Elliptical Geometry Model for Sand Production during Depletion

Abstract

Abstract Sand production is a key issue when selecting completion solutions. Not only the immediate choice of technical solution is affected, but also the long term plans for workover operations and the choice of Intelligent Well Systems (IWS) for mitigating the sand production problems. In this paper we investigate the effects of in-situ stresses and rock properties combined with the optimal well geometry. The well is initially circular, but the collapsed state should be modelled with elliptical geometry. The volume of sand produced in a depletion phase is then computed from the equilibrium state of the borehole. The models are explicit analytical and simple to use.