Damage Identification
Introduction
Damage is anything that obstructs the normal flow of fluids to the surface; it may appear in the
formation, perforations, lift system and tubulars or as restrictions along the flow path. Formation
damage specifically refers to obstructions in the near-wellbore region of the rock matrix.
Correctly identifying an obstruction to the flow is critical to its successful removal.
The type of fluid used in a treatment often depends on the damage being addressed. Acids can
be used when plugging is a problem, but solvents are used for organic deposits. In sandstone
reservoirs, knowing the damage mechanism is especially important, because the damage must
be removed to regain matrix permeability. In carbonate rocks, damage identification is less crit-
ical, because new flow channels are created to bypass the damage.
Not all types of damage require a removal treatment. Some types will clean up during pro-
duction. Some production impairments are misconstrued as damage when they are actually the
result of poor well design and can be remedied with operational changes. Although a matrix
treatment focuses on treating the rock matrix, the chemicals can also treat damage in the well-
bore tubulars or in the gravel pack.
Fluid Selection Guide for Matrix Treatments Fluid Selection and Damage Identification 5
Damage identification
Damage is described by two important parameters: composition and location. Composition is
important because, to some extent, it determines the fluid used for dissolution. Location is impor-
tant because the treating fluid contacts several other substrates, e.g., rust from tubular goods or
carbonate cementing material from the formation, before it reaches the damage. Unspent fluids
must reach the damaged rock for the treatment to be effective. Proper diversion techniques may
be necessary to ensure that the fluid contacts the entire treatment interval. Figure 3-1 shows typ-
ical damage examples and their locations.
A sharper than expected decline in production or injection is often the first sign of a problem
with a well. Diagnostic tests, like pressure buildups or drawdowns, can quantify the extent of the
damage as a pressure drop resulting from skin. A production system analysis can then determine
if the skin is due to mechanical damage or true formation damage. Production logging can deter-
mine the physical extent of the problem by showing if, and at what rate, all expected intervals
are producing. Such tests provide valuable information for optimizing the treatment and evalu-
ating its results.
Organic deposits
Silicates, aluminosilicates
Emulsions
Water blocks
Wettability changes
Types of damage
Formation damage is typically categorized as either natural or induced. Natural damages occur
primarily as a result of producing the reservoir fluid. Induced damages result from an external
operation on the well, such as drilling, well completion, repair, stimulation treatment or injection
operation. In addition, some, induced damages, completion operations or design problems can
also trigger natural damage mechanisms.
Natural damages include fines migration, swelling clays, water-formed scales, organic
deposits, like paraffins or asphaltenes, and mixed organic and inorganic deposits. Induced dam-
ages include plugging, caused by entrained particles such as solids or polymers in injected fluids;
wettability changes, caused by injected fluids or oil-base drilling fluids; emulsions, precipitates
or sludges, caused by acid reactions, bacteria and water blocks.
Clay swelling
Changes in formation permeability resulting from the alteration of clay can be due to dispersion
or swelling triggered by ion exchange or salinity dropping below the critical salt concentration.
The most common swelling clays are smectite and smectite mixtures. Smectite can increase its
volume up to 600% by taking water into its structure. This swelling can significantly reduce per-
meability. If smectite clay occupies only the smaller pore throats and passages, it will not be a
serious problem. However, if it occupies the larger pores, especially the pore throats, then it is
capable of creating an almost impermeable barrier to flow.
The total quantity of clay inside the formation does not indicate the potential for formation
damage. The structure of the clay, its chemical state at the moment of contact and the location
of the clay with respect to the flowing fluids are the factors responsible for changes that can
cause damage. This means that predicting the response of in-situ clay to fluid moving in the rock
is almost impossible without testing.
Clay swelling sandstones have been well documented in papers by Azari and Leimkuhler,
1988; Jones, 1964; Khilar and Fogler, 1983; Mungan, 1968; Sharma et al., 1985; and Priisolm et al.,
1987. Clay chemistry and reactions not only affect damage mechanisms, but also have a large
influence on fluid selection. The chapter on sandstone acidizing provides a more detailed dis-
cussion of clays.
Scales
Scale deposits are among the most common and most troublesome damage problems. Scales are
water-soluble chemicals that precipitate out of solution from either a temperature or pressure
change or from mixing incompatible waters. The most common oilfield scales are calcium car-
bonate (CaCO3) calcium sulfate (CaSO4) and barium sulfate (BaSO4). They can be present in the
tubing, the perforations or the formation and can occur in both production and injection wells,
as long as water is present.
Organic deposits
Organic deposits are heavy hydrocarbons (paraffins or asphaltenes) that precipitate as the pres-
sure or temperature is reduced. This is a form of distillation. The deposits are typically located in
the tubing, perforations or formation. Although the formation mechanisms of organic deposits
are both numerous and complex (Houchin and Hudson, 1986), the main mechanism is a change
in either temperature or pressure in the flowing system. Cooling of the wellbore or the injection
of cold treating fluids has a pronounced effect on the formation of these deposits.
Paraffins
Paraffins are straight-chain hydrocarbons composed of only carbon and hydrogen. Solid paraffin
deposits consist of molecules with 16 to more than 60 carbon atoms. Paraffin deposition is a crys-
tallization reaction that is triggered by a loss of pressure, temperature or light ends (the short-
chain hydrocarbon compounds in the crude).
Although paraffins can form anywhere in the well (Cole and Jessen, 1960; Burger et al., 1981;
Newberry, et al., 1986; Thomas, 1988; Sutton and Roberts, 1974), they are usually found in the tub-
ing near the surface, where the temperature and pressure drops are the highest. They can form
at the perforations or in the reservoir matrix in cases where the reservoir pressure is nearly
depleted, or the formation has experienced dry gas cycling. Paraffins can also be precipitated by
the injection of a cool fluid. In many wells, this may contribute to slow cleanup after stimulation.
Asphaltenes
Asphaltenes are organic materials consisting of aromatic and naphthenic ring compounds con-
taining nitrogen, sulfur and oxygen molecules (Leontaritus, 1989; Leontaritus and Mansoori,
1987; Tuttle, 1983; Newberry and Barker, 1985; Addison, 1989; Thawer, et al., 1990). The asphal-
tene fraction of crude is defined as the organic part of the oil that is not soluble in a straight-
chain solvent, such as pentane or heptane. They exist as a colloidal suspension stabilized by
maltene resin molecules in the oil. Maltenes are condensed polynuclear-aromatic ring systems
(pyrrole and indoles) with alkyl or naphthenic side chains.
The stability of asphaltic dispersions depends on the ratio of resin to asphaltene molecules.
Resin ratios larger than 1:1 (resins to asphaltenes) are more stable, whereas ratios less than 1:1
are unstable and may precipitate during production. Resin ratios of more than 10:1 are known,
and they are much less likely to cause significant problems. The actual quantity of asphaltenes
in the oil is less important than the resin ratio in determining if asphaltene damage will be a
problem. Although asphaltene contents up to 60% have been found, major problems can occur in
oils with asphaltene contents as low as 1% to 3%.
Mixed deposits
Mixed organic and inorganic deposits are a blend of organic compounds and either scales or fines
and clays. When migrating, fines, associated with an increase in water production in a sandstone
reservoir, become oil wet, and they act as a nucleation site for organic deposits (Houchin and
Hudson, 1985). Figure 3-2 shows such a mixed deposit in which crystals of sodium chloride
(white) are interspersed with darker organic matter.
Wettability change
Wettability and the related relative permeability of a formation are determined by the flowing-
phase in the well and by the surfactants and oils in that fluid. Surfactants or other additives in
drilling or other injected fluids can cause changes to the wettability of a formation, which can
then change the relative permeability of the formation rock. Shifts in relative permeability can
reduce the effective permeability of a formation to a particular fluid by as much as 80% to 90%.
In their natural state, formations may be water-wet, oil-wet or neutral. The wetting fluid will
coat the surface of the matrix pores, and the nonwetting fluid will flow through these coated
pores. In water-wet rock, the bound water, which has a thinner monomolecular layer than oil,
occupies less of the pore throat volume leaving more space open to flow than in an oil-wet pore.
The relative permeability to oil will also be greater in water-wet rock. Therefore, it is advanta-
geous for oil production to have a water-wet formation.
Preflushing the formation with a wetting surfactant or a solvent that either establishes a new
coating on the face of the formation or cleans the current coating from the formation can mod-
ify wettability. Regardless of the altered condition of a surface, the wettability is eventually
decided by the surfactants in the produced fluid. Thus, the water-wet condition of a formation fol-
lowing an acid job can revert to an oil-wet condition after a sufficient volume of strongly oil-wet-
ting crude is produced. The opposite is also true, and an oil-wet surface caused by surfactants in
fluids, such as oil-based mud (OBM), will also revert to a native water-wet state. The question
becomes one of economics. If the operator can live with the low productivity while waiting for the
wettability to change naturally, then the damage doesnt need treatment. If the low productivity
is a problem, then the damage should be treated.
Wettability alteration is one of the damages associated with OBMs due to the powerful wetting
surfactants necessary to create a stable drilling fluid. When these materials coat or adsorb onto
the formation, the wettability of the formation is altered, and permeabilities may be only 10% to
20% of what they were initially. The most severe problems usually occur with muds weighing more
than 14 lbm/gal.
Emulsions
Emulsions are combinations of two or more immiscible fluids (including gas) that will not mole-
cularly disperse into each other. Typically fluids injected into the well or filtrates from fluids used
in well operations will mix with the reservoir fluids to form emulsions.
Almost all emulsions found in the field are produced by the addition of some form of energy
that produces mixing. In many cases, this is the energy associated with fluid injection or produc-
tion. Most emulsions break rapidly when the source of energy is removed. If separation of the
emulsion does not occur, then there is a stabilizing force acting to keep the fluids emulsified. The
most common stabilizing forces modify the surface film strength at the fluid interface. These
forces may act singly or in combination.
Water block
Water blocks are caused by an increase in the water saturation near the wellbore. They can form
during drilling and completion operations through invasion of water-base filtrate or during pro-
duction through fingering or coning of formation water.
Water blocks are considered to be a special case of relative permeability problem. In a water
block, water usually occupies the flowing spaces (either pores or natural fractures) that are
typically used by hydrocarbons to flow to the wellbore. Because of the mobility and viscosity
differences, the hydrocarbon fluid may not be capable of displacing the water. The most severe
cases of water blocks are usually observed in low-pressure, low-permeability, gas-producing
formations after treatment with water that has a high surface tension.