WELL STIMULATION TECHNIQUES

PNGE5202
FORMATION DAMAGE - PART 4
1
WELL STIMULATION
TECHNIQUES
By

Assoc. Professor Dr. Tarek Ganat

2
LEARNING OUTCOMES
At the end of this lecture, students should be able to:

Quantify Formation
Damage

Calculate Formation
Damage (Exercises)

3
LEARNING CONTENTS

Quantifying Formation Damage

Formation Damage
Calculations (Exercises)

4
SKIN

 Skin is a dimensionless variable, which can indicate the

extent of formation damage or permeability improvement
at the wellbore.

 Skin Factor can be positive (i.e. formation damage) or

negative (i.e. stimulation)

Internal
SKIN

Figure 1: Impact of Skin on Production

Internal
SKIN
𝑺𝒕𝒐𝒕𝒂𝒍 = 𝑺𝒅 + 𝑺𝒈𝒆𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒕𝒓𝒚 + 𝑺𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒑 + 𝑺𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒅𝒖𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝐄𝐪𝐮𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 1

 The value of the Total Well Skin (Stotal) measured during a production test has many other sources
other than formation damage.

 It is very important to be able to identify the formation damage component (Sd), since this can be
reduced by better operational practices or possibly, be removed by a stimulation treatment.

 The well geometry skin, completion skin and production skin have a common cause which is the
disturbance of the fluid flow streamlines normal to the well.

Internal
FORMATION DAMAGE SKIN, 𝑺𝒅
𝑺𝒕𝒐𝒕𝒂𝒍 = 𝑺𝒅 + 𝑺𝒈𝒆𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒕𝒓𝒚 + 𝑺𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒑 + 𝑺𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒅𝒖𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏

 The figure shows the resulting producing

pressure profile and compares it with the
equivalent pressure profile for an undamaged
well.
 The extra pressure drop has to be
compensated for either by a reduce pressure
drop across the choke or by a smaller
production rate.

Figure 2: Relationship between formation damage

and permeability
Internal
8
 FORMATION DAMAGE SKIN, 𝑺𝒅

 Skin factor increases with a

larger radius of damage and
damage ratio, ko/kd

Figure 3: Impact of Skin

and Formation Damage
on Production

 Effect of formation damage on

well production: reduces the
productivity

Internal 9
WELL GEOMETRY SKIN, 𝑺𝒈𝒆𝒐
𝑺𝒕𝒐𝒕𝒂𝒍 = 𝑺𝒅 + 𝑺𝒈𝒆𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒕𝒓𝒚 + 𝑺𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒑 + 𝑺𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒅𝒖𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏

 The well geometry skin reflects geometrical considerations which alter the skin value occur due to the
well design. These include:
 Positive Skin
 Limited entry – well not perforated across the complete reservoir height and/or well not fully
penetrating the reservoir
 Well not placed in the centre of the drainage boundary

 Negative Skin
 Well is slanted through the formation. As well deviation increases their longer exposure to the
producing formation, it shows an increasing well productivity.

Internal 10
COMPLETION SKIN, 𝑺𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒑
𝑺𝒕𝒐𝒕𝒂𝒍 = 𝑺𝒅 + 𝑺𝒈𝒆𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒕𝒓𝒚 + 𝑺𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒑 + 𝑺𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒅𝒖𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏

 Insufficient perforation
 Too short or too narrow shape, incorrect phasing
 High density of long/wide perforations - increase in the inflow

 Gravel packing
 Packed with a high permeability gravel – positive well skins

 Fractures
 Can either occur naturally or are artificially created propped hydraulic fractures. They lead to an
increased inflow and negative skin as they form a high permeability pathway from deep in the
formation to the wellbore

Internal 11
PRODUCTION SKIN, 𝑺𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒅
𝑺𝒕𝒐𝒕𝒂𝒍 = 𝑺𝒅 + 𝑺𝒈𝒆𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒕𝒓𝒚 + 𝑺𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒑 + 𝑺𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒅𝒖𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏

 A rate dependent skin often observed in high rate gas wells. This is due to non-Darcy or turbulent flow.
In presence can be a useful indication that the well is a potential stimulation candidate.

 Producing well with a

 Flowing bottom hole pressure below the bubble point or

 Retrograde condensate fluid so that there are two phases at the perforations instead of gas only

 The presence of the extra phase reduces the effective permeability to the major phase – positive skin.

Internal 12
TURBULENCE SKIN, 𝑺𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒃
 Skin due to turbulence is additional pressure drop caused by high gas velocity near the wellbore and
applies only to gas wells.

 For gas flow, Darcy’s law is valid for the majority of a reservoir except near the wellbore when gas velocity
is high. This non-Darcy effect near the wellbore is known as inertial-turbulent flow. Depending on the
rate this effect can be significant and must be accounted for.

 By definition, this additional pressure drop or skin is a function of gas flow rate (𝒒𝒈 ) and the turbulence
factor (D) of the system expressed as: 𝑺𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒃 = 𝑫𝒒

 Note that skin due to turbulence is always positive and is one component of the total skin.

 Thus, a production test on a stimulated well can still yield a positive total skin value, even if no skin
damage (𝑆 ) is present, due to the turbulence component (𝑆 ).

Internal 13
RADIAL FLOW EQUATION
𝒌𝒐 𝒉 (𝑷𝒓 𝑷𝒘𝒇 )
𝑸𝒐 = 𝐄𝐪𝐮𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 1
𝟏𝟒𝟏.𝟐 𝝁𝜷𝒐 (𝒍𝒏 𝒓𝒆 𝒓𝒘 𝑺)

 Steady-state, radial flow equation describes the well inflow.

 Well inflow, 𝑄𝑜 can be improved by

 Increase permeability – height factor (k.h)

OR

 Decrease the factors : S, 𝜇, and ⁄

Internal 14
HAWKINS FORMULA
∆𝑷𝒅 𝟐𝝅𝒌𝒉 𝒌𝒐
𝑺= = − 𝟏 ln 𝐄𝐪𝐮𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝟐
𝒒𝒐 𝝁𝒐 𝒌𝒅

 The removal of this formation damage will restore the natural well productivity.

 The relationship between the skin, permeability and the radius of the damaged and undamaged can
be presented by the Hawkins formula.

 This is a convenient tool for analyzing the influence of varying levels and depth of formation.

Internal 15
FORMATION
DAMAGE
CALCULATIONS
(EXERCISES)
Photo Courtesy of shutterstock.com

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EXERCISE 1 : PERMEABILITY IMPAIRMENT
VERSUS DAMAGE PENETRATION

Assume that a well has a radius r w of 0.328ft and a penetration of damage 3ft beyond the well
(i.e. rs=3.328ft).

1. What would be the skin effect if the permeability impairment results in equal to 5 and 10,
respectively?

2. What would be the required penetration of damage to provide the same skin effect as the second
case but with =5

Internal 17
EXERCISE 1 - PERMEABILITY IMPAIRMENT
VERSUS DAMAGE PENETRATION

𝒌
Given 𝑺 = 𝒌𝒔
− 𝟏 ln

When =5 When = 10

3.328 3.328
𝑺 = 𝟓 − 𝟏 ln 𝑺 = 𝟏𝟎 − 𝟏 ln
0.328 0.328
𝑺 = 𝟗. 𝟑 𝑺 = 𝟐𝟎. 𝟗

Internal 18
EXERCISE 1 - PERMEABILITY IMPAIRMENT
VERSUS DAMAGE PENETRATION
 If S = 20.9 and = 5, then the penetration, 𝒓𝒔 is ?

𝒓𝒔
 𝟐𝟎. 𝟗 = 𝟓 − 𝟏 𝐥𝐧
𝒓𝒘

𝟐𝟎.𝟗
 𝒓𝒔 = 𝒓𝒘 𝒆 𝟒

𝟐𝟎.𝟗
 𝒓𝒔 = 𝟎. 𝟑𝟐𝟖 𝒆 𝟒

 𝒓𝒔 = 𝟔𝟏 𝒇𝒕

Internal 19
EXERCISE 2 : PERMEABILITY IMPAIRMENT
VERSUS DAMAGE PENETRATION
A Production Engineer is contemplating whether going for cased hole completion or open hole
completion in completing Well-1 in Gelama Merah reservoir. The reservoir and the completions
properties are as follow;

Formation Permeability 375 mD

Drainage Area 60 acres (𝐫𝐞 = 𝟗𝟏𝟐 𝐟𝐭)
Wellbore Radius 7 𝟕⁄𝟖 𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐬

If cased hole completion is considered, the pay zone will be perforated using through tubing gun with
14 inches penetration depth. The available mud types for drilling are as follow;

Mud A B
Permeability in damaged zone (mD) 100 10
Depth of invasion (ft) 2.3 0.9
Internal 20
EXERCISE 2 - PERMEABILITY IMPAIRMENT
VERSUS DAMAGE PENETRATION
Which mud system do you recommend if you decided to perform;
1. Open hole completions
2. Cased hole completions

Calculate the damage skin for both mud system using Hawkin’s formula.

Mud A : 𝑺𝒅 = 3.44
Mud B : 𝑺𝒅 = 11.52
For open hole completions, use Mud A
For cased hole completions, use Mud B

Internal 21
EXERCISE 3 : PERMEABILITY IMPAIRMENT
VERSUS DAMAGE PENETRATION
An initial well test in a reservoir gave a stabilized oil flow rate of 5780 bopd for a stabilized
flowing bottomhole pressure of 1524psi with a skin factor of zero. After 18 months of
production, the flowing bottomhole pressure was 1250 psi to maintain the same initial
production rate. Consider following data:

Oil permeability, ko 120 mD

Formation thickness, h 80ft
Oil viscosity, μo 1.3 cp
External radius, re 1181 ft
Wellbore radius, r w 0.49 ft
Oil formation volume factor, Bo 1.21 res bbl/stb
Reservoir pressure, pe 2566 psi

 Assume the flow is steady state

Internal 22
EXERCISE 3 : PERMEABILITY IMPAIRMENT
VERSUS DAMAGE PENETRATION
Calculate the mechanical skin factor for this well after 18 months’ production.

𝟏𝟒𝟏. 𝟐 𝒒𝜷𝝁 𝒓𝒆
𝑷𝒆 − 𝑷𝒘𝒇 = (𝒍𝒏 + 𝑺)
𝒌𝒉 𝒓𝒘

Re-arrange the steady-state equation gives :

𝒌𝒐 𝒉 𝑷𝒆 − 𝑷𝒘𝒇 𝒓𝒆
𝑺= − (𝐥𝐧 )
𝟏𝟒𝟏. 𝟐 𝒒𝒐 𝜷𝒐 𝝁𝒐 𝒓𝒘

Internal 23
EXERCISE 4 : PARTIAL PENETRATION AND
SLANT SKIN EFFECT

ℎ is the perforated height 𝑟 is the well radius

𝑧 is the elevation of the perforation midpoint h is the reservoir height

from the base of reservoir
24
𝜃 is the angle of well deviation
EXERCISE 4 : PARTIAL PENETRATION AND
SLANT SKIN EFFECT
 A well with a radius 𝑟 = 0.328 𝑓𝑡 is completed in a 33-ft reservoir. In order to avoid severe water
coning problems, only 8ft are completed and the midpoint of the perforations is 29 ft above the base
of the reservoir. Calculate the skin effect due to partial completion for a vertical well. What would be
the composite skin effect if 𝜃 = 45 ?

 Repeat this problem for h = 330 ft, ℎ = 80 𝑓𝑡 , and 𝑧 = 290 𝑓𝑡

25
EXERCISE 4 : PARTIAL PENETRATION AND
SLANT SKIN EFFECT
 SOLUTION

 𝑠 is the skin due to partial completion and slant.

 Dimensionless reservoir thickness, ℎ =

 Elevation Ratio =

 Completion Ratio =

26
EXERCISE 4 : PARTIAL PENETRATION AND
SLANT SKIN EFFECT
 SOLUTION

 Dimensionless reservoir thickness, ℎ =

 ℎ =

 ℎ = .

 ℎ = 100.61 ≈ 100

27
EXERCISE 4 : PARTIAL PENETRATION AND
SLANT SKIN EFFECT
 SOLUTION

 Elevation Ratio = Completion Ratio =

 = =

= 0.24 ≈ 0.25
= 0.879 ≈ 0.875

28
EXERCISE 4 : PARTIAL PENETRATION AND
SLANT SKIN EFFECT
 SOLUTION

 From Table 5-1 for a vertical well, (𝜃 = 0 ), 𝑠 = 8.6, of which

 𝑠 = 8.6, and 𝑠 = 0.

 If 𝜃 = 45 , then 𝑠 = 8.6, and 𝑠 = -2.7, which results in 𝑠 ≈6

29
EXERCISE 4 : PARTIAL PENETRATION AND
SLANT SKIN EFFECT
 Repeat this problem for h = 330 ft, ℎ = 80 𝑓𝑡 , and 𝑧 = 290 𝑓𝑡
 SOLUTION

 Dimensionless reservoir thickness, ℎ =

 ℎ =

 ℎ =
.

 ℎ = 1006 ≈ 1000

30
EXERCISE 4 : PARTIAL PENETRATION AND
SLANT SKIN EFFECT
 SOLUTION

 Elevation Ratio = Completion Ratio =

 = =

= 0.24 ≈ 0.25
= 0.878 ≈ 0.875

31
EXERCISE 4 : PARTIAL PENETRATION AND
SLANT SKIN EFFECT
 SOLUTION

 From Table 5-2 for a vertical well, (𝜃 = 0 ), 𝑠 = 15.7, of which

 𝑠 = 15.7, and 𝑠 = 0.

 If 𝜃 = 45 , then 𝑠 = 15.7, and 𝑠 = -5.37, which results in

 𝑠 ≈ 10.4

32
EXERCISE 5 : PERFORATION SKIN EFFECT
 Karakas and Tariq (1988) have presented a semianalytical solution for the calculation of the
perforation skin effect.

 The total perforation skin effect is then :

 𝒔𝑷 = 𝒔𝑯 + 𝒔𝑽 + 𝒔𝒘𝒃

 Where; 𝑠 is the plane flow effect

 𝑠 is the vertical converging effect

 𝑠 is the wellbore effect

33
EXERCISE 5 : PERFORATION SKIN EFFECT

34
EXERCISE 5 : PERFORATION SKIN EFFECT
 CALCULATION OF 𝒔𝑯

𝒓𝒘
 𝒔𝑯 = 𝐥𝐧 (Eq. 5-10)
𝒓𝒘 (𝜽)

 Where 𝑟 (𝜃) is the effective wellbore radius and is a function of the

phasing angle 𝜃 :

𝒍𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒇
 𝒓𝒘 𝜽 = for 𝜽 = 0
𝟒

 𝒓𝒘 𝜽 = 𝒂𝜽 𝒓𝒘 + 𝒍𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒇 for 𝜽 ≠ 0 (Eq. 5-11)

35
EXERCISE 5 : PERFORATION SKIN EFFECT
 The constant 𝑎 depends on the perforation phasing and can be obtained from Table 5-3. The skin effect
is negative (except for 𝜃 = 0), but its total contribution is usually small.

36
EXERCISE 5 : PERFORATION SKIN EFFECT
 CALCULATION OF 𝒔𝑽

 To obtain 𝑠 , two dimensionless variables must be calculated :

𝒉𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒇 𝒌𝑯
 𝒉𝑫 = 𝒍𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒇 𝒌𝑽
(Eq. 5-12)

𝟏
 Where 𝑘 and 𝑘 are the horizontal and vertical permeabilities, respectively, 𝒉𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒇 = 𝑺𝑷𝑭 , and

𝒓𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒇 𝒌𝑽
 𝒓𝑫 = 𝟐𝒉 𝟏+ (Eq. 5-13)
𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒇 𝒌𝑯

37
EXERCISE 5 : PERFORATION SKIN EFFECT
 The vertical pseudo-skin is then

 = 𝟏𝟎𝒂 𝒉𝒃𝑫 𝟏 𝒓𝒃𝑫 (Eq. 5-14)

 with

 𝒂 = 𝒂𝟏 𝒔𝑽 𝐥𝐨𝐠 𝒓𝑫 + 𝒂𝟐 (Eq. 5-15)

 And

 𝒃 = 𝒃𝟏 𝒓𝑫 + 𝒃𝟐 (Eq. 5-16)

 The constants 𝑎 , 𝑎 , 𝑏 , and 𝑏 are also functions of the perforation phasing and can be obtained
from Table 5-3. The vertical skin effect, 𝑠 , is potentially the largest contributor to 𝑠 ; for small
perforation densities, that is, large ℎ , 𝑠 can be very large.

38
EXERCISE 5 : PERFORATION SKIN EFFECT
 CALCULATION OF 𝒔𝒘𝒃

 For the calculation of 𝑠 , a dimensionless quantity is calculated first:

𝒓𝒘
 𝒓𝒘𝑫 = 𝒍 𝒓𝒘
(Eq. 5-17)
𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒇

 Then

 𝒔𝒘𝒃 = 𝒄𝟏 𝒆𝒄𝟐 𝒓𝒘𝑫 (Eq. 5-18)

 The constants 𝑐 and 𝑐 also can be obtained from Table 5-3.

 SP= 𝒔𝑯 + 𝒔𝑽 + 𝒔𝒘𝒃

39
EXERCISE 5 : PERFORATION SKIN EFFECT
 Assume that a well with 𝒓𝒘 = 𝟎. 𝟑𝟐𝟖 𝒇𝒕 is perforated with 2 SPF, 𝒓𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒇 = 𝟎. 𝟐𝟓 𝒊𝒏. , 𝟎. 𝟎𝟐𝟎𝟖 𝒇𝒕 , 𝒍𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒇 =
𝟖 𝒊𝒏. 𝟎. 𝟔𝟔𝟕 𝒇𝒕 , and 𝜽 = 𝟏𝟖𝟎𝒐 . Calculate the perforation skin effect if 𝒌𝑯 ⁄𝒌𝑽 = 𝟏𝟎.

 Repeat the calculation for 𝜽 = 𝟎𝒐 and 𝜽 = 𝟔𝟎𝒐 .

 If 𝜽 = 𝟏𝟖𝟎𝒐 , show the effect of the horizontal-to-vertical permeability anisotropy with 𝒌𝑯 ⁄𝒌𝑽 = 𝟏.

40
HOMEWORK: PERFORATION SKIN EFFECT
 Assume that a well with 𝒓𝒘 = 𝟎. 𝟒𝒇𝒕 is perforated with 6 SPF, 𝒓𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒇 = 𝟎. 𝟐𝟓 𝒊𝒏. , 𝒍𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒇 = 𝟖 𝒊𝒏. and 𝜽 =
𝟏𝟖𝟎𝒐 . Calculate the perforation skin effect if 𝒌𝑯 ⁄𝒌𝑽 = 𝟐𝟎, 𝒌𝑯 ⁄𝒌𝑽 = 𝟏𝟎, 𝒌𝑯 ⁄𝒌𝑽 = 𝟓, 𝒌𝑯 ⁄𝒌𝑽 = 𝟏.

 Plot 𝒌𝑯 ⁄𝒌𝑽 𝑽𝒔. 𝒓𝒘 and comments on your results.

 Fix 𝒓𝒘 = 𝟎. 𝟒𝒇𝒕 and repeat the calculation for 𝜽 = 𝟗𝟎𝒐 , and 𝜽 = 𝟔𝟎𝒐 , 𝜽 = 𝟐𝟎𝒐 , 𝜽 = 𝟏𝟐𝟎𝒐 , and plot 𝜃 vs.
SP and comment on the results.

46
 Partially Completed well

 Now if the well is completed only

partially as shown in Figure 3 then
Jones et at, suggested that Hawkin's
formula can no longer be used since
the flow into the well is no longer
radial. Based upon the results from
their numerical model they presented
an adaptation of Hawkin's formula
that can be used when the well is
partially completed. It is as follows:

47
Partially Completed well

48
 Calculation of Crushed Zone Skin (scz)

 The crushed zone around each

perforation has a thickness of about 0.5
inches. The permeability of this zone
can be smaller or larger than the near-
wellbore permeability, depending on
whether compaction or collapse occurs.
The equation for laminas skin through
the crushed zone can be derived from
the radial flow equations and is given
as:

49
Calculation of Crushed Zone Skin (scz)

np = Number of perforations per foot

50
SUMMARY

01 Quantifying Formation Damage

Formation Damage Calculations (Exercises)

02

54
Have you achieved the learning

outcomes today?

Any thoughts?
THANK YOU

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