Modeling flow of chelating agents during stimulation of carbonate reservoirs

Different fluids have been introduced in the oil industry to be used as alternatives to HCl. Chelating agents such as EDTA (ethylenediaminetetraaceticacid), and HEDTA (hydroxy ethylene diamine triacetic acid) have been used as stand-alone stimulation fluids. These fluids can be used to stimulate water injectors, oil, or gas producers, therefore, the effect of the type of reservoir fluid on the stimulation process should be investigated. In this study, an analytical model was developed to describe the flow of HEDTA and EDTA chelating agents and propagation inside carbonate formations. The analytical model can be used as a pre-design tool before the treatments. The developed model can be used to predict the volume of the chelant solution required to create wormholes in calciteformations at different temperatures. The temperature affects the diffusion coefficient of the chelating agent, wormholing rate, and wormhole shape and size. The dissolving power of different forms of HEDTA chelating agent can be determined using the model. The optimum injection rate based on optimum wormholing conditions was identified for the chelating agents. Also, the model can be used to predict the wormholing rate of different chelating agents in carbonate formations. The analytical model can be used to predict the performance of the chelating agent in carbonate stimulation. The volume of chelating agent required to stimulate carbonate formation per foot thickness was determined using the developed model. The optimum injection rate was determined for different chelating agents using the model and the results were compared with experimental results from previous work and there was a good agreement between the measured and the predicted values. The model can be used to determine the best stimulation fluid based on the temperature and fracture pressure of the target zones.