Course overview
The course covers transport of colloids/suspensions in natural reservoirs and its applications to formation damage in injection and production wells, its prediction, mathematical and laboratory modelling, prevention and mitigation. The oil-production and gas-storage processes covered are injectivity decline for CO2 and hydrogen, re-injection of produced water, invasion of drilling fluid, sand production, gravel pack, sand screens, fines migration, disposal of produced water, IOR. The physics phenomena caused damage include deep bed filtration, Joule-Thompson CO2 cooling, external filter cake formation, precipitation of salts, ashpaltene's and paraffin's, fines migration and liberation, rock deformation and compaction, two-phase flow of suspensions and colloids. Cases of vertical, horizontal, fractured and perforated wells are discussed. Techniques of damage removal and well stimulation during underground storage of CO2 and H2 are presented. The lectures are accompanied by numerous training exercises and field examples.
Course learning outcomes
- Explain key aspects of formation damage in different processes of oil production
- Explain reservoir physics of main formation damage mechanisms
- Describe the purpose of damage removal, prevention and mitigation, of well stimulation
- Discuss the concepts and equipment required for water management in onshore and offshore developments
- Analysis of mathematical models for formation damage in different processes of oil production (waterflooding, pressure depletion, EOR)
- Describe the applicability of different mathematical models of formation damage
- Explain the process and importance of injected water treatment
- Apply knowledge of formation damage reservoir physics in design of damage-free oil production technologies
- Describe processes associated with formation damage in injection and production wells and its uses in exploration and production
- Apply a critical-thinking and problem-solving approach towards the principles of damage-free oil production technologies