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Carbonate Matrix Acidizing Fluids at High Temperatures: Acetic Acid, Chelating Agents or Long-Chained Carboxylic Acids?

2003; Linguagem: Inglês

10.2118/82268-ms

Tianping Huang, Paul McElfresh, Allen Gabrysch,

Hydraulic Fracturing and Reservoir Analysis

Abstract Matrix acidizing of carbonate formations has been carried out for many years using HCl acid in various strengths. However, in some high temperature applications, HCl does not produce acceptable stimulation results due to lack of penetration or surface reactions. Organic acids, like formic acid and acetic acid, were introduced to offer a slower reacting a thus deeper stimulating acid. These "retarded" acids also had short- comings due to solubility limitations of acetate or formate salts. In recent years, several alternatives have been developed, including aminocarboxylic acids and long-chained carboxylic acids. These long-chained carboxylic acids offer low corrosion rates, good dissolving power at high temperature, high biodegradability,and easier and safer to handle. Many experimental and theoretical studies in carbonate acidizing have confirmed the existence of an optimal acid injection rate at which major wormholes are formed, and the benefit from stimulation is maximized. This optimal rate depends on reservoir conditions, rock properties and chemical reaction rate of the acid being used. In our previous study, a theoretical model showed that under the same conditions, the optimal injection rate for weaker acids is lower than that for stronger acids. This paper presents a comparison of the efficiency of stimulation in carbonate acidizing of three different kinds of high temperature stimulation fluids. A chelating agent, EDTA, acetic acid, and a mixture of long-chained carboxylic acids were used to acidize carbonate cores at high temperatures. The effectiveness of the process and the optimal injection rate were studied by measuring the acid volume needed to propagate wormholes through 4-inch cores. The dendritic nature of the acid penetration was also determined by making castings of the wormhole structures after acidizing. The experimental results from this study showed that the optimal injection rate of long-chained carboxylic acids is lower than that for acetic acid and the EDTA. This increase in efficiency then determines that a deeper and more efficient stimulation per gallon of acid mixture used is obtained with the long-chained carboxylic acids.