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SPE 112176

High-Water-Cut Wells Stimulation Combined Viscoelastic Surfactant


Majdi Al Mutawa, Bader Al Matar, SPE, and Abdulaziz Abdulla Dashti, SPE, Kuwait Oil Company, and
Redha Kelkouli, SPE, Hai Liu, SPE, and Maen Razouqi, SPE, Schlumberger

Copyright 2008, Society of Petroleum Engineers

This paper was prepared for presentation at the 2008 SPE International Symposium and Exhibition on Formation Damage Control held in Lafayette, Louisiana, U.S.A., 13–15 February 2008.

This paper was selected for presentation by an SPE program committee following review of information contained in an abstract submitted by the author(s). Contents of the paper have not been
reviewed by the Society of Petroleum Engineers and are subject to correction by the author(s). The material does not necessarily reflect any position of the Society of Petroleum Engineers, its
officers, or members. Electronic reproduction, distribution, or storage of any part of this paper without the written consent of the Society of Petroleum Engineers is prohibited. Permission to
reproduce in print is restricted to an abstract of not more than 300 words; illustrations may not be copied. The abstract must contain conspicuous acknowledgment of SPE copyright.

Abstract
Dual completed wells producing from the mature carbonate formation in northern Kuwait are encroached by injected water
from adjacent wells presenting a challenge for the operating company. Greater oil demand coupled with limited surface water
handling facilities increased the importance of stimulating this type of challenging wells due to the drastic permeability
contrast across the pay zones.
Typically the treating fluid in a matrix treatment flows into high permeability sections and/ or high water saturation "thief
zones" resulting in higher water cut due to the over stimulation of the water zones instead of the oil bearing zones. The
objective of the present field case study was to place the stimulation fluid equally throughout all intervals of the oil bearing
layers while temporary protect the zones suspected to be mainly contributing with water from the stimulation fluid, using two
different types of viscoelastic surfactant (VES) polymer free diversion systems placed with coiled tubing (CT) providing
effective plugging of the layers producing water and providing a uniform stimulation fluid coverage across the entire pay
zone. Subsequent production rates showed substantial oil production increase and water production decrease, 360% and 40%
respectively.

Background
In the Sabriyah field of northern Kuwait, the wells are usually completed with a dual completion string which provides the
mean to access both Mauddud carbonate formation and underlaying Burgan sandstone formation (see Fig. 1). Mauddud
formation is a thin low permeability carbonate layer with an average permeability of 20 md and porosity of 22%. The
formation contains large amount of natural fractures and produces 23-25º API gravity oil. Due to the lack of nature water
influx, the formation has been under water flooding since 1997 in order to sustain the reservoir pressure and field production.
However, water breakthrough becomes an issue as soon as the water flooding was started. This is confirmed by the
production logging results. Once the water is broken through those high permeability streaks or natural fractures, the oil
production rate is dropped dramastically. The formation damage like organic deposits and scales has also contributed to the
decline of oil production. The ideal solution would be shut off the water breakthough intervals and then stimulate the oil
bearing intervals only. However, conventional isolation tools and stimulation techniques will not work in this case because
the Mauddud formation is usually completed in the short string. It is quite challenging to isolate the water intervals and place
the stimulation fluids precisely into the oil bearing intervals unless the entire completion is pulled out and each particular
interval can be accessed seperately by using a straddle packer. This approach will not only involve the workover rig but also
impact the production from the lower Burgan sandstone formation, as well as formation damage associated with the
workover operation. Several wells were treated with this approach in the past, but the results showed not to be very cost
effective considering the complexity of the operation as well as the production loss from the lower Burgan formation during
the workover. Thus an engineering solution of stimulating oil bearing intervals but avoiding suspected water breakthough
intervals with the current completion in place is highly required.

Introduction
Some wells, described as “high water-cut” wells, produce large volumes of water to the detriment of the preferred
hydrocarbon (oil or gas) which can greatly reduce the economics of a well. When high water-cut wells are acidized, both the
oil and water zones are stimulated and consequently production increases from both zones. However, the aqueous-based acid
is drawn to the water zone because of relative permeability effects, resulting in more acids going to water zones.
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Consequently the increase in water production is more pronounced than the increase in oil production as a result of this
preferential stimulation after the well is put back on production, and obviously this leads to the increase of water cut after the
stimulation.
Since the wellbore mechanic isolation is not possible in the short string, the stimulation treatment has to incorporate a
chemical diversion technique to prevent the acids from entering water zones while maximizing oil production. The current
diversion systems used commonly in carbonate stimulation treatment includes in-situ gel acids and VES self-diverting acids.
Both systems provide a temporary barrier that fills the wormholes and fissues by forming a high viscous structure upon the
reaction with the carbonate rock. The in-situ gel acid relies on in situ increase in viscosity when the pH of the fluid rises to
approximately 2 to 3 as a result of acid spending, and it starts to breakdown with further increase in pH to approximately 4 as
acids are fully spent (Saxon 1997). Because of this narrow pH window, the in-situ gel acid has limited applications if the
permeability constrast is higher than 7:1 (Liu 2007). The most advanced chemical diversion technique that overcomes this
shortcoming is the VES self-diverting acid technology. The system viscosity development does not rely on downhole fluid
pH but the by-products of reaction with carbonates, and the viscosity remains high after the acids are fully spent. Another
advantage is that the system breaks when hydrocarbons and/or mutual solvent post-flush contact the spent acid during well
flowback. However, both systems are not able to meet the objective of diverting acids away from the water zones because of
two reasons: 1) the systems itself are formulated with the acid, and therefore it will stimulate the water zones to some extent
before the temporary barrier is developed;. 2) Both systems have no preferences to water and it works in the same way in
both oil and water zones. Therefore it will divert acids to oil bearing zones only if the water zone has higher permeability
than that in oil bearing zone.
In order to stimulate those high water-cut wells effectively, a new diverting fluid was developed based on the VES
technology (Chang 2000). The surfactant molecules will build high viscosity with the presence of brine such as KCl, NH4Cl,
or CaCl2. The fluid viscosity is stable in an aqueous environment, and therefore the fluid retains its viscosity in the water-
bearing formation. In the presence of hydrocarbon, molecule structures are disrupted and, as a result, the fluid loses its
viscosity. The system is pumped prior to the acid treatment, and provides a positive plug in the water zone that allows the
acid only to enter the oil-bearing zone (see Fig. 2). The technique extended the application of matrix stimulation into a harsher
evironment where water production is concerned. It can be used in both carbonate and sandstone formations, and in both oil
and gas condensate wells with bottomhole static temperatures (BHST) up to 300ºF.

Case Study
A candidate well was selected to evaluate the new technique. The well was completed with a dual completion string to access
both Mauddud formation at the top and Burgan sandstone formation at the bottom in July 2002. There are four perforation
intervals in the Mauddud formation producing through the short string as shown in Fig. 1. The well was producing 2,600 bopd
with the water cut of 3% initially. However, by March 2005 the oil production has dropped to 250 bopd with the water cut of
75% due to water breakthrough and formation damage. A production log was running to identify the water breakthrough
intervals, and it was found that the bottom two perforation intervals were mainly producing water. However, due to the
existing completion, it is not easy to squeeze off the bottom two intervals prior to the acid stimulation.
The treatment was designed to inject a mutual solvent preflush to sweep residual oil from the high-water saturation zone,
followed by a brine spacer to create a region with 100% water saturation near the wellbore, and serves as a spacer between
the mutual solvent and the diverting agent; this is followed by injection of the diverting agent to form a viscous plug in the
water zone and low-viscosity fluid in the oil-rich zone. The main stimulation treatment is then performed and it seeks only
the oil zone, the path of least resistance, because of the viscosity barrier in the water zone (see Fig. 3). The stimulation
treatment also consists of VES self-diverting acids and 15% HCl pumped in stages with CT placement technique so that the
top two intervals can be uniformly acidized. The detailed treatment schedule is shown in Table 1, and the treatment plog is
shown in Fig. 4. As specified in the schedule the recommendation for the VES diversion fluid is to stop pumping for about ten
minutes once the diverter stage has invaded into the formation, but just before the acid enters the formation. This gives better
diversion because the zero shear viscosity of the VES diversion fluid corresponding to zero flow is extremely high compared
to the viscosity under flowing condition.
When the well is put on production, the oil zone will produce more than it did before because it has been stimulated. The
water zone will produce the same amount of water as it did before or even less if the viscosity plug in the water zone remains
its viscosity. Therfore the ratio of water to total liquid production rate, so called waer cut, is actually reduced.

Results and Conclusion


The well performance was monitored after the stimulation treatment with the VES diversion fluid. The results show that the
oil production was increased from 250 bopd to 900 bopd with the water cut dropped from 75% to 35% as shown in Fig. 5. The
success of this new engineering solution proves that combining the new VES diversion fluid with conventional stimulation
treatment makes the stimulation of high water cut wells possible and economically attractive. The solution not only provides
the effective mean of increasing oil production in high water cut wells without negatively affecting the water production, but
also eliminates the need of workover rig. The operation is very simply as the treatment is pumped the same as any other CT
stimulation treatment with the VES diversion fluid placement before the acid stages. The new VES diversion fluid is easy to
mix in the field, non-damaging to the formation, and uses fewer additives than other diversion systems.
SPE 112176 3

Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank Kuwait Oil Company and Schlumberger for granting the permission to present and publish
this paper. We would also thank all those involved in the execution of this project for their contribution to this success.

References
1. Saxon, A., Chariag, B. and Reda Abudel Rahman, M. 1997. An Effective Matrix Diversion Technique for Carbonate Formations.
Paper SPE 37734 presented at the Middle East Oil Show, Bahrain, 15-18 March.
2. Liu, H., Uddin, S., and Coston, C. et al. 2007. A Novel Stimulation Technical for Horizontal Openhole Wells in Carbonate Reservoirs:
A Case Study in Kuwait. Paper SPE 105127 presented at the 15th SPE Middle East Oil & Gas Show and Conference, Bahrain, 11-14
March.
3. Chang, F.F., Love, T.G. and Affeld C.J. et al. 2000. New Material and Technique for Matrix Stimulation in High-Water-Cut Oil
Wells. SPEDC 15 (2): 126-131. SPE-64006-PA.
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Fig. 1⎯Generic dual completion well configuration

Fig. 2⎯The VES treatment diverts stimulation fluid from water-bearing zones to oil-bearing zones preferentially stimulating pay
zones

Fig. 3⎯Treatment squence illustration


SPE 112176 5

Table 1⎯Treatment design summary

Fig. 4⎯Treatment plot

Fig. 5⎯Production performance after the stimulation treatment

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