Nano Chemical Design for Excessive Water Production Control in Taq Taq Oil Field

Abstract

A common problem in oil and gas field is premature and excessive water production through higher permeable thief zone, faults, water conning or channeling and natural or induced fracture. Excessive water production impacts the economics of a well through increasing rate of corrosion, emulsion and scale formation, consequently shortening its production life and lowering flowing wellhead pressure. There are several techniques used to control excessive water production such as chemical and mechanical. In this work a novel chemical approach was followed to tackle excessive water production in Taq Taq oil field located in Kurdistan Region Iraq. Water production into the reservoir was determined to be through the fractures as the reservoir units are highly fractured carbonates. Therefore, the chemicals designed by this work were to reduce excessive water production selectively and fracture connectivity in the zones where excessive water production is expected. Three nano-solutions have been prepared and investigated for their rheological properties. Only one is selected and met the field screening criteria. The composition of the nano-solutions were mainly polyacrylamide mixed with nano composite of cement, clay and inorganic cross-linker. All nano-solution underwent extensive screening and studied for their mechanical strength, toughness and tensile module. Results showed that nano-solutions strength increases with increasing the nano concentration. Similarly, their viscosity and degradation resistance are improved noticeably with nano composites. The scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) was also used to characterized the nano size and distribution studied by this work.