Digital Rock Models for Carbonate Stimulation
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Current wellbore stimulation methods, such as hydraulic fracturing and acidizing, face challenges in effectively accounting for pore-scale heterogeneity in carbonate formations, leading to incomplete stimulation and bypassing of hydrocarbon-bearing regions due to unconnected pore spaces, which affects the efficiency of fluid flow and wormhole formation.
Innovation Solution
The development of digital rock models and microhydrodynamical modeling to simulate the injection of fluids through porous media, allowing for the measurement of pore-scale heterogeneity and estimation of the pore volume to breakthrough (PVBT), enabling the design of optimized stimulating fluid treatments by correlating the flowing fraction with PVBT and adjusting injection parameters.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If traditional wellbore stimulation methods (hydraulic fracturing and acidizing) are used, then production enhancement is achieved, but pore-scale heterogeneity in carbonate formations is not adequately accounted for, leading to incomplete stimulation
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates digital rock models that are virtual copies of actual carbonate rock formations. These digital models replicate the pore-scale heterogeneity, pore throat distributions, and geological features of the target formation, allowing stimulation treatments to be simulated and optimized before field implementation. This copying approach enables accurate representation of pore-scale information that would otherwise be lost in traditional methods.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent performs preliminary simulation of acidizing treatments on digital rock models before actual field operations. By conducting virtual experiments in advance, the methodology predicts wormhole formation patterns, acid consumption, and stimulation effectiveness, allowing optimization of injection rates, acid concentrations, and treatment designs before committing to expensive and irreversible field operations.
2Measurement precision
If extensive core sampling and experimental testing are performed to account for pore-scale heterogeneity, then measurement precision improves, but cost and time requirements increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of physically sampling and testing numerous core samples, the patent creates a single comprehensive digital rock model that captures the pore-scale heterogeneity of the entire formation. This virtual copy eliminates the need for extensive physical core acquisition, preparation, and laboratory testing, reducing both time and cost while maintaining measurement precision through high-resolution digital imaging and modeling techniques.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces the mechanical process of physical core sampling, handling, and laboratory testing with computational modeling and simulation. Digital rock physics techniques substitute for physical experiments, allowing pore-scale characterization and treatment simulation to be performed virtually, thereby eliminating the time-consuming and resource-intensive mechanical processes of traditional core analysis.
3Ease of operation
If traditional stimulation treatments are applied without accounting for pore-scale heterogeneity, then treatment simplicity is maintained, but fluid flow efficiency and wormhole formation are compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs preliminary simulation on digital rock models to determine optimal injection rates, acid concentrations, and treatment parameters before field implementation. This advance planning identifies the conditions that will maximize wormhole formation efficiency and fluid flow improvement, allowing the actual field operation to proceed with optimized parameters while maintaining operational simplicity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses digital rock model simulations to identify and implement optimal parameter settings for stimulation treatments. By analyzing pore-scale heterogeneity in the digital models, the methodology determines the most effective injection rates, acid concentrations, and treatment durations that will enhance fluid flow efficiency and wormhole formation, thereby improving productivity while keeping treatment design systematic and manageable.
Data Source
AI summary
Methods of well treatment include modeling approaches that account for the effect of pore structure during well stimulation treatments. In one aspect, methods may include preparing a computer model of a porous medium; simulating an injection of a fluid into the computer model of the porous medium; measuring a pore-scale heterogeneity of the computer model of the porous medium, and designing a stimulating fluid treatment for the porous medium. Other aspects may include the development of a wellbore stimulation methodology that allows stimulation fluid breakthrough curves of differing formation samples to be plotted as a single curve that accounts for the varied pore structure of the respective samples.