Investigation of fines migration for a high-pressure, high-temperature carbonate gas reservoir offshore Malaysia

A high CO2 carbonate gas field offshore Sarawak, Malaysia, is scheduled for development. Fines migration has been identified as a potential risk for a sustained and stable production for this field, triggering this investigation. The reservoir investigated (subdivided in S3, S2, S1 formation) has an average 8% clays, of which over 50% are migratory illites and 15% migratory kaolinite. This paper discusses the laboratory findings and factors contributing to fines migration for this reservoir. We conducted core flood tests to determine critical flow rates for the onset of fines migration of high CO2 hydrocarbon gas and CO2-saturated brine within the production gas zone. In addition, we measured total suspended solids during each incremental rate stage and performed scanning electron microscopy–energy-dispersive X-ray (SEM–EDX) analysis on the effluents collected. We also performed mineralogical analysis of formation rocks to determine clay types, amount, and morphology. Core floods performed with CO2-saturated brine on S3 and S2 cores showed damage at a critical flow rate of 10 ml/min with permeability recovery of 65–75%. This shows that CO2-saturated brine tends to mobilize the fines such as illite and kaolinite. Core floods performed with high CO2 hydrocarbon gas showed permeability recovery of 93–96% at rates up to 10 ml/min. SEM analysis on effluents collected showed presence of silicate and carbonate particles with size of 5–50 μm. A combined salt dropout and fines mobilization core flood showed a higher degree of formation damage due to fines mobilization with 74% permeability recovery compared to baseline permeability compared to core floods with high CO2 hydrocarbon gas. However, the formation damage due to fines mobilization for this experiment was reversible. Overall, the results indicate that a high potential for fines migration in this type of carbonate system exists for CO2-saturated brine flow with significant less potential for dry CO2 flow.