Acid Fracture Conductivity Behavior of Tahe Carbonate: High Closure Stress, Long-Term Conductivity, and Composite Conductivity

Abstract

Acid fracture conductivity is a key parameter in acid fracturing designs and production performance prediction. It depends on the fracture surface etching pattern, rock mechanical properties, and closure stress. The fracture surfaces undergo creep deformation under closure stress during production. Preservation of fracture conductivity becomes a challenge at elevated closure stress. In this paper, we investigated acid fracture conductivity behavior of Tahe deep carbonate reservoir with high closure stress and high temperature. A series of acid fracture conductivity experiment was conducted in a laboratory facility designed to perform acid fracture conductivity. Gelled acid and cross linked acid with different acid-rock contact times were tested for analyzing the effect of acid type and acid-rock contact time on the resulting conductivity. Closure stress up to 100MPa was tested to verify the feasibility of acid fracturing for elevated closure stress. Long-term conductivity up to 7-day was tested to determine the capability of conductivity retaining after creep deformation. Composite conductivity of acid fracture with prop pant was also carried out. The study shows that the fracture retained enough conductivity even under effective closure stress of 70MPa. The gelled acid has a much higher conductivity than the cross linked acid for the same contact time. For the gelled acid, contact time above 60-minute does not lead to conductivity increase. Acid fracture with prop pant has a lower conductivity at low closure stress and a higher conductivity at high closure stress than the acid fracture, which shows composite conductivity is a feasible way to raise conductivity at high closure stress. The long-term conductivity tests show that the acid fracture conductivity decreases fast within the first 48-hour and then levels off. The conductivity keeps stable after 120-hour. An acid fracture conductivity correlation was also developed for this reservoir.