Abstract
Most heavy oil production occurs from shallow, unconsolidated sandstone reservoirs. Unfortunately, these reservoirs are prone to multiple forms of formation damage including sand and fines migration, clay swelling, organic precipitation, scale, and formation alteration caused by thermal EOR. In many cases, standard industry practices fail to remove or prevent this formation damage from occurring for a variety of reasons including improper identification of the damage mechanism and selection of inappropriate remedial or prevention techniques. This paper will present a comprehensive approach for optimizing production in heavy oil fields prone to formation damage. It will discuss the analytical methods used to identify and quantify multiple formation damage mechanisms, propose guidelines for remedial design, introduce some methods of statistical analysis used to determine optimal remedial treatments, and suggest some methods for implementing a field program for the remediation and prevention of formation damage. Overall, this paper should provide a useful methodology for improving production in any heavy oil field prone to multiple formation damage mechanisms.
