New Acid-Tunneling Insights from Full-Scale Water- and Acid-Jetting Tests

Abstract

Acid-tunneling is an acid jetting method for stimulating carbonate reservoirs. Several case histories from around the world were presented in the past showing optimistic post-stimulation production increases in open-hole wells, comparing to conventional coiled tubing (CT) acid jetting, matrix acidizing, and acid fracturing. However, many questions about the actual tunnel creation and tunneling efficiency are still not answered. In this paper, the results of an innovative full-scale research program involving water and acid jetting are reported for the first time. The tunnels are constructed through chemical reaction and mechanical erosion by pumping hydrochloric (HCl) acid through conventional CT and a bottom-hole assembly (BHA) with jetting nozzles and two pressure-activated bending joints that control the tunnel initiation directions. If the jetting speed is too high and the acid is not consumed in front of the BHA during the main tunneling process, then unspent acid flows toward the back of the BHA and creates main wellbore and tunnel enlargement with potential wormholes as fluid leaks off, lowering the tunneling length efficiency. Full-scale water and acid jetting tests were performed on Indiana limestone cores with 2-4 mD permeability and 12-14% porosity. Many field-realistic combinations of nozzle sizes, jetting speeds, and back pressures were included in the testing program. The cores were 3.75-in. in diameter by 6-in. in length for the water tests, and 12-in. in diameter by 18-in. in length for the tests with 15-wt% HCl acid. The jetting BHA was moved as the tunnels were constructed, at constant force on the nozzle mole, to minimize the nozzle stand-off distance. Six acid tests were performed at the ambient temperature of 46F and two at 97F. The results from the acid tests show that the acid tunneling efficiency can be optimized by reducing the nozzle size and pump rate. The results from the water and acid tests with exactly the same parameters to match the actual CT operations in the field show that the tunnels are constructed mostly by chemical reaction and not by mechanical erosion. The acid tunneling efficiencies obtained from the full-scale acid tests are superior to the average tunneling efficiency of more than 500 actual tunnels constructed during more than 100 acid tunneling operations performed to date worldwide. The paper describes the full-scale water and acid jetting tests on Indiana limestone cores. The major novelty of this test program consists of performing all measurements with back pressure, unlike all previous water and acid jetting studies reported in literature, to more accurately mimic the downhole well conditions. The novel understanding of the combined effect of the nozzle size, pump rate, and back pressure significantly improves the actual acid-tunneling efficiency.