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Sand Control

The document discusses factors that increase sand formation in reservoirs and cause sand production, including declining reservoir pressure, water production, and formation damage. It then outlines methods to mitigate sand production, such as maintenance, rate restriction, gravel packs, chemical cements, and resin-coated gravel. Case histories show these methods can increase production and reduce workovers by consolidating the formation near the wellbore. The implementation of perforation surging and prepacking in wells in Malaysia aimed to control sand production in a high permeability reservoir.

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Hazwan Yusoff
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227 views

Sand Control

The document discusses factors that increase sand formation in reservoirs and cause sand production, including declining reservoir pressure, water production, and formation damage. It then outlines methods to mitigate sand production, such as maintenance, rate restriction, gravel packs, chemical cements, and resin-coated gravel. Case histories show these methods can increase production and reduce workovers by consolidating the formation near the wellbore. The implementation of perforation surging and prepacking in wells in Malaysia aimed to control sand production in a high permeability reservoir.

Uploaded by

Hazwan Yusoff
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Factors Increasing Sand Formation

1. Decline of reservoir presssure (increase of overburden pressure)


2. Cementing Material, Degree of Consolidation
3. Fluid Viscosity, Production Velocity, Drag Forces
4. Increasing water production (destroy intergranular cementing material)
5. Formation damage (increases drawdown)

Causes of Sand Production


1. As production continues, decreasing of reservoir pressure will increases the effective stress on
the grains (overburden is constant)
2. Fluid velocity and viscosity contributes to the pressure drop near the wellbore (drag force) and
the production will induces stress on the formation sand. Therefore sand production will occur if
the induced stress is more than formation stress.
3. Tertiary age reservoirs, usually shallow depths will probably have unconsolidated formation.
4. Impairment on natural consolidation due to high compressive strength and internal pore
pressure that supports the overburden.
5. Water production may dissolve natural cementing materials weakening the intergranular bonds.
It may mobilize fines resulting in plugging of the pore structure.

Impact to production

1. Accumulation downhole
2. Accumulation in surface equipment
3. Erosion of downhole/surface equipment
4. Collapse of the formation

Mitigation method

1. Maintenance and workover

2. Rate restriction

3. Selective completion practices

4. Prevent sand production mechanically by screen or gravel pack. Basic principle of this
technique is to provide openings for fluid flow to be the proper size where sand forms as a
bridge and is excluded.Gravel particles are used to retain the formation sand by forming a filter
through which formation sand cannot pass.

5. Chemical cements are used to control sand inclusion by means of increasing the strength of
formation in order that sand particles will not loose from formation rock near wellbore using
resinous material.

6. Inject resin-coated gravel into the perforations to pack and stabilize the perforations.
Comparison between mitigation methods and their effectiveness.

Mitigation method Advantage, disadvantage, and


effectiveness
Maintenance and -
workover
Rate restriction -
Selective production -
Screen or gravel pack -high permeability gravel pack
-screen might corrode
-screen is very effective in horizontal
well
Chemical cements-Resin -suitable for through tubing
application
-applicable even in small diameter
casing
-suitable for multiple reservoir
completions
-can be applied readily in abnormal
pressure wells
-works well in fine sands difficult to
control with gravel packing
-over time, resin stickness will
decrease.

Resin-coated gravel -complex operation


-over time, resin stickness will
decrease.

Case histories

An application of the sand consolidation service in about 4ft of gas pay in notorious sand-
producing formation the Gulf of Mexico enable a producer to recover incremental reserves worth
more than 10 times the cost of the sand consolidated service, netting a profit of 2-3 times the
total cost of the completion. By the times one-third of the incremental reserves had been
produced, the well had begun producing water from the reservoir. Typically, in this area a
flowing connate water phase would have caused the well to begin producing and when it come
into contact with the pay zone. Therefore, it is reasonable to assume that only one-third the
volume of incremental reserves would have been recovered if not for the wellbore sand
consolidation service.

In California, an operator began producing sand from open-hole pays in two wells after tip
screen-out frac pack completions n an area that had routinely utilized screenless frac packs with
success. In response to the customer’s challenge, Halliburton used the near wellbore
consolidation service to stabilize the exposed pen holes in both wells near wellbore, then
stimulated the reservoir following the consolidated treatment with a top screen-out frac pack
using LSR service coated proppant. Both wells treated using this procedure produced sand-free
at unrestricted production rates. An additional ten wells in the field were subsequently treated
with the near wellbore consolidated and frac service.

The average monthly production of these wells increased 28% while the acerage frequently of
workovers caused by sand production was reduced by a factor of more than 20. The application
demonstrated that a combination of near wellbore stabilization and fracture simulation can
achieve and maintain economic production rates and eliminate sand production in an area where
either method alone failed in similar wells.

Implementation in Malaysia

Combinations of perforation surging and prepacking of perforation cavities were applied to four
wells (named A, B, C, and D) in the Abu Cluster field, West Malaysia. This reservoir has high
permeability (1.5 to 3.0 Darcy), and sand production is a major concern. Expected production
rates are up to 5,000 b/d per well. All zones in the four wells were surged after perforating except
one zone in well D, which was perforated underbalanced.

• Well A was then completed with a conventional high-rate water pack without any dedicated
prepack.

• Well B was scheduled to have a dedicated prepack immediately after surging; however, after
the perforation operations, the well was shut down because of inclement weather, resulting in a
10-day delay between the surging and prepacking.

• Well C had two zones that were completed separately. The upper zone (C1) was a gas zone,
whereas the lower zone (C2) was an oil zone. Both zones were perforated and surged, followed
by a dedicated prepack operation performed before the main gravel pack.

http://www.epmag.com/Magazine/2010/3/item53612.php

http://www.faqs.org/patents/app/20090151942

http://www.onepetro.org/mslib/app/Preview.do?paperNumber=OTC-13282-MS&societyCode=OTC
http://www.onepetro.org/mslib/app/Preview.do?paperNumber=SPE-140735-PA&societyCode=SPE
http://www.onepetro.org/mslib/app/Preview.do?paperNumber=SPE-140735-PA&societyCode=SPE

lecture notes

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