American Oil and Gas Reporter - November 2024 - 73

2,500 horsepower pumps and a blender,
he says they are extremely economic.
Leveraging Hydrocarbons
Many common damage mechanisms
can be remediated by pumping a mixture
of liquid hydrocarbons and chemicals
down hole, says Tadd Wallace, president
of C3 Oilfield Services. " We are doing
jobs to clean out paraffin, remove condensate
blockages and force water out of
swelling clays, " he illustrates.
Depending on the well, the mixture
can contain propane, butane or even heavier
natural gas liquids. " For clay swelling,
we often use propane with an added surfactant
mixture, " he notes. " This mixture
will liberate the water from the clay. The
surfactant coats the surface to keep the
clay from swelling again. "
To explain why hydrocarbon-based
fluids work on paraffin, Wallace compares
them with xylene. " Propane, butane and
natural gas liquids are solvents, so like
xylene, they can solubilize the paraffin
that has crystalized in the wellbore, " he
says. " However, we are getting much
longer-lasting results. With xylene, it may
cost $3,500 or $4,000 to pump five barrels
down hole. For the same price, we can
pump 50 barrels of our fluid with paraffin
inhibitor chemistry. "
The extra volume sends the treatment
into the formation, Wallace says. " In the
process, the hydrocarbon-based fluid
breaks up the paraffin that already has
crystalized, " he details. " Once the paraffin
is in solution, a wax crystal modifier additive
prevents it from precipitating out
again. The modifier works so well that
instead of doing a paraffin treatment every
month, we may only need to come out
every six-12 months. "
In some wells, visiting more often
may be worthwhile, Wallace mentions.
" For example, we are developing a treatment
for horizontal Austin Chalk wells
with wax issues, " he says. " They produce
enough oil to potentially justify going
back to the same well more frequently. "
Even treatments on more modest wells
can deliver fast paybacks, Wallace relates.
" On average, a treatment will pay for
itself in 30 days, with some customers
seeing their money come back within
the first week, " he details.
The rapid return is partly attributable to
low costs. " For about $20,000, we can treat
four wells a day, " Wallace says. " The beauty
By pumping a mixture of liquid hydrocarbons and chemicals down hole, C3 Oilfield
Services says it can address paraffin, condensate blockages, clay swelling and other
issues. Because the treatments work well and consist largely of hydrocarbons that can
be resold, C3 reports they provide quick returns.
is that half the cost is for the hydrocarbons
we are pumping down hole. When those
hydrocarbons come back up, the operator
can sell them to recoup part of the cost. "
To ease that process, Wallace says C3
tailors its fluids to each site's production
facilities. " For an oil well that does not
have a gas sales line, we will use a condensate
so heavy that it is almost oil, " he
details. " This gas will expand inside the
tanks once it returns to the surface, but
not enough to create pressure issues.
" For wells with gas sales lines, we
can pump a propane or butane, " he continues.
" These lighter gases have a lot of
energy to lift liquids out of the well. "
In late September, Wallace said C3 had
treated 10 wells in 2024. For the fourth
quarter, it has 110 wells on the schedule.
" We are building a track record, and as
people become more comfortable with
our technology, the work has accelerated, "
he reports. " We have two new units rolling
out, which will let us go up to three crews. "
Safe Equipment
When operators consider C3's technology,
Wallace says they initially voice safety
concerns. " We have never had a safety incident, "
he assures. " That comes from the
emphasis we put on training and understanding
the fluids we work with, as well
as the way we design our equipment. "
Each fleet contains trailer-mounted
triplex pumps, a tank for the fluid and a
high-pressure injection line that connects
the pumps to the wellhead, Wallace deNOVEMBER
2024 73
scribes. The crew consists of three people:
an operations expert who monitors the
entire job, a driver who switches to optimizing
performance during the job, and a
second operator who manages the equipment
as its pumping. Noting that these
workers tend to be former fracturing crew
hands, Wallace says they control the entire
job from an explosion-proof cabin.
" To detect leaks, we put gas sensors
around the well, along the fluid transfer
lines and on the pump. We also have a
thermal camera watching the pump to
detect any propane or butane mist, " Wallace
details. " If something happens, the system
automatically stops the job. It activates
valves to isolate the wellhead from the
chemical supply line, shuts off the pumps,
and even kills the tractor's engine. "
Although most of C3's treatments so
far have been in vertical wells, Wallace
says it has seen promising results in horizontals.
" We are working on refining the
technology for horizontals, " he says. " The
main challenge is figuring out how to
surgically place the treatment in each perforation
so we can keep the fluid volumes
down but still get the treatment into the
formation where the damage is. "
❒
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American Oil and Gas Reporter - November 2024

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