First Successful Rigless Acid Tunneling Job in Mauddud Carbonate Reservoir in Raudhatain Field, North Kuwait

RAMA-Pilot1 is a Mauddud open-hole well which is located in Raudhatain field-North Kuwait. The well had a barefoot completion and it was producing on ESP. Due to low rock quality, the well was performing less than expected levels.It was selected as an acid tunneling pilot for this project to create tunnels and new pathways inside the open-hole section. This is to increase reservoir contact, improve well productivity & eventually increase the near wellbore deliverability. Two tunnels were created successfully inside the open-hole section and the results indicated that the productivity index increased by 3 times from 1.3 to 3.87 bpd/Psi. This successful job was also possible from the lessons learnt, from an earlier attempt of acid tunneling in an Effluent Water Disposal (EWD) well. The job was not successful, and subsequent failure analysis of the job showed an "undersize tool in an oversize hole". So this time sufficient care was taken to measure the hole size properly to size off the acid tunnel tool accordingly. RAMA-Pilot1 success had not only lead to restore & increase wellproduction, but it would also pave the way to enhance oil production and opening up possibilities for field wide applications especially in low PI carbonate reservoir wells. Also, it is considered for improving EWD wells performance by this technique. RAMA-Pilot1 is the first "dendritic" well with extensive wormholes created by acid tunneling for maximum reservoir contact. The whole effect is aptly demonstrated by the change in PI of thewell before and after the acid tunneling as mentioned before. This technique can be planned for any type of wells (EWD, oilwell, water injector) provided there is an open hole and tunnel that is created will be stable. Econimically, acid tunneling technique compares favorably with alternative stimulation options in both time and money savings.