SPE 56531

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Acid Etching Patterns in Naturally-Fractured Formations
Chengli Dong, A.D. Hill, SPE, and D. Zhu, SPE, University of Texas at Austin

Copyright 1999, Society of Petroleum Engineers Inc.

natural fracture decreases, the channel becomes narrower and
This paper was prepared for presentation at the 1999 SPE Annual Technical Conference and shorter.
Exhibition held in Houston, Texas, 3–6 October 1999.

This paper was selected for presentation by an SPE Program Committee following review of
information contained in an abstract submitted by the author(s). Contents of the paper, as Introduction
presented, have not been reviewed by the Society of Petroleum Engineers and are subject to Matrix acidizing is a stimulation method to improve the well
correction by the author(s). The material, as presented, does not necessarily reflect any
position of the Society of Petroleum Engineers, its officers, or members. Papers presented at productivity in carbonate reservoirs by eliminating the low
SPE meetings are subject to publication review by Editorial Committees of the Society of
Petroleum Engineers. Electronic reproduction, distribution, or storage of any part of this paper permeability barrier near wellbore. It is conducted by pumping
for commercial purposes without the written consent of the Society of Petroleum Engineers is
prohibited. Permission to reproduce in print is restricted to an abstract of not more than 300
the acid at a pressure lower than formation fracture pressure.
words; illustrations may not be copied. The abstract must contain conspicuous The acid used in the process is usually HCl in concentrations
acknowledgment of where and by whom the paper was presented. Write Librarian, SPE, P.O.
Box 833836, Richardson, TX 75083-3836, U.S.A., fax 01-972-952-9435. of 5-28%. In a relatively homogeneous, un-fractured
carbonate, the acid penetrates into the pore structure of the
formation and usually creates wormholes.
Abstract
In an acid fracture treatment, the acid is pumped at a
When a naturally fractured carbonate formation is treated with
pressure higher than the formation fracture pressure to fracture
acid at pressures below the fracturing pressure, the acidizing
the formation. The acid flows through the relatively wide
process will likely be different from either a true matrix
fracture, resulting in more uniform etching of the fracture
treatment or an acid fracturing treatment. In a matrix treatment
walls. When the pressure is released, the fracture will close,
of a relatively homogeneous, un-fractured carbonate, the acid
but because the topography of the fracture surface has
initially penetrates into the pore structure and usually creates
changed, the fracture remains conductive.
wormholes. In an acid fracturing treatment, the acid flows
When natural fractures are present in the formation acidized,
through the relatively wide fracture, resulting in more uniform
the acid etching pattern, acid penetration distance and the
etching of the fracture walls. In naturally fractured formations,
resulting conductivity will be different from both matrix
acid could either mainly generate wormholes, as in matrix
acidizing and acid fracturing. Determining the effect of natural
acidizing of carbonates without natural fractures, or etch the
fractures on the acidizing process is important to the success
fracture surfaces, as in acid fracturing. Determining the
of acidizing naturally fractured formations.
etching pattern is essential for modeling acidizing in
One of the most important properties of natural fractures is
carbonates with natural fractures.
the fracture width (aperture). The widths of natural fractures
We studied the influence of natural fractures on the acid
etching pattern. We used two closely contacted rock samples range from 1×10-3 cm to 5×10-2 cm for shallow depths (less
to simulate natural fractures. The gap between the samples than 1000 m) and 10-5 cm to 10-2 cm for reservoir depths
was in the range of average natural fracture widths indicated (1,500-7,000 m)1,2. Other properties, including the fracture
in the literature. The samples were then acidized with 13.5% network properties, leakoff from natural fractures and
HCl. Numerous experiments were conducted to determine the roughness of the fracture surfaces, also affect the acidizing
acid etching pattern. Our experimental results show that the process.
acid etching pattern of naturally fractured formations depends We conducted a series of acidizing experiments with core
strongly on the width of the natural fracture. For typical samples containing artificial fractures by the same approach as
natural fracture widths, the pattern tends to be wormholing, Nierode and Kruk3 and Gong4. The natural fracture was
rather than etching of the fracture surfaces. In most simulated by closely contacting two pieces of core samples.
experiments, one broad channel was created at the area near Both smooth-surfaced and rough-surfaced fractures were used
the inlet of the samples, and as acid flows down the fracture, in the experiments and the fracture widths ranged from 1×10-3
the channel narrows quickly and finally becomes a deep cm to 9×10-3 cm. The leakoff rates ranged from 0% to 35% of
narrow wormhole. The effect of natural fractures on acid the total acid injection rate. After acidizing, the fractures were
etching pattern vanishes as acid moves away from the inlet. As opened and the acid etching patterns on the fracture surfaces
the width of the natural fracture increases, the channel created were examined. The results of the experiments show that
near the inlet becomes broader and longer, and as the width of acidizing naturally-fractured formations results in different
2 [Chengli Dong, A.D. Hill, D. Zhu] [SPE 56531]

etching patterns from both matrix acidizing and acid small to measure directly in our apparatus. We calculated the
fracturing. width rather than measuring it directly.
In the experiments, the fracture and the rock matrix are
Experimental Study parallel, so that the total permeability can be calculated by
In our acidizing experiments, we simulated the natural fracture k r wr + k f w f
by closely contacting two pieces of core samples. The core kt = (1)
samples were made of Indiana limestone with a porosity of wr
0.16 and a permeability of 5 md. The rock was cut into where kt is the total permeability, kr and kf are the

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parallelepiped-shaped blocks with dimensions of 6.5 cm long, permeabilities of the rock matrix and the fracture respectively
5.0 cm wide and 2.5 cm thick. In most experiments, the and wr and wf are the widths of the rock matrix and the
surfaces of the core samples, which composed the fracture fracture respectively. If the fracture is treated as a slit between
faces, were smooth. We also conducted a few experiments two parallel plates, the permeability of the fracture is
with rough-surfaced core samples. To make the rough-
surfaced fracture, a block of rock was split into two pieces, wf 2
then the two core samples were placed in contact with the two
kf = (2)
12
rough surfaces matched with each other. During the
experiments, a constant load was added normal to the fracture Substituting Eq. 2 into Eq. 1 and rearranging we get:
surface. The fracture width was controlled by adjusting the 1
load on the fracture surface. [
w f = 12(kt wr − k r wr ) 3 ] (3)
The acidizing cell used in our experiments is an alloy Before acidizing, water was pumped into the fracture and
cylinder with two piston-like core holders clamped inside the injection rate and the corresponding pressure drop were
(Fig. 1). As shown in Fig. 1, two core samples placed in the measured, then the total permeability was calculated from
core holders were in close contact, and between them was the Darcy’s law. All other parameters in Eq. 3 were known and
artificial fracture that simulated a natural fracture. A rubber the fracture width was calculated. The width calculated by this
gasket was inserted between the two core holders to provide a method is the hydraulic width of the fracture.
hydraulic seal around the core samples.
During the acidizing experiments, acid was introduced into Acid Etching Pattern. After the core samples were acidized,
the acidizing cell through a fitting mounted on the bottom of the fracture surfaces were photographed in an apparatus
the cell body so that acid flowed upward along the artificial described by Gong et al.5. Figs. 3-10 are the acid etching
fracture and out of the cell from the top fitting. Leakoff acid patterns on the fracture surfaces after the smooth-surfaced
penetrated the fracture faces and rock matrix and went out of fractures were acidized. In each figure, the top of the sample is
the cell through the leakoff lines. Fig. 2 is a schematic the inlet side and the bottom is the outlet side. The light areas
diagram showing the flow paths of effluent and leakoff acid are smooth fracture surfaces and the dark areas are rough,
through the artificial fracture and rock matrix. During the acid-etched surfaces.
experiments, we collected the effluent and leakoff acid In Figs. 3-7, the widths of the fractures before acidizing
separately to determine the amount of acid consumed in
were in the range of 3×10-3 cm to 7×10-3 cm. The acid etching
acidizing.
patterns with fracture widths in this range had one common
We conducted 17 experiments to simulate the acidizing of
characteristic. As shown in Figs. 3-7, in the area near the inlet,
naturally-fractured formations. The main parameter varied was
a channel was created on the fracture surfaces. The breadth of
fracture width, which ranged from 1×10-3 cm to 9×10-3 cm. the channel was larger than that of a wormhole and the depth
The other parameter changed in the experiments was leakoff of the channel was shallower than that of a wormhole. As the
rate, which ranged from 0 to 30% of the total acid injection distance from the inlet increased, the channel became
rate. In 15 experiments, the fracture surfaces were smooth and narrower and deeper, and eventually converged to a
in the other 2 experiments the fracture surfaces were rough. wormhole. The surface of the channel was rough because of
Other acidizing conditions were the same for all experiments. the acid etching. Other areas besides the channel and the
The acid used was 13.5 weight percent hydrochloric acid, the wormhole were as smooth as before acidizing. Acid did not
injection rate was 10 ml/min, the contact time was 20 min, and reach these areas even though there was room between the two
the back pressure was 1000 psi. After acidizing, the core fracture surfaces.
samples were examined for the etched patterns. The This kind of etching pattern is neither like matrix acidizing,
experimental conditions and the acidizing results are which results in only wormholes; nor like acid fracturing,
summarized in Table 1. which results in more uniform etching of the fracture walls.
We observed a mixed pattern of fracture-etching and
Experimental Results wormholing in the experiments of acidizing naturally fractured
Determination of the Fracture Width. The widths of natural formations, with wormholing more pronounced farther away
fractures are in the range of 10-5 to 10-2 cm, which are too from the injection inlet.
[SPE 56531] [Acid Etching Patterns in Naturally-Fractured Formations] 3

Another observation is that the acid etching pattern of Conclusions

naturally fractured formations depends strongly on the fracture Acidizing naturally fractured formations is neither like matrix
width. As the width of the natural fracture increases, the acidizing which results in wormholes nor like acid fracturing
channel created by acid becomes broader, longer and which results in rough fracture surfaces.
shallower, and the un-etched smooth areas become smaller. For smooth-surfaced fractures, when the fracture width is in
Fig. 8 shows the etching pattern from an experiment with an the range of 3×10-3 cm to 8×10-3 cm, acidizing creates a broad
initial fracture width of 8.3×10-3 cm. A very broad, shallow channel in the fracture surface, which becomes more and more
and long channel was created. When the fracture width was narrow until it converges to a deep narrow wormhole when

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larger than 10-2 cm, the entire surfaces of the fracture are farther away from the inlet. As the fracture width increases,
etched by acid uniformly, creating rough fracture surfaces the length and breadth of the channel increases. When the
much like in acid fracturing. fracture width is larger than 10-2 cm, acidizing results in more
As the width of the natural fracture decreases, the channel uniform etching of the entire fracture walls which is the same
created by acid becomes narrower, shorter and deeper, and the as acid fracturing. As the fracture width decreases, the channel
un-etched smooth areas become larger. When the width of the becomes narrower, shorter and deeper. When the fracture
natural fracture is smaller than 10-3 cm, the channel width is smaller than 10-3 cm, the channel disappears, and
disappears; instead, narrow and deep wormholes propagate instead wormholes are created along the fracture surfaces. The
from the inlet to the outlet along the fracture. In Figs. 9-10, the surfaces of the wormhole and the channel become rough while
fracture width before acidizing was less than 3×10-3 cm, and other areas are as smooth as before acidizing.
the acidizing resulted in narrow and deep wormholes. If the For the acidizing of rough-surfaced fractures, when the
channel breadth is plotted versus fracture width, it is clear that fracture width is larger than 8×10-3 cm, acidizing results in a
the channel breadth increases as the fracture width increases, broad and shallow channel along the fracture. When the
as shown in Fig. 11. fracture width is smaller than 5×10-3 cm, acid penetrates into
From acidizing experiments with leakoff we observed that the fracture, and creates several wormholes near the inlet. As
the leakoff acid did not change the acid etching pattern. Even acid flows along the fracture, only the largest wormholes
with the 35% leakoff rate, a channel was still created at the continue to propagate through the entire fracture while other
fracture surface with exactly the same shape as the one small wormholes stop propagating. The surfaces of the
without leakoff. The only difference was that leakoff acid wormholes are relatively smooth compared with other areas
created a wormhole perpendicular to the fracture surface near whose surfaces are not changed.
the inlet. The diameter of the wormhole increased as the For both smooth- and rough-surfaced fractures, the acid
leakoff rate increased. etching pattern depends strongly on the width of the fracture.
Figures 12-14 show the acid etching pattern from acidizing
rough-surfaced fractures. Figs. 12 and 13 are the two matching Nomenclature
surfaces of one fracture. The initial width of the fracture was kf = fracture permeability, md
4.1×10-3 cm, which would result in a broad channel if the kr = rock permeability, md
fracture surfaces were smooth. For the rough-surfaced kt = total permeability, md
fracture, acidizing resulted in two narrow and deep wormholes wf = width of the fracture, cm
along the fracture as shown in Figs. 12 and 13. Two wr = width of the core sample, cm
wormholes propagated tortuously along the fracture surfaces
and were roughly parallel. In the area near the acid inlet, there References
were several small wormholes propagating only several 1. Nelson, R.A.: Geologic Analysis of Naturally Fractured
millimeters along the fracture. These small wormholes Reservoirs, Gulf Publishing Company, Houston, Texas (1985) 73.
stopped propagating while only the two largest wormholes 2. Nelson, R.A.: “Natural Fracture Systems: Description and
propagated through the entire fracture. The topography of the Classification,” The American Association of Petroleum
Geologists Bulletin, V. 63, No.12 (Dec. 1979) 2214-2232.
areas outside the wormholes was not changed, indicating that 3. Nierode, D.E. and Kruk, K.F.: “An Evaluation of Acid Fluid Loss
acid did not reach these areas. The surfaces of the wormholes Additives Retarded Acids, and Acidized Fracture Conductivity,”
were smoother than the areas outside wormholes, which was paper SPE 4549 presented at the 1973 SPE-AIME 45th Annual
just opposite to the acidizing of smooth-surfaced fractures. Fall Meeting, Las Vegas, Sept. 30-Oct. 1.
When the fracture width increased to 8.5×10-3 cm, a broad 4. Gong, M.: “Mechanical and Hydraulic Behavior of Acid
channel was created along the fracture surface as shown in Fractures—Experimental Studies and Mathematical Modeling,”
Fig. 14, similar to the result for smooth-surfaced fractures. PhD dissertation, U. of Texas Austin, TX (1997).
The surface of the channel was also relatively smoother than 5. Gong, M., Lacote, S., and Hill, A.D.: “A New Model of Acid
Fracture Conductivity,” paper SPE 39431 presented at the 1998
other areas.
SPE International Symposium on Formation Damage Control at
Lafayette, Louisiana, February 18-19.
4 [Chengli Dong, A.D. Hill, D. Zhu] [SPE 56531]

Table 1. Experimental conditions and results

Experiment Initial surface Initial fracture Leakoff
Description of acid etching patterns

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-3
No. condition width (×10 cm) rate %

1 Smooth 3–8 0 One channel which is broad near the

inlet and narrow at the outlet.

2 Smooth 3–8 0 One channel which is broad near the

inlet and narrow at the outlet.

3 Smooth 3–8 0 One channel which is broad near the

inlet and narrow at the outlet.

4 Smooth 3.9 0 One channel which is broad near the

inlet and narrow at the outlet.

5 Smooth 5.1 0 One channel which is broad near the

inlet and narrow at the outlet.
6 Smooth 8.3 0 One broad, shallow and long channel.
7 Smooth <2 0 One narrow and deep wormhole.
8 Smooth 2.7 0 Two narrow and deep wormholes.
9 Rough 4.1 0 Two narrow and deep wormholes.
10 Rough 8.5 0 One broad, shallow and long channel.
11 Smooth 3-8 0 One channel which is broad near the
inlet and narrow at the outlet.
12 Smooth >8 0 One broad, shallow and long channel.
13 Smooth >8 0 One broad, shallow and long channel.

14 Smooth 7.7 0 One broad, deep channel with several

small branches.

15 Smooth 4.3 35 One channel which is broad near the

inlet and narrow at the outlet.

16 Smooth 4.1 11 One channel which is broad near the

inlet and narrow at the outlet.

17 Smooth 8.8 23 One channel which is broad near the

inlet and narrow at the outlet.

Note: In the experiments 1-3, 7 and 11-12, we only knew the range of the fracture widths.
[SPE 56531] [Acid Etching Patterns in Naturally-Fractured Formations] 5

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Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of the Fig. 2. Schematic of flow paths of the
acidizing cell. effluent and leakoff acid.

Fig. 3• Acid etching pattern. Fig. 4• Acid etching pattern.

Experiment No. 1. Experiment No. 2.
6 [Chengli Dong, A.D. Hill, D. Zhu] [SPE 56531]

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Fig. 6• Acid etching pattern.
Fig. 5• Acid etching pattern.
Experiment No. 4.
Experiment No. 3.

Fig. 8• Acid etching pattern.

Fig. 7• Acid etching pattern.
Experiment No. 6.
Experiment No. 5.
[SPE 56531] [Acid Etching Patterns in Naturally-Fractured Formations] 7

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Fig. 9• Acid etching pattern. Fig. 10• Acid etching pattern.
Experiment No. 7. Experiment No. 8.

Channel Breadth vs. Fracture W idth

5
channel breadth (cm)

0
0.000 0.002 0.004 0.006 0.008 0.010
fracture width (cm)

Figure 11. Channel breadth dependence on fracture width.

8 [Chengli Dong, A.D. Hill, D. Zhu] [SPE 56531]

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Fig. 12• Acid etching pattern. Fig. 13• Acid etching pattern.
Experiment No. 9. Experiment No. 9.

Fig. 14• Acid etching pattern.

Experiment No. 10.