Page 245 - Formation Damage during Improved Oil Recovery Fundamentals and Applications

CHAPTER FIVE

Formation Damage by Inorganic
Deposition

Xingru Wu
The University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, United States

Contents
5.1 Introduction 217
5.2 Types of Scales in Formation Damage 220
5.2.1 Carbonate scales 221
5.2.2 Sulfate scales 221
5.2.3 Other inorganic solids 222
5.3 Processes of Scale Formation 224
5.3.1 Solubility and supersaturation 224
5.3.2 Dynamics of scale formation 227
5.3.3 Formation damage from scale deposition 231
5.3.4 Scale inhibitors 233
5.4 Management of Scaling in Development and Production 234
5.4.1 Water sampling and analysis 235
5.4.2 Options for scale prevention and remediation 237
5.5 Summary 240
References 241

5.1 INTRODUCTION

In nature, both formation water and surface water contain many
anions and cations. The chemistry of brine in a reservoir is determined
by past migration history and local conditions, and generally stable at res-
ervoir conditions. The water used for injection is either sea water, fresh
water, or produced water reinjection. Table 5.1 shows the major chemical
species and their concentrations of brines from different fields and sea
water. For both sea water and formation water, the salinity of the brine is
higher than that of fresh water; however, both of them feature different
ion species and compositions. For example, formation water usually has

Formation Damage during Improved Oil Recovery. © 2018 Elsevier Inc.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-813782-6.00005-1 All rights reserved. 217