An Enhanced Approach to the Remediation of Scale Induced Formation Damage - Offshore Trinidad

Abstract

The remediation of flow assurance challenges in field's offshore Trinidad is a foci of oil and gas operators in Trinidad West Indies. These challenges are heightened by field maturity and the corresponding increase in water production. With this increased water influx, production chemistry and specific flow assurance challenges also arise. One of the primary challenges include the precipitation and deposition of inorganic mineral scales. Coupled with this, mineralogy data and core data studies indicated that the sands of some of the producing fields offshore Trinidad are highly susceptible to scale precipitation in the formation water (Holder, 1990). As such, measures are often implemented to assure the successful and economical flow of hydrocarbon stream from the reservoir to the point of sale. In this geographical area, stimulation acid treatments were typically deployed for remediation of formation damage of which scale precipitation was a main type. However, based on the previous production histories, the production gains following these acid treatments were short-lived. In addition, the accompanying financial loss is often compounded by other flow assurance challenges that were precursed by scale deposition. This paper will discuss the use of inhibitory squeeze application techniques as a preventative approach to formation damage resulting from scale precipitation. This application is the first of its kind performed in the Teak field. Thus, results obtained will highlight further opportunity to successfully stimulate other fields in this region prone to scale deposition. The results obtained from this application will be represented in the form of a comparative analysis. The production indices attained via the conventional means of scale remediation, will be compared with that achieved via the strategic placement of phosphonate-based chemistries. Additionally, methods employed to avert the challenges of squeeze treatments in offshore environments will also be discussed as well as lessons learned from this approach.