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ACID SOLUBILITY TESTING OF GREYWACKE CORE AND IMPLICATIONS FOR

WELL PERMEABILITY ENHANCEMENT

Conference Paper · November 2017

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 ACID SOLUBILITY TESTING OF GREYWACKE CORE AND IMPLICATIONS FOR
WELL PERMEABILITY ENHANCEMENT
Paul A. Siratovich1, Marlène C. Villeneuve2, Stanley Mordensky2, Ian Richardson1
1Mercury NZ. 283 Vaughan Road, Rotorua, 3010, New Zealand
2University of Canterbury, Private Bag 4800, Christchurch, 8041, New Zealand

[email protected]

Keywords: Acidizing, Stimulation, Kawerau, Permeability, some success) and a blend of hydrochloric and hydrofluoric
Strength, Porosity, Reservoir acid is generally preferred to treat silica scaling (Flores-
Aremnta, 2010).
ABSTRACT
Acidizing of geothermal wells can be a cost-effective and
attractive option to recover well permeability and
productivity compared to drilling new wells. Understanding 2. MATERIALS AND METHODS
how the reservoir rock may react to acid injection is To provide indications of the effects of down-hole
important to ensure that damage to the reservoir formation acidizing, core from an active injection well (KA-50) was
does not occur and also to help understand if permeability selected for this study representative of the Greywacke
can be improved. In an effort to investigate the effect of reservoir at Kawerau. The laboratory testing component of
acid stimulation on Greywacke core, a series of core plugs this study was carried out at the University of Canterbrury
were extracted from core taken from an injection well Department of Geological Sciences.
hosted in Greywacke. These plugs were measured for
porosity, density, seismic wave velocity, and permeability. 2.1 Sample Material Description
The samples were then selected to have a first suite exposed The core material is sourced from well KA-50 taken from
to HCl acid, a second to both an initial HCl treatment approximately 2740m at Kawerau. The original core was
followed by HCl/HF treatment and a third untreated to act 100 mm in diameter with 4.2 m recovered on the original
as control. The samples were re-measured for changes in core run (Rae et al, 2010). The core is composed of
their physical properties following acid exposure. The Torlesse Greywacke, which comprises foliated dark grey
initial HCl testing results show changes in physical argillite, and quartzo-feldspathic meta-sandstone, and is
properties across the samples. The HCl/HF testing also intensely veined with calcite and quartz infilled fractures.
resulted in changes to physical properties. Permeability Veining is most intense in the meta-sandstone facies of the
increased in all samples exposed to acid treatment. Further, Greywacke. For this study, we focused on the meta-
after physical characterization, the samples were sandstone facies as this was is most competent section of
mechanically tested to determine Uniaxial Compressive the core.
Strength (UCS). Strength decreased in all samples treated
with acid. The results of the testing are discussed here and 2.2 Sample Preparation
the implications for changes to reservoir permeability and Cylindrical cores were taken from a 500 mm long section of
strength are explored with respect to acid treatments on 100 mm diameter core; 20 mm core plugs were drilled from
both injection and production wells hosted in Greywacke. the larger core and cut and ground to 40 mm in length
according to ISRM Standards (Ulusay and Hudson, 2007a).
1. INTRODUCTION The fractured nature of the core proved to be somewhat
1.1 Acid Stimulation as a Permeability Recovery difficult for preparing cylinders of the required
Technique specifications but 12 samples were machined adequately for
Matrix acidizing of hydrocarbon and geothermal wells is a characterization and testing.
long established method to recover permeability lost
2.3 Characterization of sample properties
through both production and injection of reservoir fluids.
The formation of near well damage (skin) results in a net Prior to acid treatment, physical characterization was
increase of pressure at the well/reservoir interface which carried out that comprised of measuring mass, density,
results in lost productivity or injectivity. The damage can be porosity (Ulusay and Hudson, 2007b), and dry and
addressed through the application of a specialized chemical saturated ultrasonic velocity profiling to determine baseline
blend to dissolve material deposited at the well face that material properties of the samples (for further detail on the
depends on the nature of material deposited. In geothermal methods used see Siratovich et al, 2015).
wells, calcite and silica scaling are the two most commonly
observed precipitates that decrease well deliverability, with 2.4 Acid treatment of samples
calcite mainly affecting production wells and silica mainly After the baseline was established, three separate sets of
affecting injection wells (Flores-Armenta, 2010; Malate et samples were established: the control group which would
al, 1998). see no acid treatment (referred to as “as cut”), the HCl
group which would only see HCl treatment, and the HF
Hydrochloric acid is generally chosen to address calcite group which would undergo HCl treatment followed by
scaling (although formic and nitric acids have also seen HCl/HF treatment.

Proceedings 39th New Zealand Geothermal Workshop

22 - 24 November 2017
Rotorua, New Zealand
The HCl and HCl/HF groups were then acidized in 10% (figures 1c and 1d). The samples also appeared to be more
HCl for 65 minutes. We then repeated the physical friable and fragile following HCl+HF treatment.
characterization for all samples in these two groups. The
HCl+HF group was then acidized in 10% HCl + 5% HF for 3.2 Physical Property Changes- First HCl Treatment
98 minutes. We then repeated the physical characterization
for all samples in this group. Between acid treatments the After acidizing with 10% HCl, 8 samples were re-analyzed
cores were flushed with fresh water until the pH of the for changes in mass, density and porosity. Mass loss ranged
effluent water was neutral (pH 6.5-7) and then flushed for from -0.43 to -1.5%. Density decreased in all samples
another 5 minutes. ranging from -0.62 to -28.35 kg/m 3. Porosity increased in
all samples showing a range of 0.1-0.9% increase in
Some samples showed macroscopic failure following connected porosity (connected porosity increased from an
treatment and were either discarded from the study or cut to average of 2.5% to 2.9%).
square to allow further characterization, this was done as
the core material is difficult and expensive to obtain and Further, we characterized the change in ultrasonic wave
valuable for use in other research areas. propagation and dynamic moduli. As Kawerau is a liquid
dominated system, we preferred the saturated modulii to
2.5 Further Characterization give an indication of changes to the bulk rock
In addition to the physical measurements described above, characteristics. Saturated P-wave (Vp) velocity showed
permeability measurements were made on select samples to changes ranging from -348 to +19 m/s. Saturated shear
explore the impact of acid treatments on permeability. wave velocity (Vs) showed both attenuation and
Finally, a series of samples were strength tested in axial amplification with changes ranging from -721 to +729 m/s
compression at a strain rate of 1x10-5 s-1 to determine the change with an average decrease of -116 m/s in wave
propagation speed for all acidized samples.
unconfined compressive strength (UCS) and the elastic
modulus (Young’s Modulus).
3.3 Physical Property Changes- After HCl and HCl+HF
3. RESULTS Treatment

As previously discussed, a further set of samples were

3.1 Visual and Textural Observations acidized with an HCl/HF mixture following the initial HCl
The images in Figure 1 show the physical and color treatment. Four samples were examined in this portion of
changes undergone by representative sample 7 during the testing and we found that mass loss ranged from -3.3 to -
4.3%. Density also showed a decrease from -48 to -101
stages of acid treatment. Figure 1a shows the grey meta-
sandstone texture crosscut by both silica and calcite filled kg/m3 dry mass density change. Porosity has also increased
fractures. Following the first acid treatment with HCl, the significantly with all four samples showing porosity
overall color of the samples remained the same; however ranging from 5.1-5.7% connected porosity (an average net
fractures previously filled with calcite were clearly etched change of 2.8% increase in connected porosity).
and opened (Figure 1b). The removal of calcite also led to
The ultrasonic velocities were also dramatically changed by
the failure of part of the sample (arrow figure 1b). After
the application of HF acid. Vp was attenuated from -99 to -
HCl/HF treatment, the sample showed further etching of the
1059 m/s. Vs also showed a change in all samples with a
surface and a distinct color shift from grey to pale greenish-
range of change from -94 to +360 m/s in wave speeds.
grey (figure 1c) The fractures, however, do not appear to
display a clear macroscopic change after the HF treatment

Figure 1: Photos of sample #7: a) as cut with no acid treatment; b) following HCl treatment with etched calcite fractures
(open arrows) and failed top edge (red arrow); c) following HCl+HF treatment (with open star to orient sample as same
view seen in (a); d) same view as (b) following HCl+HF treatment with open arrow showing etched fracture.

Proceedings 39th New Zealand Geothermal Workshop

22 - 24 November 2017
Rotorua, New Zealand
3.4 Permeability 3.5 Strength and P-wave velocity

Permeability was tested on four of the twelve original A general trend of decreasing strength with increasing
samples both before and after acidizing treatments (samples porosity is shown in Figure 3, as observed elsewhere (eg.
1, 7(a), 8 and 11). Initial permeability at 3 MPa Siratovich et al., 2014; Wyering et al., 2014). The acid
confinement averaged 2.0 x10-17 m2 with a range from 3.0 treatment increases porosity, which decreases strength. The
x10-18 m2 to 5.2 x10-17 m2. The change in the four samples porosity increase after the HCl/HF treatment does not
following the initial HCl acidizing was significant with a decrease the strength as significantly as the HCl treatment.
change in permeability ranging from one to three orders of
magnitude increase in flow potential (Table 1). Further, the The saturated P-wave velocity in general similarly
permeability was markedly increased in the samples that decreases with increased porosity (Figure 4) as observed
underwent HF treatment (Table 1). elsewhere (eg. Siratovich et al., 2014; Wyering et al.,
2014). The porosity increase resulting from the acid
The permeability increases with minor corresponding treatment also decreases saturated P-wave velocity.
increase in porosity after the HCl treatment, and with larger
increase in porosity after the HCl/HF treatment (Figure 2). 4. DISCUSSION
Application of HCl and HF acids clearly changes the
Table 1: Permeability results for 4 samples following physical properties of the Greywacke core plugs that we
acid treatments. have tested in this study. In order to make sense of the data,
Permeability to Nitrogen at 3MPa confining pressure (m 2) we have summarized our interpretation of the results in the
following sections.
After 10%
After 10% HCl and 4.1 Effects of Acidizing with Hydrochloric Acid
Sample # As cut After treatment with HCl, all samples show an increase in
HCl 10%HCl +
5% HF porosity that is likely the result of dissolution of calcite
infilling fractures. This is apparent in Figure 1 where pore
1 3.5 E-17 1.4 E-16 1.3 E-15 space has clearly been etched in the veins. Further, the
reaction with HCl was quite vigorous indicating the
7a 3.0 E-18 2.4 E-17 - dissolution of calcite.

8 3.1 E-18 1.8 E-15 -

11 6.9 E-18 1.9 E-15 4.4 E-15

Figure 2: Permeability-porosity plot for all tested samples at 3 MPa confinement, presented according to treatment. Only
four samples were measured in this way, corresponding to the four arrows. The other points represent single
measurements. Arrows show progressive increases in porosity and permeability with treatment stages.

Proceedings 39th New Zealand Geothermal Workshop

22 – 24 November 2017
Rotorua, New Zealand
Figure 3: Strength-porosity plot for all tested samples, presented according to treatment.

Figure 4: Saturated P-wave porosity plot, presented according to treatment.

Proceedings 39th New Zealand Geothermal Workshop

22 - 24 November 2017
Rotorua, New Zealand
4.2 Effects of Acidizing with HF such that they may serve as a proxy for changes in strength
after down-hole acidizing. The utilization of down-hole logs
It is not clear how much effect the HF component of the acid may therefore be useful to help confirm strength changes at
treatment has on the porosity because it was not tested the borehole wall and confirm or refute predictions from
independently of the HCl. Visually, the HF only appears to geomechanical models built from the results of the testing
etch the surface of the sandstone (Figure 1), whereas the presented here.
HCl appears to dissolve calcite infilling the fractures.
However, the increase in permeability and porosity is quite 5. CONCLUSION
distinct following the HF treatment, and therefore requires The results of this investigation show that there is significant
further investigation to understand the mechanisms that variability in the physical and mechanical properties of the
drive the substantial increase in porosity and permeability. Greywacke found at reservoir depth at Kawerau. Despite the
small sample size, acidizing appears to decrease the strength
4.3 Implications for permeability enhancement and increase the permeability of the rock. Careful selection
of results is required to identify outliers resulting from either
The acid treatments significantly increased porosity, with a
prior damage or particularly weak discrete failure planes, as
resultant increase of one to three orders of magnitude of
these can affect the interpretations of the results. A larger
permeability. This demonstrates the potential for
dataset may provide more reliable data and aid in the
permeability enhancement of veined Greywacke with
interpretation presented here. We also strongly believe that
commonly used acidizing techniques. The implications of
further testing to induce reservoir-type scaling on core
this study are however limited to understanding permeability
samples and additional laboratory testing may help to further
changes of in-situ Greywacke that has not been subject to
optimize the application of acid jobs in the future with
deposition of calcite or silica through either production or
respect to strength, permeability and overall productivity (or
injection.
injectivity) of wellbores prone to geothermal scaling.
The resultant increase in permeability that we observe
however, can indicate the changes that may be expected to ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
occur when a well has been in service and experienced The authors would like to thank Mercury NZ for providing
decline through mineral scaling (e.g. Flores-Armeta, 2010). material for this study and permission to study this work.
We suggest that for future testing, samples that have We would also like to thank Michael Heap and Jim Cole for
experienced calcite or silica scaling in a geothermal technical discussions.
reservoir may provide true insight to what permeability can
be recovered through acidizing. Further testing may require REFERENCES
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Proceedings 39th New Zealand Geothermal Workshop

22 - 24 November 2017
Rotorua, New Zealand
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Proceedings 39th New Zealand Geothermal Workshop

22 - 24 November 2017
Rotorua, New Zealand

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