FORMATION DAMAGE

AND STIMULATION

LEARNING OUTCOMES
At the end of this lecture, students should be able to:

Identify sources, causes and mechanisms involved in

formation damage.
Discuss the influence of skin factor on production.

INTRODUCTION
Formation damage can be defined as a measure of the reduction in the
production capacity or injectivity of a given reservoir formation.

This can be due to the combined effect of:

Reduction in the formation absolute permeability
Alteration in the relative permeability of the formation to a specific
fluid
Alteration in the viscosity of the mobile fluid

SOURCES OF FORMATION DAMAGE

It is mainly a consequence of a number of operations conducted in a well
from the initial drilling, through the production and workover phases to
final abandonment.

Figure 1: Sources of formation damage

CAUSES OF FORMATION DAMAGE

Formation damage can be considered to be caused by a physical or
chemical interaction between the following:

Invading fluid liquid phase and the reservoir fluids

Invading liquid phase and the reservoir rock constituents
The solid constituents of the invading fluid & the reservoir rock

FORMATION DAMAGE MECHANISMS

The damage mechanisms do vary but these can be listed as:
1. Formation damage resulting in reduction of absolute permeability
due to:
Particle plugging due to solids in drilling and completion fluids
invading the reservoir rock pore spaces;
Clay problems: In-situ clays are found in majority of reservoir
rocks especially sandstone. Majority are very sensitive to
invasion and may swell thus blocking the pores;

fluids

FORMATION DAMAGE MECHANISMS

Fines migration: A typical sand stone reservoir rock consists of insitu quartzitic or siliceous fines generally held within the in-situ
connate film surrounding the sandstone grains. These fines can
become mobilised either due to high production rate or due to
increase in wetting phase saturation. Once mobilised, fines are
transported and can result in particle plugging.

FORMATION DAMAGE MECHANISMS

2. Inorganic scale deposit resulting from reaction of incompatible
invading and reservoir fluids. Changes in pressure and
temperature also contribute to the precipitation of solids forming
scales;

3.

Plugging by organic deposits such as wax and asphaltenes;

FORMATION DAMAGE MECHANISMS

4.

Damage resulting from reduction in relative permeability

Invasion by wellbore fluids cause hydrocarbon saturation to
decrease around the wellbore. This lowers the relative
permeability to oil and, especially during early stages of
production, a significant pressure drop is created around the
wellbore;

5.

Damage due to emulsion blocking - Result of formation of

emulsion
between oil and water;

FORMATION DAMAGE MECHANISMS

7.

Stress-induced permeability change

Changes in stress distribution will result in changes in compaction
status and thus pore pressure change. This will affect the net
permeability of the reservoir;

8.

Sand production from unconsolidated reservoir rocks. These are

known to be production rate sensitive. Thus high production rate
and water encroachment among other factors can lead to the
migration of in-situ sand grains and massive sand intrusion.

FORMATION DAMAGE MECHANISMS

Figure 2: Formation damage mechanisms

FORMATION DAMAGE MECHANISMS

Figure 3: Examples of formation damage and pore blocking mechanisms

DARCYS LAW

Steady state flow:

Pseudo steady state flow:

EFFECT OF SKIN ON THE IPR

Figure 4 : Effect of skin on the IPR and PI

IMPACT OF SKIN ON PRODUCTION

Figure 5 : Impact of skin on production

QUESTION ??

THANK YOU