Matrix acidizing: a fouling mitigation process in oil and gas wells

Abstract Fouling mitigation in underground reservoirs enhances the permeability and the flow capacity of production or injection wells and is carried out by reservoir stimulation methods such as matrix acidizing. This process is known as the most significant method used to improve the production or injection indices of oil and gas wells as well as water and steam wells. Here, different aspects of this process, its chemical advances and novel high-technologies are compared and discussed in order to reveal their advantages and determine under what conditions they are applicable. Knowledge for adapting the proper acid treatment with the well characteristics is another issue that has been considered in this paper. The final goal is to present the state-of-the-art fouling mitigation methods based on novel experiments, simulations and investigations in order to emphasize the engineering aspects of fouling mitigation in oil and gas wells by matrix acidizing.