TABLE OF CONTENTS A comprehensive review of the various types of formation damage problems encountered in petroleum reservoirs is presented. The factors and processes causing these problems are described in detail. The design of a team effort necessary for understanding and controlling of the formation damage problems in the field is explained. The motivation for the writing of this book and the specific objectives are stated. The approach taken in the presentation of the materials in this book is explained. A brief executive summary of the topics covered in the book is given. The roles played by different professionals, such as the petroleum and chemical engineers, chemists, physicist, geologists, and geochemists, are described.
Formation damage is a generic terminology referring to the impairment of the permeability of petroleum-bearing formations by various adverse processes. Formation damage is an undesirable operational and economic problem that can occur during the various phases of oil and gas recovery from subsurface reservoirs including drilling, production, hydraulic fracturing, and workover operations (Civan, 2005). As expressed by Amaefule et al. (1988), "Formation damage is an expensive headache to the oil and gas industry." Bennion (1999) described formation damage as, "The impairment of the invisible, by the inevitable and uncontrollable, resulting in an indeterminate reduction of the unquantifiable!" Formation damage assessment, control, and remediation are among the most important issues to be resolved for efficient exploitation of hydrocarbon reservoirs (Energy Highlights, 1990). Formation damage may be caused by many factors, including physico-chemical, chemical, biological, hydrodynamic, and thermal interactions...
