NANO-EMULSION FOR PRODUCTION ENHANCEMENT PURPOSE

Efficient wellbore cleaning to remove OBM (oil-based mud) residue is important in order to prevent contamination of clean completion brines. Contaminated completion brine is detrimental to the reservoir productivity. If left in place oil reacts with brine to form excessive skin or even form emulsion blockages that can damage the formation eventually leads to a reduction in oil and gas production rate. The best solution to overcome this problem is to remove all OBM residues and replacing the casing to water wet. As a result, the brine can be maintained clean thus reducing the potential of skin damage and emulsion blockage. Conventional clean-up system requires large volume of surfactant and solvent, turbulent flow and incomplete wetting phase change. Recent development in nano-technology has resulted in creation of nanoemulsion fluid for removing OBM residue. Nanoemulsion is ideal for remediating formation damage by removing emulsion blockage and re-water wetting the reservoir. This project studies the potential of nanoemulsion technology in removing OBM residue during wellbore cleaning process. Two sets of experiment will be conducted to compare the cleaning efficiency between nanoemulsion and conventional cleaner fluid : 1)Test at ambient condition using standard API-35 Viscometer and 2)Test at High Pressure High Temperature condition using HPHT Filter Press. The data obtain from these experiments will be studied and analyzed to compare the cleaning efficiency between nanoemulsions and conventional cleaner fluid. Then, the feasibility of using nanoemulsion can be determined in term of cleaning efficiency at different well conditions.