Patent ID: 7640981

Claim:
A method of inhibiting deposition of an insoluble mineral salt onto one or more locations selected from the group consisting of the walls of a porous formation, a surface in a production well and a surface downstream of the production well, the method comprising: (a) injecting a dispersion of seed particles of an insoluble mineral salt in an aqueous medium into the formation through an injection well wherein the seed particles have an equivalent spherical diameter of 100% less than 100 nm, and the aqueous medium has dissolved therein precipitate precursor ions that form a precipitate of the insoluble mineral salt when contacted with resident ions in the formation; (b) allowing the dispersion to percolate through the subterranean formation towards the production well and producing the dispersion from the production well; and (c) controllably precipitating the insoluble mineral salt onto the seed particles in one or more locations selected from the group consisting of the formation, the production well and downstream of the production well so as to reduce the deposition of the insoluble mineral salt onto one or more of the walls of the porous formation, the surface in the production well and the surface downstream of the production well.