Viscoelastic-surfactant treatment fluids having oxidizer
A method and reactive treatment fluid for treating a wellbore for filter cake removal, including providing the reactive treatment fluid having a viscoelastic surfactant (VES) into a wellbore in a subterranean formation and attacking the filter cake via the reactive treatment fluid.
1. A reactive treatment fluid comprising:
a reactive treatment fluid for removing filter cake from a wellbore in a subterranean formation, the reactive treatment fluid comprising:
a reactive breaker comprising an oxidizing salt to break polymer in the filter cake;
a viscoelastic surfactant (VES) to gel the reactive treatment fluid to give the reactive treatment fluid as a VES gel for retention of the oxidizing salt for breaking the polymer in the filter cake at an end portion of a lateral of the wellbore;
an acid-generating material to form acid via heat from the subterranean formation to attack weighting agent from drilling fluid in the filter cake, wherein the acid lowers viscosity of the VES gel.
2. The reactive treatment fluid of claim 1 , wherein the reactive treatment fluid comprises the oxidizing salt at a concentration in excess of that to break the polymer.
3. The reactive treatment fluid of claim 1 , wherein the oxidizing salt does not break the VES gel.
4. The reactive treatment fluid of claim 1 , wherein the weighting agent comprises calcium carbonate, bentonite, barite, ilmenite, or manganese tetroxide, or any combinations thereof.
5. The reactive treatment fluid of claim 1 , wherein the weighting agent comprises calcium carbonate, and wherein the acid dissolves the weighting agent in the filter cake.
6. The reactive treatment fluid of claim 1 , wherein the acid-generating material comprises solid particles that degrade in the wellbore due to temperature of the subterranean formation to form the acid.
7. The reactive treatment fluid of claim 6 , wherein the acid-generating material comprising the solid particles comprises polylactic acid (PLA), poyglycolic acid (PGA), an orthoester, or polyanhydride, or any combinations thereof.
8. The reactive treatment fluid of claim 6 , wherein the solid particles comprise a particle size in a range of 20 microns to 2 millimeters (mm).
9. The reactive treatment fluid of claim 1 , wherein the acid-generating material comprises an ester that hydrolyzes to form the acid.
10. The reactive treatment fluid of claim 9 , wherein the ester comprises carboxylic acid.
11. The reactive treatment fluid of claim 1 , wherein the acid-generating material comprises a combination of ammonium salt and a second oxidizing salt, and wherein ammonium of the ammonium salt is oxidized by the second oxidizing salt to form the acid.
12. The reactive treatment fluid of claim 11 , wherein the second oxidizing salt comprises bromate.
13. The reactive treatment fluid of claim 11 , wherein the second oxidizing salt comprises the oxidizing salt that breaks the polymer.
14. The reactive treatment fluid of claim 1 , wherein the acid-generating material is neutral in the reactive treatment fluid at Earth surface prior to introduction of the reactive treatment fluid into the wellbore.
15. The reactive treatment fluid of claim 1 , wherein the reactive treatment fluid comprises an inverting surfactant encapsulated in an encapsulating material that degrades at temperature of the subterranean formation, and wherein the filter cake comprises an oil-based filter cake formed from oil-based drilling fluid.
16. The reactive treatment fluid of claim 15 , wherein the inverting surfactant inverts the oil-based filter cake, and wherein the inverting surfactant comprises an hydrophile-lipophile balance (HLB) of at least 12.