Enhancing Sand Management in Gas Field A: Integration of Acoustic Sand Monitoring with Online Sand Sampling for Improved Sand and Fines Detection

Abstract

Abstract Acoustic Sand Monitoring (ASM) is currently used to detect and monitor the presence of sand particles in flowlines, however its effectiveness in detecting fine sand particles is limited due to the small size, lower impact energy, and tendency of the minute grains to remain suspended and not impacting the inner pipe surfaces. Quite frequently, flowlines produce external noises due to slugging and flowline pressure which can be misinterpreted as sand production on ASM graphs. This paper explores the combination of online sand sampling with acoustic sand monitoring in Field A, Indonesia, to improve sand production detection for sand production in gas wells in order to safeguard asset integrity and enhance production. A comparative analysis of utilizing the combined technology was performed aiming to shed light on the efficacy of combining both sand monitoring techniques. It was concluded that the combined approach of the acoustic sand monitoring with an online sand sampler is crucial for a comprehensive assessment of sand production, particularly in capturing finer sands to allow operators to determine their safe operating envelopes.