Impact of Mineral Heterogeneity on Wormhole Propagation in Matrix Acidizing and the Shortcomings of the Damkholer Number-based Designs

Sustainable and successful exploitation of the underground resources (oil, gas, geothermal energy, water, etc.) is intimately dependent on the performances of the well and the near-wellbore to optimally deliver these resources. In carbonate reservoirs, acid stimulation by matrix acidizing has been a method of choice to restore and/or improve well productivity and/or injectivity index. An optimal reaction rate leads to a dissolution regime for which wormholes connect the wellbore and the initial reservoir permeability. The success of this operation depends mainly on the permeability distribution, injection rate, mineral reaction rates and the chemical speciation of reservoir/acid.