Well Stimulation
In the petroleum industry, stimulation (sometimes called "well stimulation", or "formation stimulation") is any action on the hydrocarbon producing formation or wellbore that increases the production rate. Typicall the simplest form is pumping inhibited hydrochloric acid which will dissolve carbonates without damaging the steel tubulars and items in the wellbore. Additional additives such as soaps are often added to assist placement or return of spent acid. In sandstone formations the addition of hydrofluoric acid will assist in the removal of clays which often impede the flow of hydrocarbons. Hydraulic fracturing is an extreme form of stimulation, where the rock is broken open by the application of high pressure and a crack forms. In highly soluble formations, acid is used to etch the walls of the crack to form extra conductive flowpaths when the pressure is released. In other formations, sand or other materials are added to the fluid injected which full the crack (fracture) with a highly porous and permeable material that alters the complete flow mechanism of the reservoir and often dramatically increases production.
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Famous quotes containing the word stimulation:
“[Girls] study under the paralyzing idea that their acquirements cannot be brought into practical use. They may subserve the purposes of promoting individual domestic pleasure and social enjoyment in conversation, but what are they in comparison with the grand stimulation of independence and self- reliance, of the capability of contributing to the comfort and happiness of those whom they love as their own souls?”
—Sarah M. Grimke (1792–1873)
“The lore of our fathers is a fabric of sentences. In our hands it develops and changes, through more or less arbitrary and deliberate revisions and additions of our own, more or less directly occasioned by the continuing stimulation of our sense organs. It is a pale gray lore, black with fact and white with convention. But I have found no substantial reasons for concluding that there are any quite black threads in it, or any white ones.”
—Willard Van Orman Quine (b. 1908)