Formation Damage Abatement: A Quarter-Century Perspective

Abstract

Abstract Petroleum well production impairment has long been associated with formation damage. Concepts such as the skin effect and its various manifestations have been introduced to account for the effects of damage. The origins of damage and the types of damage have also been the subjects of intense scrutiny. Abatement has included preventive measures such as the use of "non-damaging" fluids, presumably more benign processes, and improved drilling and well construction procedures and techniques. Once in place, the removal of damage has spawned an entire industry, that of matrix stimulation. This involves the use of appropriate remediation fluids, complete with the understanding of the often contrasting interaction among these fluids, the fluids and the damage, and very importantly, the side-effects which can damage the well more than its pre-stimulation state. Again, appropriate hardware was necessary. Due to the fact that damage removal is often either incomplete or unsuccessful, methods of by-passing the damage, such as high permeability fracturing, have been developed. Finally, brute force approaches are common, including the drilling of more vertical and/or horizontal wells regardless of the damage in order to get enough production. This paper is a critical review of both the evolution of the technologies and the thinking processes that have permeated the industry over the past quarter century. Particular emphasis is given to the resolution of controversial subjects and their impact on the field. These include issues such as matrix stimulation versus fracturing, sand production control versus sand de-consolidation management, underbalance versus extreme overbalance, perforating and drilling fluids and practices. Introduction A routine procedure of early-day operators to keep many wells in production was "clean out, shoot, clean out again." Therefore, the idea of formation damage abatement has not been an esoteric phenomenon to the industry. Engineers have long yearned to prevent, diagnose and remediate formation damage. The disagreement has been how to accomplish it. These concerns continue to permeate within the literature and various technical gatherings. Finally, the Society of Petroleum Engineering (SPE) approved the formation of a formal symposium. The first Symposium on Formation Damage Control was held in 1974 in New Orleans, LA. This was followed by symposia in Houston, TX (1976), Lafayette, LA (1978), and Bakersfield, CA (1980). The location of the symposium alternated between Lafayette and Bakersfield until 1990, when Lafayette became the sole host of the symposium. (Table 1). In 1992 the SPE Board approved the international designation for the symposium. The year 2000 Symposium is the silver anniversary of the event. During its 25 years of existence, the symposium has grown from a regional event to today's major international symposium, attracting over 800 participants from more than 30 countries representing 6 continents. The success of the symposium prompted the initiation of the sister conference during the off years in the Hague, the Netherlands, beginning in 1995. The International Symposium and Exhibition on Formation Damage Control (ISEFDC) has provided nearly 600 technical papers to the literature (Tables 1 and 2). We have selected what we consider as some of the most important topics in damage, damage characterization, prevention and abatement. While this paper by no means exhausts the subject, it is a reasonably comprehensive description of the evolution of both the technology and, especially, the thinking process over the last 25 years.