Cement attack by acid during matrix acidizing operations has created severe zonal isolation problems in wells with multiple adjacent permeable zones, operated by PETROBRAS. This effect was observed in several wells treated with conventional HC1-HF acid mixtures, even when cement bond logs prior to the acid job were excellent. This paper presents a series of lab experiments showing that acetic acid, alone or mixed with HF, dissolves much less cement than HCl and HC1-HF mixtures with the same carbonate dissolving power. The reaction of acetic acid with cement fonns a protective skin that inhibits further acid attack. The organic formulations were tested in an acidizing simulator, before being used in the field. The paper also presents field test results which confirmed that the acetic acid mixtures did not break zonal isolation (cement consumption was restrained to the perforated interval) and were able to generate 6- to 40-fold increases in the injectivity and productivity of the wells.

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