A New Chemical Approach to Stimulation of Old Producing Wells
Authors: Brogdon Bill R. , Dill Floyd E. 
Published: December 2007

This paper was prepared for the 44th Annual Fall Meeting of the of the Society of Petroleum Engineers of AIME, to be held in Denver, Colo., Sept. 28-Oct. 1, 1969. Permission to copy is restricted to an abstract of not more than 300 words. Illustrations may not be copied. The abstract should contain conspicuous acknowledgment of where and by whom the paper is presented. Publication elsewhere after publication in the JOURNAL OF PETROLEUM TECHNOLOGY or the SOCIETY OF PETROLEUM ENGINEERS JOURNAL is usually granted upon request to the Editor of the appropriate journal, provided agreement to give proper credit is made.

Discussion of this paper is invited. Three copies of any discussion should be sent to the Society of Petroleum Engineers office. Such discussion may be presented at the above meeting and, with the paper, may be considered for publication in one of the two SPE magazines.

Production of crude oil often results in the deposition of various insoluble materials in the wellbore or in the immediate vicinity of the wellbore. These deposits are sometimes complex in nature, involving comingled organic and inorganic substances. The character of such deposits which have been removed from many Permian Basin wells is described and remedial treatments are presented. A combination of treating fluids presented. A combination of treating fluids has been developed which permits simultaneous removal of most residues. This base chemical solution is described as well as various modifications which can be made to adapt the solution to a specific well situation. Field results are listed which demonstrate the effectiveness of the new chemical technique. This process has particular application when process has particular application when used as a step in the conversion of an old producer or gas injector to a water injectors

Introduction

Many of the oil wells in the Permian Basin have a producing history which extends over a quarter century. During this period of time, many changes have occurred in producing rates, GOR, oil/ water ratio and bottom hole pressure. Primary production, in many cases, has Primary production, in many cases, has been augmented by the installation of waterfloods and pressure maintenance projects. These changes in conditions projects. These changes in conditions have generally resulted in intensification of deposition of both organic and inorganic substances on production equipment, boreholes, and even within the producing formation. Deposition of producing formation. Deposition of these materials occurs when either temperature or pressure falls below a certain point.

The character of the deposits has been found to be almost as varied as the methods used for their removal. Multistage treatments have been employed with considerable success, but are not too well accepted due to the several days down time which is necessary to complete the treatment, and attendant costs. A single-stage treatment has been developed which can be designed to remove all phases of an organic-inorganic deposit phases of an organic-inorganic deposit in most instances.