Effects of Heterogeneity in Mineralogy Distribution on Acid Fracturing Efficiency
Authors: Jin Xiao , Zhu Ding , Hill A. D. , McDuff Darren 
Published: January 2019

Creating sufficient and sustained fracture conductivity contributes directly to the success of acid fracturing treatments. The permeability and mineralogy distributions of formation rocks play significant roles in creating non-uniformly etched surfaces that can withstand high closure stress. Previous studies showed that depending on the properties of formation rock and acidizing conditions (acid selection, formation temperature, injection rate and contact time), a wide range of etching patterns (roughness, uniform, channeling) could be created that can dictate the resultant fracture conductivity. Insoluble minerals and their distribution can completely change the outcomes of acid fracturing treatments. However, most experimental studies use homogeneous rock samples such as Indiana limestones that do not represent the highly-heterogeneous features of carbonate rocks. This work studies the effect of heterogeneity, and more importantly, the distribution of insoluble rock, on acid fracture conductivity.

In this research, we conducted acid fracturing experiments using both homogeneous Indiana limestone samples and heterogeneous carbonate rock samples. The Indiana limestone tests served as a baseline. The highly-heterogeneous carbonate rock samples contain several types of insoluble minerals such as quartz and various types of clays along sealed natural fractures. These minerals are distributed in the form of streaks correlated against the flow direction, or as smaller nodules. After acidizing the rock samples, these minerals acted as pillars that significantly reduced conductivity decline rate at high closure stresses. Both X-ray diffraction (XRD) and X-ray fluorescence (XRF) tests were done to pinpoint the type and location of different minerals on the fracture surfaces. A surface profilometer was also used to correlate conductivity as a function of mineralogy distribution by comparing the surface scans from after the acidizing test to the scans after the conductivity test. Theoretical models considering geostatistical correlation parameters were used to match and understand the experimental results.

Results of this study showed that insoluble minerals with higher mechanical properties were not crushed at high closure stress, resulting in a less steep conductivity decline with increasing closure stress. If the acid etching creates enough conductivity, the rock sample can sustain a higher closure stress with a much lower decline rate compared with Indiana limestone samples. Fracture surfaces with insoluble mineral streaks correlated against the flow direction offer the benefit of being able to maintain conductivity at high closure stress, but not necessarily high initial conductivity. Using a fracture conductivity model with correlation length, we matched the fracture conductivity behavior for the heterogeneous samples. Fracture surfaces with mineral streaks correlated with the flow direction could increase acid fracturing conductivity significantly as compared to the case when the streak is correlated against the flow direction.

The results of the study show that fracture conductivity can be optimized by taking advantage of the distribution of insoluble minerals along the fracture surface and demonstrate the important considerations to make the acid fracturing treatment successful.