Well Stimulation Services

Intially or during the producing life of a well it may not produce as expected or may go off production
for many reasons. Well stimulation techniques are tools for improving or restoring productivity. Well
Stimulation Services (WSS) came into being its present entity in 1983-84 to fulfil the need of
stimulation and specialized services for enhancing oil and gas production.
WSS provides services in following areas:

Acidization
Hydraulic fracturing
Specialized services
o Coil tubing services
o Nitrogen services
o Sand control by gravel pack
o Water shut off
o Hot oil services

Hydraulic Fracturing
Since hydraulic fracture well stimulation was introduced in the early 1950's, technology has increased
tremendously. Frac job costs in certain situations may range upward to perhaps 100% of well drilling
cost.
Fracturing for Well Stimulation
Objective:
The objective of hydraulic fracturing for well stimulation is to increase well productivity by
creating a highly conductive path (compared to reservoir permeability) some distance away
from the wellbore into the formation. Usually the conductivity is maintained by propping with sand
to hold the fracture faces apart. Acid fracturing involves most of the same considerations as
hydraulic fracturing except that conductivity is generated by removing portions of the fracture
face with acid, leaving etched channels after the fracture closes.
Fracture Initiation:
Hydraulic fracture treatment is accomplished by pumping a suitable fluid into the formation at a
rate faster than the fluid can leak off into the rock. Fluid pressure(or stress) is built up
sufficient to overcome the earth compressive stress holding the rock material together. The
rock then parts or fractures along a plane perpendicular to the minimum compressive stress in the
formation matrix .
Fracture Extension:
As injection of frac fluid continues, the fracture tends to grow in width as fluid pressure in the
fracture, exerted on the fracture face, works against the elasticity of the rock material. After
sufficient frac fluid " pad" has been injected to open the fracture wide enough to accept
proppant, sand is added to the frac fluid and is carried into the fracture to hold it open after the
job.

A vertical fracture grows in length upward, downward, and outward. The growth upward or
downward may be stopped by a barrier formation; downward growth may also be stopped by
fallout of sand to the bottom of the fracture. The growth outward away from the wellbore, (as
well as upward or downward) will be stopped when the rate of frac fluid leakoff through the
face of the fracture into the formation equals the rate of fluid injection into the fracture at the
wellbore.
When sufficient sand has been injected, the pumps are shut down, the pressure in the fracture drops ,
and the earth compressive stress closes the fracture on the proppant.
The surface and well set up required to achieve the above is schematically illustrated in Figure 8.

Fig. Surface and Well set up during hydraulic fracturing

Coiled tubing operations
Coiled tubing operations involve the insertion mechanically of a small bore tube which is unwound
continuously from a reel and injected into the well, optionally under pressure. Coiled tubing is
available in lengths up to 22,000 ft of continuous reel, depending upon outside diameter. It is available
in diameters ranging from less than 1 to 7".Coiled tubing is a well intervention method to deploy
tools and equipments into a well. The major benefit of the technique is that it allows concentric
operations to be conducted in the tubing.

These operations can include:(a)

Mechanical operations whereby devices within the tubing, can be operated (hydraulically or
mechanically), retrieved or inserted.
(b) Circulation operations such as the placement of acid or other treatment chemicals, or cement to
squeeze out at perforated intervals. In addition CT can be used as a velocity string to extend the life
of a production well where it is dominated by slippage.
Parts of Coiled Tubing Unit:
Tubing reel: In tubing reel, the coil tubing is spooled or stored.
Tubing Guiding Arch and Tubing Injector: Tubing guiding arch guides the coil tubing from service
reel to the injector chain present in the injector head. Tubing injector controls the rate of
lowering the tubing into the well under various well conditions. It supports full weight of the tubing.

Stripper: Between BOP and injector head provides the primary operational seal between
pressurized wellbore fluids and the surface environments. It provides both static and dynamic seal.
BOP: BOP of coil tubing unit is a quad ram BOP. It contains all the four rams- blind ram, shear
ram, slip ram and pipe ram.
If a coiled tubing unit is available, it represents an economic way of conducting a whole range of
workover operations. Its principal advantage over wireline arises from an ability to generate much
higher tensile stresses in pulling operations and also importantly it offers the capability to circulate
within the tubing. Depending on the depth of the well, coiled tubing can also be used to install
equipment through the tubing string e.g. into the area beneath the tail pipe.
Coiled tubing can assist in conducting the following range of operations: Circulation of fluid placement within the wellbore
Retrieval and installation of wireline or through tubing equipment
Drilling or milling operations

Fig. Schematic of coiled tubing unit

Fig. A S&S Coiled tubing unit

Hot Oil Circulation Job
Hot oiling is one of the most popular methods of paraffin removal. Paraffin is both dissolved and
melted by the hot oil, allowing it to be circulated from the well and the surface producing system.
Lease crude or other oil is heated to a temperature significantly greater than that of the formation. Hot
oil is normally pumped down the casing and up the tubing.
Where lift equipment permits , or in flowing wells , hot oil may be circulated down the tubing and
up the casing or to the formation face. Paraffin could be removed from shallow pumping wells by
periodically circulating hot oil down hollow rods to a depth below the lowest paraffin deposition
in the tubing .
Water Shut off jobs:
A serious problem in oil-producing reservoirs is water production. As with most things in nature,
fluids also tend to follow paths of least resistance which, in reservoirs, are often created by the
heterogeneous nature of the rock.
Water control is necessary , because for every barrel produced almost 3 barrel is produced with it, and
for a typical well with 80%vwater cut we spend $4/bbl for water. Main reasons for additional costs
are:

Lift and separation

Treatment and disposal
Corrosion and scaling
Formation damage, loss of productivity

There are two levels to this heterogeneity. The first is micro-scale heterogeneity which could be
represented as a simple porous feature distribution and the second is macroscale heterogeneity which
includes layering, natural or induced fractures, and high vertical and horizontal permeabilities. Both
can lead to poor conformance and, therefore, need to be controlled. If conduits for water flow are
available then they need to be blocked in order for production wells to continue operation.
Many examples exist in the literature where permeability and porosity of reservoirs have been
sufficiently high to motivate operating companies to full developmental strategies only to find out
that. Upon implementation, the sweep through the homogeneous flow unit is much less than the
average literature numbers would have indicated. In such a case, even though there is no
macrosca1e problem, the microscale structure predisposes the reservoir to inefficient oil
recovery.
In such cases, although production well strategies can be effective at reducing WaR.
they should be viewed as "band-aid" treatments and more long-term and pervasive influence can
usually be achieved with injection well procedures. Nevertheless, production well applications can be
very lucrative if done correctly.
Main Sources of excess water production

Casing leak
Water coning
Chaneling
Cross Flow
Fracture
Early breakthrough

Application of water shut off jobs

Repair of channel
Repair of casing leaks
Control of bottom water encroachment
Zonal isolation with and without rig
Control of injection water breakthrough in relatively high permeable layer

When flooded out channels and productive low permeability zones are well isolated from each other,
mechanical methods that alter the production profile can be used. Mechanical methods include the use
of selective completion configurations and squeeze cementing.
The process of a squeeze cementing operation for water shut off would be like:

Identification of water producing zones

Doing CBL/VDL log
Perforation
Injection of Gel
Squeeze cement

Profile modification methods

When flooded-out channels and paths of least resistance are not well isolated from one another,
mechanical methods may be less effective and somewhat less efficient. In many cases, die optimal
profile modification strategy must rely on the inherent interaction between the treatment fluids, the
reservoir fluids and the reservoir rock into which the treatment is placed.

Any strategy by which fluids are diverted from their path of least resistance is classified as a profile
modifier. The simplest examples of these are water-alternating gas techniques or polymer floods
which make use of the inherent interaction between fluids and the rock characteristics.
In many operations there are much more drastic contrasts between layers or zones of the
reservoir and more common techniques may not work effectively. In addition, local wellbore
problems can be very difficult to resolve and very rigid blocking agents may be necessary.
PHPA Partially Hydrolysed Poly Acrylamide cross linked gel is used with a delayed cross linking
system and organic cross linkers for high temperature formations.
A common recipe used is:
Gel with treated water constituting polymer, Hexamine, KCl, Diesel.
Solvent Job
The main objective is to remove organic deposits in well. Other uses include:

To remove water block

To reduce choking in well line.
To dissolve scales
Wettability reversal caused due to earlier treatments
Asphaltene deposition

The Following rule of thumb is used for deciding which job to proceed for improving productivity of
well, based on water cut of the well:
Water cut
1-30%
30-50%
50%

Job
Solvent
Xylene-Acid
Acid

Recipe of a solvent job:

Xylene-600 L, Toluene- 600 L, Citric Acid-50 L, Acetic Acid-180 L, Naphthalene-120 L, Acid
Corrosion Inhibitor(ACI)-60 L, Iso Propyl Alcohol (IPA) -600 L,Surfactant-20 L,EGMB-120 L.