The majority of gas
reservoirs in conventional fields exist in
carbonate reservoirs, and the largest gas reservoir in the world is
located in a carbonate formation. Actual rock samples from drilled
gas wells showed that the anhydrite content could reach 50%; nevertheless,
10–20% anhydrite content is very common in carbonate reservoirs.
The presence of anhydrite degrades the stimulation efficiency because
of its low solubility in all stimulation fluids. In this work and
for the first time, a new two-stage treatment was developed to stimulate
carbonate reservoirs with high anhydrite content using actual reservoir
rock samples. The treatment involves flushing the core with a combined
solution of 10 wt % K2CO3 in KOH solution and
then injecting HCl; HCl-based fluids; organic acids such as citric,
acetic, and formic acid; or low-pH chelating agents, such as l-glutamic acid, N,N-diacetic acid.
The preflush stage converts anhydrite (calcium sulfate) to calcite
(calcium carbonate), which can then be dissolved easily using HCl
or any low-pH acids. A computed tomography scan showed that the new
method created branched wormholes compared to the conventional HCl
treatment due to the anhydrite conversion. Inductively coupled plasma
and ion chromatograpy analyses showed higher sulfate content in the
case of coreflooding with the new formulation due to the anhydrite
conversion. NMR showed that more pores were created when the carbonate
core was stimulated using the new method compared to the conventional
treatment using HCl. A fine-scale model was built to match the experimental
outcomes in terms of wormhole shapes and pore volumes to breakthrough.
Then, radial flow simulations, representing field matrix acidizing,
were conducted to predict the efficiency of wormhole penetration using
the new formulation. On the basis of our experimental and modeling
analyses, the new method can be considered as an efficient way to
enhance the stimulation process in gas reservoirs with high anhydrite
content.