Paper: Laboratory Studies In Support Of Completion Practices Of Oil Gas Reservoirs

The economical exploitation of domestic oil and gas reserves has become more and more difficult to achieve as the quantity and quality of available reservoirs has declined. Under these marginal conditions, the implementation of optimum completion practices will make the difference between economic success and failure. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the role of laboratory testing in optimizing completion practices. The laboratory tests that are useful in optimizing completion practices include reservoir description, drilling fluid, cement, perforating fluid and kill fluid compatibility tests as well as acidizing and fracturing fluid interaction tests. All of the above are discussed as well as recent research efforts in the area of matrix and fracture acidizing, which are aimed at determining parameters such as mass transfer and diffusion coefficients, which are commonly estimated. In the area of hydraulic fracturing, recent findings and research efforts in the area of rheology, proppant transport, leakoff and conductivity of proppants are discussed. Large scale laboratory equipment is shown that simulates downhole conditions for each phase of testing. The work emphasizes the need to use laboratory testing to provide answers that can be implemented in field operations to immediately improve completion design and thus optimize production. Finally, the concept of consortia to leverage research dollars to achieve workable answers to difficult completion problems is addressed.