Erica Chalfant, SM Energy
As wells decline and available acreage for new wells lessens in the Permian Basin, it becomes increasingly important that operators capitalize on existing wells and maximize reserves. Scaling is a known issue in the basin, and this paper will address a likely solution. Acid treatments have proven to be effective across different levels, and when diverter is additionally pumped, the effectiveness has potential to increase significantly.
The operator has taken the approach of pumping acid diverter jobs during workover when there is significant concern of blockages due to acid dissolvable scaling in the wellbore. Partnering up with an acid company, five acid diverter jobs have successfully been pumped across five different horizontals in Howard County, TX. These horizontals range across four different benches – Jo Mill, Lower Spraberry, Leonard, and Wolfcamp A. The Jo Mill well additionally had a cleanout across 84% of its lateral prior to pumping the acid diverter job, resulting this well yielding the highest oil uplift at 458% when comparing 30-day averages pre- and post-workover. The average of the other four jobs has oil uplift sitting at 189% with the same 30-day comparisons. Across the five jobs, four were during an ESP swap and one was during a RP workover.
Other jobs pumped have insufficient days post return to production or faced significant curtailment post-workover, making it difficult to be considered in the study. Based on results thus far, the acid diverter program has been considered a success and candidates will continue to be added as seen necessary by respective production engineer.