Acid reactivity with dolomite is more sensitive to temperature as compared to calcite formations, resulting in different dissolution profile. Acid fracture fluids are heated inside the fracture, as it flows away from the wellbore, due to the reservoir heat flux. This causes a sharp increase in dolomite reactivity, resulting in a bell-shaped conductivity profile along the fracture half-length. The productivity of such conductivity distributions will be wrongly estimated if a single average conductivity value is used. In the present research, a reservoir simulator that includes variable fracture conductivity was coupled with an integrated acid fracture model. Also, design guidelines for acid fractures in dolomite formations have been proposed.

Case studies are presented, showing that in conventional acid fracture designs, the maximum dissolution in dolomite usually occurs away from the wellbore. This negatively affects productivity, as maximum conductivity is desired near the wellbore. This effect is especially significant for fracturing candidate wells in higher permeability reservoirs. This study shows that in good permeability formations, productivity can be improved by acid fractures designed at a lower injection rate. In cases where the desired injection rate is not sufficient to propagate the fracture, good productivity can be obtained by using two acid stages with different injection rates. A higher injection rate is employed to create the desired fracture dimensions, and a smaller rate used to obtain good conductivity in the near-wellbore region. In low permeability reservoirs, it is desirable to alternate injections of retarded acid systems with pad fluid to create longer acid penetration distances. The results show that, in certain conditions, designs following the proposed guidelines can result in substantial productivity improvement compared to the conventional approach.