Reservoir Completion 55 Scale (in.) Figure 2.42 Typical perforation debris recovered after perforating. Raid aid nat prove production ' Acid aid improve production Protons 1000 1000 2, = © 100 5 0 2 0 1 2 E 5 fy : EB oo1 Eos on oy ‘oo 1000 10000 ‘00 1008 1000 Total unortalanc (os Tetalundertlanc (psi Lnderalanoe pressure use on tubing Undarelanceprasure uted on tubing conveyed pertain gee ones sandstone conveyed petraingesores in sandstone Figure 2.43 Optimum underbalance for perforating (data courtesy King etal, 1986). assessing the adequacy of the underbalance was whether acidisation subsequently improved productivity by more than 10%. The data is shown in Figure 2.43 ‘The dependence on permeability is explained by the need for adequate perforation flow to lift out the debris. Low permeabilities require a higher underbalance to achieve the same surge velocity. There will likely be dependencies on fluid viscosity, perforation diameter and surge volume that are not included in this analysis. Tariq (1990) analysed the dataset further and fitting the data to a model of drag loads on particles determined the optimum underbalance as a function of permeability for both oil and gas wells Ap hee wells) (2.39) 000 Ap =F (eas well) (2.40)56 Perforating By quantifying the rates fiom hemispherical perforation flow and also quantifying drag effects Behrmann (1996) used Berea test data to determine the optimum underbalance (Ap) with Eq. (2.41) 14806D"> ae where @ is the porosity (%); D, the perforation diameter (in.); k, the permeabi- lity (md), ‘The dataset was based on a relatively narrow range of permeabilities mainly covering 100-200 md, Behrmann recognised the difficulties for lower-permeability formations and introduced an arbitrarily lower equation for permeabilities less than 100 md: Ap= ean 687@D™> Ap= —- (2.42) Figure 2.44 shows four examples using his criteria with the dotted lines representing the revised recommendation below 100 md. For comparison, King's data with Tariq’s analysis is also included. For low-permeability formations, especially those that are normally pressured or depleted, the optimum underbalance may be greater than the reservoir pressure and thus unobtainable. Behrman’ recommendations are based on obtaining sufficient flow rate to clean out loose debris in the perforation tunnel, The recommendations do not cover erosion or removal of the crushed/damaged zone around the perforation. ‘Walton (2000) suggests that the main role of underbalance is to initiate mechanical 2 prs ‘st pocsly rman so 2m pray tex pony = 25x prety Tien prot —25n poets ea Sana on 0.5 in. perforation diameter, 000 301m purr dmotr cow Optimum underbalance (psi) 1 10 100 1000 10000 Permeability (md) Figure 2.44 Optimum underbalance from Behrmann’ criteria.Reservoir Completion 57 failure of the damaged zone. Failure depends on the rock strength and not directly on the permeability, However, there is normally a relationship between perme- ability and rock strength and hence purely experimental relationships such as King’s have permeability dependence. Damaged zone failure is a combination of tensile filure (drag forces) and shear failure, ‘The problem with this approach is determining the strength of the damaged zone with its dependence on rock, fluid and charge properties. Further data will be required before this promising approach can find widespread application Obtaining the required underbalance can be achieved by displacing to a lightweight fluid prior to perforating. A number of techniques can be used to achieve this © For perforating on tubing or on drillpipe, the tubing contents can be forward circulated to oil or nitrogen prior to setting a packer. Circulating nitrogen will require a large volume of nitrogen, especially if tubing or packer pressure testing is performed after circulation * Slickline can be used to remove fluid (swabbing). This technique has stood the test of time. It requires wash cups deployed on slickline to lift a column of liquid out of the well. To prevent the possibility of reaching too deep and trying to lift too much fluid, a pressure relief valve is incorporated to bypass the wash cups. It can be time-consuming, but is often quicker than rigging up coiled tubing, * Coiled tubing can be used to displace the tubing to nitrogen. This process is not efficient — especially if the displacement is deep. Similarly, if a gas lift completion is deployed, this can be used to remove much of the liquid, by displacing nitrogen down the annulus Logic would suggest that using a compressible fluid or a well that is open to flow ensures that the surge is long enough to lift out debris and clean up the perforation tunnels. However, if break-up of the damaged zone is required, even a momentary tunderbalance may be sufficient — so long as it propagates without excessive loss to all of the perforation tunnels It is also possible to generate underbalance on a well that is already open by simply flowing it during perforating. This is particularly usefull for multiple tip perforating. Obtaining the correct underbalance from flowing the well requires either accurate well performance estimations or surface read out, downhole pressure gauges. Given that low-permeability formations require larger underbalances and high-permeability formations limit the drawdown, it may be necessary to perforate the lower permeability intervals first. A feature of many guns is that they contain atmospheric pressure inside the gun carrier. The carrier protects the charges from wellbore fluids. They also provide a source of surge and underbalance when the gun floods immediately after firing. There is a very short period increase in pressure from the gun firing, followed by a drop in pressure from gun flooding, followed by an increase in pressure from reservoir fluid flow (Behrmann et al., 1997), Each pressure pulse can generate further oscillations, A significant advantage of this gun flooding is that it is local to the perforations and therefore can be more effective than an underbalance that requires a longer flow distance such as with conventional static underbalance