Unconventional/complex reservoirs

Technique Proves Effective in Remediation of Phase-Trapping Damage in Tight Reservoirs

The authors of this paper propose a new chemical treatment for efficient remediation of water- or hydrocarbon-phase-trapping damage in low-permeability porous media.

The inlet and outlet faces of core plug Le2 after treatment.

Aqueous- and hydrocarbon-phase trapping are among the few formation-damage mechanisms capable of significant reduction in effective permeability (sometimes near 100%). In this study, a new chemical treatment is proposed for efficient remediation of water- or hydrocarbon-phase-trapping damage in low-permeability porous media. The method proposed here is cost-effective and experimentally proved to be efficient and long-lasting. Such a chemical treatment is recommended to alleviate gas flow in tight gas with aqueous-trapping-damaged zones or in gas condensate reservoirs with condensate-banking challenges.

Introduction

Remediation techniques for existing aqueous- or hydrocarbon-phase-trapping damage can be categorized into two approaches: bypassing the damaged region by direct penetration techniques and trapping-phase removal. In the former category, the damaged zone is bypassed by creation of high-conductance flow paths through hydraulic fracturing or acidizing.

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