Precipitation inhibitor squeeze treatments have been performed in the last 5 years in the Namorado field to avoid barium sulphate and strontium sulphate scaling in the producing tubing. This paper describes the laboratory tests conducted to select inhibitor and to silmulate the squeeze operation in porous media. Based on these tests a polyacrylic acid product was used in the squeeze operations. The squeeze operation design is described as well as the strategy for analytical monitoring of the produced waters to select the wells with high precipitation potential for the prevention treatment. This paper describes the occurrence of spherical precipitated material (with morphology similar to ooids formed in natural environments ) at the bottom of the well NA-C. The analysis of the ooids, associated with the production parameters, allowed the determination of the effectiveness of the squeeze treatment and the understanding of the precipitation mechanisms.
Keywords: Barium Sulphate, strontium sulphate, scale, inhibitors, precipitation squeeze, scale prediction, barite ooids and celestite ooids.