In many oilfields the relatively small number of high-cost, highly productive wells, coupled with a carbonate and or sulfate scaling tendency (upon waterflood breakthrough of injected seawater) requires effective scale management along with removal of near-wellbore damage in order to achieve high hydrocarbon recovery.

The nature of the well completion strategy in new fields such as frac packs for sand control and acid stimulation for carbonate reservoirs had resulted in some wells with higher than expected skin values due to drilling fluid losses, residual frac gel, fluid loss agents, and fines mobilization within the frac packs where applied.

The paper will present how the challenges of managing impaired completions and inorganic scale forced innovation in terms of when to apply both stimulation and scale inhibitor packages to sandstone and carbonate reservoirs. This paper will outline a novel process for non-conventional batch chemical applications where bullhead stimulation treatments have been displaced deep into the formation (>20ft) using a scale inhibitor overflush. Not only does this benefit the stimulation by displacing the spent acid and reagents away from the immediate wellbore area, but the combined treatment provides cost savings with a single mobilization for the combined treatment. The paper will describe the laboratory testing that was performed to qualify the treatments for both sandstone and carbonate reservoirs. The four field treatments that were performed demonstrate how these coupled applications have proven very effective at both well stimulation/skin reduction and scale inhibitor placement prior to and after seawater breakthrough in a sandstone reservoir. The lessons learned for the evaluation of the carbonate core via coreflood studies will also be presented.

Many similar fields are currently being developed in the Campos basin, Gulf of Mexico, West Africa and Middle East, and this paper is a good example of best-practice sharing from another oil basin.

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