What really Matters In our Quest of Minimizing Formation Damage In Open Hole Horizontal Wells

Abstract

This paper was prepared for presentation at the 1999 SPE European Formation Damage Conference held in The Hague, The Netherlands, 31 May–1 June 1999.

Uncertainty Assessment in Well Productivity Loss due to Formation Damage

“…To better evaluate formation damage due to drilling fluid, significant efforts have been made in order to develop laboratory techniques [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12] . Formation damage tests allow to evaluate return permeability after a core sample has been subjected to the tangential flow of a drilling fluid.…”

“…The degree of formation damage depends upon a large number of parameters such as the nature and characteristics of drilling fluid, formation properties and operating conditions. In overbalanced drilling (OBD), formation damage is caused by the presence of filter cakes and invading drilling fluid in porous media [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9] . In underbalanced drilling (UBD), even if the pressure gradient is negative, drilling fluid invasion into reservoir can still occur due to the presence of capillary pressure or temporary overbalanced pressure [10][11][12] .…”

Modelling of Near-Wellbore Damage Removal by Natural Cleanup in Horizontal Open Hole Completed Wells

“…Formation damage tests are of prime importance to minimize or to alleviate near wellbore permeability damage by selecting the most appropriate drilling fluid and optimizing wellbore cleanup techniques 1 . During the last five years IFP has developed specific laboratory testing equipment and procedures to characterize drilling induced formation damage during overbalanced operations and to quantify the performance of various cleanup techniques used in the industry 2 .…”

Experimental and Numerical Approach for the Productivity Study of Open Hole Completed Horizontal Wells

“…The duration of the dynamic mud invasion under a constant shear rate(180s -1 ) was about 16 hours, followed by a static period of mud application up to the breakthrough of filtrate. Then oil return permeabilities were measured at a flow rate of 10 cc per hour to generate representative average near wellbore oil velocities for a typical horizontal open hole well 9 . The composition and the rheologic properties of the invert emulsion mud, weighted with CaCO 3 to reach a specific gravity of 1.10 g/cc, is given in Table 1.…”