Successful Installation Polymer Screen as Primary Sand Control in Onshore and First Stackable System in Offshore Field, East Kalimantan, Indonesia

Abstract

Abstract Oil and Gas development in East Kalimantan has been going more than 100 years on offshore and onshore. Most hydrocarbon bearing lies in Balikpapan Formation. Reservoirs penetrated in this area are predominantly deltaic sandstone spread from deep to shallow zone. As for the shallow zone, sand production become one of the big challenges, especially in Sepinggan and Mutiara Field. Sandstone is typically not well sorted and its grain size is heterogeneous. Those aspects resulting standard screen is not an ideal solution. Standard through tubing stand-alone screen (SAS) will allow sand pass through perforation tunnel and create natural sand pack behind the screen in a well with limited rathole. SAS durability is also limited due to high erosion rate of the sand. In this particular case, screen material technology becomes another challenge. Sand criteria has to be homogeneous to create perfect natural sand pack. Resin based sand consolidation (chemical sand control) might become an option, as it works for heterogeneous sand, but limited to maximum 16 ft interval based on several field applications in East Kalimantan. Case in Offshore Sepinggan Field; with two open intervals, 3ft and 24ft length, which both produces massive sand that proved by 3,000 ft sand deposit at bottom tubing, required sand clean out prior sand control installation. Sand cleanout is challenging due to losses, therefore non-damaging loss circulation material is utilized to cure the losses. Plugged SAS case happened in Onshore Mutiara Field; it is 6 ft perforation interval with a 125-micron SAS installed across the zone. Choke management was done to manage the drawdown before the well was ceased flow due to sand pack behind the screen, which later is proven by well intervention operation. OCMP (Open Cell Matrix Polymer) screen was chosen to solve sand production issue. Polymer material is designed to be able to expand in the wellbore and packed the sand behind the wellbore. OCMP is not only creating a very effective screen for heterogeneous sand grain but also by mimics proppant pack on gravel pack system and block the sand grain migration into the wellbore. Screen maximum length will be the challenge, as conveyance method and limitation of base pipe size to be considered. However, the screen could be stacked to cover longer perforation interval. Stackable system has never been applied before; this becomes the first successful installation in the world. This OCMP screen application is successfully improve sand free production rate for both Sepinggan field with 1,253 blpd production and Mutiara Field with 256 blpd. These cases will lead into more installation in the future and became a game changer in sand control for non-homogeneous formation sand.