Maintaining Injectivity of Disposal Wells:

From Water Quality to Formation Permeability

A n extensive laboratory study was

carried out with two objectives: to
evaluate the effect of water quality on
injectivity of disposal wells with reservoir
core plugs and to restore injectivity of
damaged wells. In this paper, water-
quality guidelines to minimize or prevent
formation damage are recommended.
On the basis of laboratory work, a novel
chemical treatment was successfully (a) (b) (c)
applied to restore injectivity of several
damaged disposal wells. This novel Fig. 1—Mechanisms of permeability impairment reflecting conditions when
treatment reduced the long operation (a) particles present in the injected water are smaller than the average pore-
throat diameter of the formation, (b) particles are smaller than the average
time and cost of a typical treatment
pore-throat diameter of the formation, and (c) particles are significantly
practice while effectively stimulating smaller than the average pore-throat diameter of the formation.
the well.
smaller than the average pore-throat di- where the formation permeability cannot
Effect of Water Quality ameter of the formation. These particles be stimulated and the ultimate target is to
and Formation Permeability will invade the formation and bridge at restore original formation permeability, a
on Injectivity some pores (Fig. 1b). As solids concentra- two-stage treatment is commonly used to
Water quality has a major influence on tion in the injection water is increased, remove damage from disposal wells.
the injectivity of injection and disposal the rate of permeability decline becomes
wells. Poor injection or disposal-water greater. Obviously, if the size of the par- Results and Discussions
quality can compromise the effective in- ticles is significantly smaller than the av- Disposal-Water Characterization. As a
jectivity of even high-quality sandstone or erage pore-throat diameter of the forma- key issue in identifying the quality of dis-
carbonate formations. Source water used tion (Fig. 1c), then the particles will flow posal water, geochemical analyses were
for injection often contains solids, which through the formation without causing conducted for disposal-water samples col-
can reduce permeability of the formation any damage. As a result, there will be no lected at different times. The total dissolved
around the wellbore. loss of injectivity for a long period of time. solids (TDS) in these samples ranged from
Solids-particle damage depends on par- approximately 157,000 to approximately
ticle size of the solids, oil present in the in- Stimulation 172,000 mg/L. The average TDS value for
jected water, and the average pore-throat of Water-Disposal Wells these samples is 165,635  mg/L, indicat-
diameter of the formation. If the particles In carbonate formations, hydrochlo- ing that formation water was diluted by
are larger than the average pore-throat ric acid (HCl) (up to 28 wt%), formic the injected water. The pH values of these
diameter of the formation, then the par- acid (up to 10 wt%), acetic acid (up to samples are within the neutral region and
ticles cannot penetrate the pores. As a re- 10 wt%), and combinations of these acids range from 6.3 to 7.3.
sult, an external filter cake with permea- can be used to remove formation damage Total suspended solids (TSS), which
bility lower than that of the formation will and enhance well injectivity. The acids is an important parameter in character-
form (Fig. 1a). Another type of injectivity are used to dissolve the inorganic scale ization of disposal water, was measured
impairment occurs when the size of the and bypass the organic scales by creat- for six samples collected in May/June of
particles present in the injected water is ing wormholes. In sandstone formations, 2014 and February/March of 2015. The
results reveal the considerable variations
in produced-water quality in terms of
This article, written by JPT Technology Editor Chris Carpenter, contains highlights of TSS. Particle-size distributions for sus-
paper SPE 183743, “Maintaining Injectivity of Disposal Wells: From Water Quality to pended solids in a disposal-water sample
Formation Permeability,” by Ali A. Al-Taq, Mohammed N. Al-Dahlan, and Abdullah displayed a mean particle size of nearly
A. Alrustum, Saudi Aramco, prepared for the 2017 SPE Middle East Oil and Gas Show 18  µm, while 90% of the particles had a
and Conference, Manama, Bahrain, 6–9 March. The paper has not been peer reviewed. size of 51.52 µm or less and 10% had a size

For a limited time, the complete paper is free to SPE members at www.spe.org/jpt.

70 JPT • FEBRUARY 2018

of 3.54 μm or less. These results suggest
the need to implement a filtration process
to reduce the amount of particles and the
average particle size and thus minimize
injectivity loss.
Oil-content measurement for disposal-
water samples collected from Well GOSP-
B during the period from January to March
2015 revealed an average oil content value
of 31.7 ppm with few points above 50 ppm
(the maximum limit). The results indicate
a good control of oil in disposal water with
respect to the designated limit. This limit
should be reduced to minimize formation
damage in disposal wells.
Effect of TSS. The coreflood results indi-
cate that the extent of damage in core per-
meability is a function of disposal-water
quality (in terms of TSS) and core initial
permeability. The results reveal that dis-
posal water, even with high TSS, will have
less effect on high-permeability forma-
tions. Poor-quality injected water will
have a greater effect on low-permeability
formations. The higher the TSS is in dis-
posal water, the greater the damage is to
the core permeability.
Effect of Filtration on Permeability
Impairment of Disposal Water. A core
plug representing the formation of in-
terest was used to assess the effect of fil-
tration of disposal water on core perme-
ability. The results revealed that, at low
filtration sizes, the extent of damage will
be less; hence, there is less reduction in
the formation permeability. These results
suggest that a good filtration system will
minimize formation damage associated
with disposal water.
Effect of Mixed Filtered Disposal Water
and Groundwater on Core Permeabil-
ity. To assess the effect of mixing filtered
disposal water and groundwater on reser-
voir core permeability, a core represent-
ing the formation of interest was used.
This core plug has an air permeability of
6.77 md and a porosity of 25.3%. The ini-
tial brine permeability of this core plug
was 9.65 md. The results showed no dam-
age and suggest that groundwater is com-
patible with the disposal water.
Disposal-Water-Quality Guidelines.
Laboratory results shed light on required
disposal-water quality in terms of sus-
JPT • FEBRUARY 2018
pended solids, oil content, and some
operation conditions. To prevent or
minimize formation damage and thus
maintain injectivity of disposal wells, the
following guidelines are recommended:
◗ Total suspended material should not
exceed 50 ppm and mean particle
size should not exceed 5 μm.
◗ Oil content should not exceed 20 ppm.
◗ To prevent formation damage caused
by particle settling, disposal water
should be injected continuously into
the disposal wells.
◗ In the case of the well being shut in,
flow it back before putting it into
injection.
Characterization of Disposal Well A
Sludge Sample. Different analyses con-
ducted on the sludge sample obtained
from Well A include thermal gravimetric
analysis (TGA), X-ray diffraction (XRD),
and environmental scanning-electron mi-
croscopy (ESEM). The Well A sludge sam-
ple was subjected to TGA before and after
washing with toluene, indicating that
more than 46 wt% of the sludge was hy-
drocarbon. Xylene extraction was able to
dissolve more than 60 wt% of the sludge
material, and asphaltene content of the
organic material varied up to 23 wt%.
The inorganic solids remaining after ex-
traction are mainly water and halite. The
inorganic-solid XRD and ESEM analyses
showed that the sludge is mainly sodium
chloride and iron-corrosion products, in-
cluding iron sulfides and oxides.
Solubility Tests of Well A Sludge Sam-
ple. The sample was examined in differ-
ent solvents as a function of time and
temperature. Its solubility in a two-stage
system (solvent and then acid) was exam-
ined at reservoir temperature (160°F). Up
to 88 wt% of the damaging material can
be dissolved with Solvent A followed by
10 wt% formic acid. Similarly, 84  wt%
could be dissolved with Solvent A and
then 10 wt% HCl.
The solubility tests evaluating dis-
solving sludge material in disposal flow
lines were conducted at 120°F. The re-
sults showed that the emulsified 15 wt%
HCl/solvent system exhibited the high-
est dissolution power. Increasing the
soaking time to 3 and 4 hours in-
creased the solubility slightly (95.6 and
96.96 wt%, respectively).
Treatment of the Well A Disposal-
Water Flowlines. The sample collected
from the Well A disposal-water flowline
was found to be sludgy material that
was composed of nearly 60 wt% or-
ganic material and 40 wt% inorganic
material. The organic part can be dis-
solved with solvents, and the inorganic
part is composed of acid-soluble com-
pounds. To remove the sludge mate-
rial from Field A disposal-water pipe-
lines in a single-stage treatment, an
emulsified acid/solvent system should
be used. In this regard, different acid/
solvent systems, including organic and
mineral acids, were evaluated. Among
the emulsified acid/solvent systems,
the emulsified 15 wt% HCl acid with
asphaltene-specific solvent/paraffin-
specific solvent/surfactant system exhib-
ited the highest dissolution power and
was able to dissolve nearly 97 wt% of the
sludge sample after 4 hours. A suggested
disposal-water-treatment process is de-
scribed in the complete paper.
Field Applications
On the basis of laboratory-optimized
recipes, a chemical-treatment campaign
on Field A disposal wells was safely and
successfully implemented in 2015. A
gain in injection capacity greater than
50,000 BWPD was achieved after stimu-
lation treatments of four disposal wells
in Field A.
The matrix treatment involved
squeezing 260 bbl of solvent system
into the formation at 1 to 2 bbl/min
while reciprocating the coiled tubing
(CT) across the perforated region. The
solvent system was allowed to soak for
8 to 12 hours. While reciprocating the
CT across the perforated liner, 65 bbl of
the organic acid was squeezed into the
formation. The solvent treatment was
displaced from the CT with fresh water
mixed with a hydrogen sulfide scaven-
ger. The solvent system was allowed to
soak for 4 hours. The well was flowed
back by use of nitrogen lift until returns
were solids-free.
The optimized stimulation treat-
ments were effective in reducing treat-
ment cost and time with a significant
increase in well injectivity. The post-
treatment injectivity tests showed a gain
in injectivity of four treated wells with
nearly 60,000 BWPD. JPT
71