Arcasolve™ for Filter Cake Removal

The permeability of the producing wellbore face within the reservoir is severely reduced by drilling mud/drill-in fluid filter cake damage deposited during drilling.  This filter cake is typically comprised of solids, weighting agents and drill cuttings fines e.g. calcium carbonate, and in the case of polymer containing fluids, polymers.  With the increasing use of openhole horizontal/directional completions, drawdown alone cannot be relied on to cleanup filtercake along the whole of the wellbore.  Effective removal of this mud filter cake is vital to optimise well performance and NPV.

Arcasolve is very effective for the clean up of water based carbonate-polymer muds or drill-in fluids. The photographs below show the effect of Arcasolve on a filter cake produced using a commercial water based mud formulation containing calcium carbonate, starch and xanthan. 

Arcasolve - removal of filter cake; commercial carbonate-polymer mud

Carbonate-polymer mud filter cake on ceramic disc BEFORE Arcasolve treatment. The ceramic filter disc was marked with a blue grid to assist in viewing the deposition of the cake and the effect of the Arcasolve treatment.			AFTER  treatment with an Arcasolve formulation providing simultaneous acidizing and polymer breaking* - Note there is NO residual mud cake; there is complete removal.
		* allows a dual attack on both the acid soluble and the polymer components of a filter cake and results in complete breakdown and dissolution of the filter cake

Arcasolve may also be used for the clean up of carbonate-weighted oil-based muds or drill-in fluids. 

The acidizing components of the formulation dissolve the carbonate component of the filter cake and the polymer breakers hydrolyse the polymer components.  This allows a complete treatment of filter cake in a single stage process. 

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