Flow Properties of Super Light Weight Completion Fluid for Perforation Cleanup During Underbalance Condition

Abstract

In cased holes wells, perforation tunnels are the only passage for fluid flow from reservoir to the wellbore. By establishing a clean connection during perforation job, optimum well productivity could be achieved. However, perforation-induced formation damage is always observed along and around the perforation tunnel as the result of perforation. One of the best alternatives to avoid this damage is with the application of underbalanced perforation. During the last decades, such techniques have been developed to achieve underbalance condition prior to gun detonation. As an alternative to these techniques, novel completion fluid referred as super light weight completion fluid is formulated. The use of super light completion fluid shows that underbalance condition could be achieved easily without additional works, major cost, and special surface equipment. In other words, no new procedures and equipment are needed to handle the super light weight completion fluids. Field test based on the basic laboratory formulation showed that the application of the super light weight completion fluid in underbalanced perforation has markedly increased the hydrocarbon production. This paper presents the investigation of flow properties and its effect to the temperature of super light weight completion fluid. The experimental data were fitted to six different rheological models, namely Newtonian, Bingham, Casson, Ostwald-De-Weale, Herschel-Bulkley, and Mizhari-Berk. The results indicated that fluid rheological data is best represented by Mizhari-Berk model. On the other hand, the dependency of the fluid on temperature could be described by Arrhenius model since the calculated R-square was relatively high. The calculated activation energy value of the super light weight completion fluid is 3.5533 kcal·mol -1 ; indicating that the temperature is not significantly affecting the fluid properties.

Viscoplastic Modeling of a Novel Lightweight Biopolymer Drilling Fluid for Underbalanced Drilling

“…It is known that the gelatinization property of starch is the one responsible for its ability to control fluid viscosity and fluid loss in oil and gas drilling operations. 37 According to Atweel et al, 39 gelatinization is a process of collapsing (disruption) molecular order within the starch granule, manifesting in irreversible changes in properties such as granular swelling, native crystallite melting, loss of birefringence, and starch solubilization. 38 The concentration of starch was varied to determine its effect on the rheological behavior of the formulated fluid.…”