Study of Formation Damage with Flowzan Biopolymer as Drilling Mud Using Experimental and Computational Methods

Formation damage is the loss of an oil and gas-bearing formation's permeability by the various adverse effects. Formation damage shows a detrimental impact on both the operational and economic implications of oil and gas production. Formation damage can happen during the drilling operation, production phases, hydraulic fracturing, and workover operation. This study focused on investigating formation damage during a drilling operation through computational analysis and experimental core flooding methods. The degree of formation damage will be examined for different drilling conditions like flow rate changes and drilling fluid rheology. Non-Newtonian Herschel Bulkley fluid is used to simulate the drilling fluid in this study. This study shows that formation damage occurs mostly in the near-wellbore region. The thickness for the formation damage largely depends on the permeability of the formation and mudflow rate. In this study, a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model is developed to show the effect of formation damage due to Flowzan biopolymer invasion. A lab-scale core flooding experimental study was also conducted to evaluate the formation damage nature with Flowzan biopolymer and compared the result with brine solution. This experimental study shows that the Flowzan polymer significantly reduces the permeability of a formation from 11.5 mD to 1.8 mD when comparing with the brine solution.