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Permalink Reply by 0i7okn54zwbdo on January 25, 2013 at 7:03am

Not fractured.

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Permalink Reply by Jack Straw on January 25, 2013 at 9:51am

Well stimulation is somewhat of a generic term.

A well stimulation can mean the application of a variety of techniques to enhance production.

At the moment, fracing is the one that is getting the most attention; but there are other stimulation technologies that can be applied (as appropriate) - examples:

Acidizing - pumping into a well a "mud acid" (such as Formic Acid) to reduce the effects of the invasion of drilling mud into the producing formation (thus improving permeability and production).

Gas Lift  is another type of well stimulation.

 

JS

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Permalink Reply by Billy Park Whyde on January 25, 2013 at 6:47pm

Jack over in the Saudi area are they not using just water (not Frack) to  basically float the oil out?

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Permalink Reply by Brian Powers on January 26, 2013 at 4:09am

Jack -

stimulation is defined as any method applied to improve flow from the reservoir to the well bore. This could range from the old nitroglycerin shots (early, primative fracturing technique) to filling the tubing with fluid and pumping to "break down" the perforations to establish a flow path or acidizing with a variety of acids or hydraulic fracturing.

Formic acid is sometimes used for stimulating, but mud acid as I've applied it is a mixture of hydrofluoric and hydrochloric acid (HF/HCl). It removes invaded mud particles from the porous spaces in near wellbore rock. I've only used it in sandstone reservoirs; I've never heard of mud acid treatments being attempted in shale. HCl is often used to remove accumulated scale near the wellbore or in the production tubing.

 

Any stimulation, if properly designed, executed and if successful, stimulates production but has no long term impact on permeability. Many are not well thought through and end up being colossal wastes of money

An analogy is removing snow and ice from highway access ramps; it allows more vehicles to access the highway without impeding flow. Without the snow/ice removal, the vehicles back up and traffic flow is impeded.

 

Gas lift is not a stimulation technique, it is an artificial lift technique and is but one method to remove liquids from a wellbore. Others are: using pump jacks, sucker rods and downhole pumps, electric submersible pumps, plunger lift ("tubing rabbits"), progressing cavity pumps, jet pumps, etc.

 

Brian

 

 

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