REMEDIATING CONDENSATE-BANKING: IN BOTH FRACTURED AND UNFRACTURED

WELLS

PROPPED HYDRAULIC FRACTURES AND CONDENSATE BANKING REMEDIATION

The undesirable impact of condensate-banking on wellbore productivity and recovery factors has been
extremely well researched and documented. Although surprisingly, likely due to a mentality of wishful
thinking, is often almost completely ignored or its impact at least supressed in terms of ensuring it is addressed
during an initial Field Development. While the more enlightened Operators will typically apply gas-cycling or
more often massive hydraulic fracturing to address this, ultimately the condensate-banking effect will eventually
dominate the reservoir behaviour as the pore-pressure falls below dew-point and the inevitable phase and
saturation behaviours change.

As a result the oil & gas industry has toyed with any number of approaches to dealing with the resulting loss of
productivity, through various intervention approaches. These approaches have included the use of lean gas
injection, re-fracturing operations, or alternative stimulation approaches; although the lack of published
successful case histories and widespread application indicates that the success of such approaches has been
limited at best. In order to address this effect, a highly impactful approach was developed, tested and
operationally confirmed using diffused (aerosol) deployed chemistry within lean gas solutions. Combining the
effects of optimal coverage, penetration, sustainability and contact with the system resulted in significant uplift
in laboratory and field measured EUR, RF and remediation.

The approach has been developed over some years, in response to the loss of productivity and ultimate
recovery-factor in a trend of deep, hot and extensive retrograde gas-condensate fields in the Eastern cordillera of
the Andes mountains of Colombia. Since development, this unique gas diffused technology has continued to be
refined, developed further and applied with increasing success, for the treatment of condensate, water-block and
asphaltenes. The paper will demonstrate a number of Field examples, combined with prior laboratory testing
and chemistry selection and refinement, to demonstrate that the diffused gas-particulate solution is both superior
to and more impactful than other alternatives where they may exist (although often they do not).

This paper presents a unique and novel combination of chemical stimulation techniques, to alleviate gas-
condensate banking; by combining chemical technology with gas borne delivery of engineered particle sizing
deep into damaged formations. Deployed in hydraulically fractured or also non-fractured wellbore
environments, the resulting impact on gas-condensate reservoir performance has resulted in significantly
enhanced well and reservoir economics. An entirely new form of stimulation approach, gas diffused
particulates, potentially opens up a whole branch of gas borne stimulation which has yet to be fully investigated.
Author Block:
M. Rylance, MEDCO Energi; A. Ocampo-Florez, A. Restrepo Morales, GaStim Technologies S.A.S.

Abstract:

Objectives/Scope: The undesirable impact of condensate-banking, on wellbore productivity and

recovery factors, has been extremely well researched and documented. Although surprisingly,
likely due to a mentality of wishful thinking, it is more often than not almost completely ignored
or its impact at least suppressed in terms of ensuring it is addressed during the initial Field
Development. While the more enlightened Operators will typically apply gas-cycling or more
realistically massive hydraulic fracturing to address this, ultimately the condensate-banking effect
will eventually dominate the reservoir behaviour as the pore-pressure falls below the dew-point
and the inevitable phase and saturation behaviours will change the well/field productivity.

Methods, Procedures, Process: As a result the oil & gas industry has toyed with any number of
approaches to dealing with the resulting loss of productivity, through various intervention
approaches. These approaches have included the use of lean gas injection, re-fracturing
operations, or alternative stimulation approaches; although the lack of published successful case
histories and widespread application indicates that the success of such approaches has been
limited at best. In order to address this effect, a highly impactful approach was developed, tested
and operationally confirmed using diffused (aerosol) deployed chemistry within lean gas
solutions. Combining the effects of optimal coverage, penetration, sustainability and contact with
the system resulted in significant uplift in laboratory and field measured EUR, RF and
remediation.

Results, Observations, Conclusions: This approach was developed over some years, in
response to the loss of productivity and ultimate recovery-factor in a trend of deep, hot and
extensive retrograde gas-condensate fields in the Eastern cordillera of the Andes mountains of
Colombia. Since initial development, this unique gas diffused technology has continued to be
refined, developed further and applied with increasing success on both fractured and unfractured
wells, for the treatment of condensate, water-block and asphaltenes. The paper will demonstrate
a number of Field examples, combined with prior laboratory testing and chemistry selection and
refinement, to demonstrate that the diffused gas-particulate solution is both superior to and
more impactful than other alternatives where they may exist (although often they do not).

Novel/Additive Information: This paper presents a unique and novel combination of chemical
stimulation techniques, to alleviate gas-condensate banking; by combining chemical technology
with gas borne delivery of engineered particle sizing deep into damaged fractures and
formations. Deployed in hydraulically fractured or also non-fractured wellbore environments, the
resulting impact on gas-condensate reservoir performance has resulted in significantly enhanced
well and reservoir economics. An entirely new form of stimulation approach, gas diffused
particulates, potentially opens up a whole branch of gas borne stimulation which has yet to be
fully investigated.