treatments
follow the paths of least resistance as
they propagate through the rock. The
viscous diverter simply causes the treat-
ment fluids to seek another, less resistant
path. Typical results on wells scattered
across the world show a 500 percent
post-treatment production improvement.
An example from the Williston Basin
proves the point. Independent producer
Zenergy Inc. is developing a reservoir in
the Bluell formation in North Dakota.
Although the Bluell has good areal extent,
it is characterized by thin pay zones with
natural permeability less than 2.0 milli-
Darcies. Zenergy drilled and cased a
10,000-foot bore hole to the Bluell, then
drilled a 5,139-foot lateral through a pay
zone that averaged five feet in thickness.
The well bore schematic in Figure 1
shows the thin Buell pay zone extending
laterally for almost one mile. The well
was cased using 5
1
2-inch, 23 pound/foot
P110 casing, and the pay zone was drilled
using a 4
1
2-inch bit. The well was com-
pleted as a barefoot lateral with 16.8 per-
cent porosity, 76 percent water saturation,
and a 0.63 psi/foot frac gradient.
Zenergy engineers were concerned
that drilling mud had clogged the natural
fractures in the carbonate that contributed
most of the formation conductivity, and
were seeking a solution. Typically, a tem-
porary plug has been required to divert
the acid treatments away from the mud-
clogged fractures into the less permeable
rock that contains most of the hydrocar-
bons. Wells with long laterals compound
the problem because most of the treatment
goes into the heel and little makes its
way to the toe of the lateral.
Multifunction Treatment
A solution was recommended whereby
a multifunction staged treatment would
be bullheaded into the well to deliver a
uniform treatment across the entire length
of the lateral. Moreover, the recommended
solution included using radioisotope tag-
ging to provide hard evidence of the effi-
Acid System Gives Old Wells New Life
FIGURE 1
Well Bore Schematic
mD
well bore
The Better Business Publication Serving the Exploration / Drilling / Production Industry
DECEMBER 2010
Reproduced for Schlumberger with permission from The American Oil & Gas Reporter aogr.com
cacy of the design.
The proposed pump schedule consisted
of alternating stages of deep-penetrating
SXE superX emulsion acid followed
by the MaxCO
3
Acid degradable di-
version acid system. It was theorized that
by alternating the treatment fluid, the
emulsion acid would create a deep pene-
trating path through the carbonate, fol-
lowing the path of least resistance; then
the degradable diversion acid system
would plug it with viscous fibrous slurry
to force the next stage of emulsion acid
to seek an alternate path. By letting the
diverter do the work of forcing the treat-
ment to seek alternative paths, it was not
necessary to use mechanical techniques
to achieve zonal isolation, as is typically
done in conventional hydraulic fracturing
treatments.
A look at the downhole treatment se-
quence (Figure 2) is useful to understand
how the process works. Following a pre-
wash with a brine pad, the first emulsion
acid treatment was pumped to establish
the greatest path of least resistance. The
figure shows what happened next. Starting
at about 1:35:00, the first degradable acid
system diverter cycle was pumped (yellow).
It was pumped at about 10 barrels a
minute and the initial pressure was 1,324
psi, tapering to about 1,124 psi during
the 2.5-minute treatment.
The next stage was a radioactive anti-
mony-tagged volume of emulsion (green)
pumped at about 5,300 psi and at a rate
averaging 50 bbl/min. The sequence was
repeated with subsequent emulsion acid
treatments being tagged with scandium
and iridium, as indicated. Notice the
steadily increasing pressure for each
degradable diversion acid stage, indicating
that the diverter was requiring a little
more horsepower to find the next path of
least resistance. Cleanup using a 15
percent hydrochloric acid and 2 percent
potassium chloride brine flush concluded
the treatment.
Tracer Analysis Results
Radioactive tracer analysis showed
that the early stages tagged with antimony
and scandium achieved deep penetration
with fair distribution from the toe to the
heel of the lateral well bore. The iridi-
um-tagged late stages could not follow
the easy paths into the natural factures or
previously treated new fractures because
of the efficacy of the degradable diversion
acid system. This meant that the diverter
was doing the job intended. Indeed, most
of the late-stage iridium-tagged emulsion
acid remained in the bore hole near the
heel, kept out of the existing fractures by
the strength of the diverter.
Figure 3 is a 1,000-foot section of the
lateral well bore treatment tracer evaluation
log showing uniform distribution of acid
frac treatment. Penetration of the tagged
emulsion acid can be seen in the expand-
ed-scale track at the bottom.
The treatment took place in January
2008. Oil production improved by a factor
of fiveincreasing from less than 60 bbl/d
to more than 300 bbl/d. The tracer tech-
Tracer Evaluation Log of Lateral Treatment Section
FIGURE 2
Multistage Treatment Sequence
T
r
e
a
t
i
n
g

P
r
e
s
s
u
r
e

(
p
s
i
)S
l
u
r
r
y

R
a
t
e

(
b
b
l
/
m
i
n
)
6,000
5,000
4,000
3,000
2,000
1,000
0
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
RA Tracer
Sb Sc lr lr
Treatment Time (hh:mm:ss)
01:23:20 01:48:20 02:13:20 02:38:20 03:03:20
150 lbm/10,000 fibers on last
MaxCo
3
Acid cycle.
Extended 50 bbl of SXE emulsion
before and after.
Treating Pressure (psi)
Slurry Rate
MaxCo
3
SXE
Acid 15% HCI
2% KCI
FIGURE 3
25
15
0
P
e
n
e
t
r
a
t
i
o
n

(
i
n
)
1st stage acid
2nd stage acid
3rd stage acid
SpecialReport: Well Stimulation & Completion Technology
LARRY LOCKWOOD is a pro-
duction engineer for Zenergy Inc. in
Tulsa. He has 30 years of experience
in the oil and gas industry, previously
holding positions with El Paso Natural
Gas, Dyco Petroleum, Roseland Oil
& Gas, and Halliburton. Lockwood
holds a B.S. in geological engineering
from South Dakota School of Mines
& Technology and an M.S. in envi-
ronmental engineering from Oklahoma
State University.
WALT KORDZIEL is the Rockies
team leader for Schlumberger Well
Services. He has 30 years of experi-
ence in the oil and gas industry, in-
cluding positions as a field engineer,
field service manager and sales ac-
count manager. Kordziel holds a B.S.
in geological engineering from the
Colorado School of Mines.
nique qualitatively proved that diversion
was taking place and that it was effective
in creating a uniform distribution of frac-
tures across the entire lateral.
Because the fibers dissolve within a
few hours, original post-treatment per-
meability was regained by all the zones
that took treatment in the early stages.
This left the well producing at a higher
volume and rate.
With effective diversion that is based
on degradable media, treatments can be
bullheaded into wells, eliminating the
need for a rig. Zenergy Energy intends to
treat more of its wells in the area using
this technique. r
SpecialReport: Well Stimulation & Completion Technology