Retarded Microemulsion Systems Development for Carbonate Reservoir Acid Stimulation Application
Matrix acidizing, microemulsions, Pore Volume to Breakthrough - PVBT, Wormholes, Indiana limestone.
The necessity to make oil wells increasingly efficient, especially in conditions with high production costs, leads to continuous technological development. In December 2019, about 67% of Brazil's oil production came from wells in pre-salt carbonate rocks reservoirs. Matrix Acidification is a stimulation technique widely used in carbonates to increase its production as a result of the formation of high conductivity channels around the well called wormholes. Anisotropy, heterogeneity and acid reaction speed in carbonates and even oil saturation lead to difficulties in controlling its formation resulting in low effectiveness treatments. Microemulsion systems consist of thermodynamically stable auto associative structures and low surface tension. These systems have already been subject of studies to retard acid-rock reaction speed, but with little conclusive results. This work aims to develop and test, through well-known techniques and brand-new techniques, the use of oil in water microemulsified systems in standard carbonate rock for application in the matrix acidification. Initially, microemulsified systems were developed and characterized. These systems used ALKONAT-L100 as a surfactant, n-butanol co-surfactant, xylene nonpolar phase and polar phase 1.54 w/w%, 8.27 w/w% and 15 w/w% aqueous solutions; Standard carbonate rocks Siluriam, Winterset, Edwards White, Indiana, Desert Pink, in addition to the Pirabas from a Brazilian outcrop. The core samples were characterized in terms of composition, porosity, permeability and reactivity. In addiction, the effects of concentration and the types of treatment systems on contact angle behaviour were analyzed. Experimental plans were conduced to verify the influence of HCl concentration, temperature and reaction time on the reaction speed carried out in different conditions. Pore Volume to Breakthrough (PVBT) curves were produced followed by subsequent dissolution patterns analyses by high resolution microtomography (Micro-CT) and NMR. The results showed that even at high HCl concentrations, microemulsion systems were formed close to the polar phase apex and they are thermally resistant, reaching over 100 OC. It was verified the rocks composition is decisive for reaction speed between carbonates and HCl. The treatment with surfactant content systems, especially the microemulsified ones, showed a great contact angle reduction related to distilled water and to systems without its presence. Through the experimental planning it was observed that the reaction speed of the systems surfactant free were basically governed by the HCl concentration whether in the condition where there was or not saturation in mineral oil, whereas the time factor became also important in surfactant content systems. The produced models were both predictive and significant for all scenarios analyzed, except for the scenarios where HCl solution was used as treatment fluid. The results of NMR and Micro-CT showed effective wormholing morphologies when using microemulsion systems. In this way, microemulsified systems were obtained and showed to be efficient in retard the acid-rock reaction for application in the acid matrix stimulation in carbonate rocks.