Field Results Demonstrate Enhanced Matrix Acidizing Through Real-Time Monitoring

Abstract

Summary The use of an inverse injectivity vs. superposition time plot to diagnose the changing skin factor in a matrix acidizing treatment has been presented previously by Hill and Zhu.1 The model has been extended to calculate skin factor as a function of injection time or injected volume to help the operator monitor and optimize the treatment. A Windows program based on the theory has been developed to provide a pretreatment test to evaluate permeability and initial skin factor of the formation when they are not available before the acid treatment, to calculate and plot the evolving skin during the treatment in real time, and to evaluate treatments afterward. It converts surface pressure, when measured, to the bottomhole pressure for the calculation, and handles fluid density and viscosity changes in real time. Several field examples showed that the technique can be used conveniently to monitor skin changes and diversion effects during matrix acidizing treatments. The program is reliable and flexible in acquiring and processing data, calculating skin, and diagnosing matrix acidizing treatments.