VitriReinforce: your questions answered.

VitriReinforce is a carbonate consolidation and carbonate hardening treatment from VitriTech. It strengthens chalk, limestone and dolomite on the fracture face and deep into the matrix, while preserving or increasing permeability. It is pumped during or after acid stimulation, stand-alone or blended into the acid stage.

Carbonate consolidation is strengthening weak or acid-weakened carbonate rock so it keeps its structure under stress. VitriReinforce is a phosphate-based consolidation solution that bonds grains in situ, so the rock resists crushing, embedment and collapse.

Carbonate hardening is the gain in rock strength that consolidation delivers. In VitriTech laboratory testing, treated carbonate showed unconfined compressive strength (UCS) up by 380%. Hardness has also been measured on treated samples; see the product data sheet.

Acid fracturing etches conductive channels in carbonate rock, but the acid also weakens the fracture faces, so the fracture can embed, crush and creep closed as closure stress rises. Acid fracture enhancement means treating the etched faces so they keep that conductivity. VitriReinforce does this by reinforcing the rock the acid has weakened.

Fracture conductivity that survives closure stress keeps wells producing at a higher rate for longer. In laboratory conductivity tests VitriReinforce retained 10 to 1000 times the fracture conductivity of untreated samples, and in the field it has restored a chalk well and kept another producing solids-free. Results depend on the reservoir, completion and treatment design.

Across a test programme of more than 200 core-flood, triaxial and conductivity tests, VitriTech reports fracture conductivity of 10 to 1000 times untreated, UCS up by 380% and regained permeability of 245%. Fracture conductivity was measured on acid-fractured Indiana limestone across rising closure stress. Browse every core flood in the test database.

VitriTech reports six field trials to date. Case study 01 restored a proppant-fractured chalk well that had not flowed for five years and stress-tested it up to 42 bar drawdown. Case study 02 is a five-zone coiled-tubing treatment in a horizontal chalk well, with solids-free production for 25+ months and drawdown 40+ bar above the previous failure level.

Yes. The science behind VitriReinforce is described in peer-reviewed SPE papers, each with a DOI that opens its abstract on OnePetro. The full list is on the test database page. Access to full PDFs may need an SPE or OnePetro subscription.

The aim is the opposite. VitriReinforce is designed to strengthen the rock while preserving or increasing permeability, and laboratory core floods measure regained permeability alongside strength. The test database plots both for every core flood.

VitriReinforce is for carbonate formations: chalk, limestone and dolomite. It suits primary, re-stimulation and remedial programmes, in vertical and horizontal wells, and works with fracture acidizing and closed-fracture acidizing.

It is available as a liquid, run stand-alone or alongside the acid, or as a dissolvable powder mixed into the fluid system of your choice. It drops into existing pumping schedules without specialised equipment and is compatible with bullheading and coiled-tubing operations.

It is an acidic material, so appropriate PPE is required, with containment and spill-response protocols followed. Full handling guidance is in the product data sheet.

Send VitriTech a target formation and the team will scope a laboratory consolidation trial covering core floods, UCS, permeability and conductivity on your rock. Use the contact page.

Cost depends on the reservoir, completion and treatment design, so VitriTech does not publish a fixed price. Contact the team for pricing and availability specific to your reservoir; the economics section shows an illustrative per-stage case.

VitriSeal is a separate VitriTech product: a low-viscosity, mineralizing glass solution for restoring well barrier integrity and eliminating sustained annulus pressure. See VitriSeal.

VitriTech Ltd is a specialty glass melting business founded in 2010 and based in Rotherham, UK. Its engineered, controlled-dissolution glasses serve oil and gas, tunnelling and construction, medical and marine markets. See About VitriTech.

The product data sheet (grades G20 and G20W, with a PDF download), the two field case studies and three narrated animations are all on this site. The animations show how VitriReinforce works in an acid fracture.