Enhance of Oil Production from an Old Well in Thin Carbonate Reservoir through Acid Tunneling - A Case Study

The effectiveness of stimulation using hydrochloric acid in high permeability, fractured carbonate reservoir is a challenge due to several reasons like fast acid spending rates, high leak off and non-effective diversion. All these limit the success rate of matrix stimulation using hydrochloric acid. Ultimately the communication between reservoir and wellbore will be less optimum leading to less than expected well performance. The industry is in continuous search of an effective stimulation technique through which good communication between reservoir and wellbore can be established. In the pursuit of maximizing oil production, Kuwait Oil Company is implementing various new technologies. Recently, acid tunneling technology was piloted in an old producer well in one of its prolific yet challenging Mauddud carbonate reservoir. Acid tunneling is a new approach of stimulation that supersedes normal matrix stimulation in carbonate reservoirs to enhance reservoir contact by creating tunnels through dissolution of rock in acid. Mauddud is a super-giant depletion-drive oil reservoir in NK field undergoing massive development efforts with enhancement in oil production through phased pattern-water flood. The reservoir has 10 layers and the average permeability of the reservoir ranges between 15 md to 1D predominantly due to fractures and vugs, which are distributed and extended variedly from layer to the other. The acid tunneling pilot was performed in an old well in Mauddud limestone located in south-eastern part of Raudhatain field where the rock quality is poor compared to the crestal area. The well was selected for pilot due to poor production. The well does not enjoy injection support due to a sealing fault between it and an injector, lying a kilometer away. The well penetrated three layers A, B and C in Mauddud. Two tunnels of 25 ft each were created using 15% HCl acid. The well showed good production after acid tunneling job and the productivity index of the well increased three times. The well is still showing good performance even after one year. These pilot results lead to full scale field implementation of this technology. The paper presents a case study describing advantages of acid tunneling, well selection criteria for this technology application, selection of effective acid concentration for the job and also limitations of the technology. All these informations work as a guideline to implement this technology in mass scale.