The Tools of Sand Management

Author:

Tronvoll J.1,Dusseault M.B.1,Sanfilippo F.1,Santarelli F.J.1

Affiliation:

1. Oifield Rock Mechanics Integrated Services ORMIS

Abstract

Abstract Sand Management is an operating concept where traditional sand control means are not normally applied, and production is managed through monitoring and control of well pressures, fluid rates and sand influx. In the last four years, Sand Management in conventional oil and gas production has been implemented on a large number of wells in the North Sea and elsewhere. In almost all cases it has proven to be workable, and has led to the generation of highly favorable well skins because of self-cleanup associated with the episodic sand bursts that take place. These low skins have, in turn, led to higher productivity indexes, and each of the wells where sand management has been successful has displayed increased oil or gas production rates. Furthermore, expensive sand control devices are avoided and the feasibility of possible future well interventions is guaranteed. Different analysis and design tools are needed to evaluate sand production probability, to quantify risk reduction, and to establish practical operational criteria for safe and optimum production. Such design tools include the capacity to predict sand production onset, sand quantities and sand production rates, equipment erosion risks, and the conditions at which the sand can be transported inside the production liner and surface lines. Also, an essential tool is a sand monitoring technology to allow real-time quantitative sand flux tracking. The application of these tools and how they help assess risks in Sand Management are illustrated through field examples in this paper. Methods of handling the uncertainties and risks are discussed. Data from the North Sea, where active Sand Management was applied to increase well production rates, are presented. Finally, ideas on how to apply sand management and hybrid completions in challenging environments such as HPHT fields, marginal fields and complex structures are discussed. Introduction This review of the tools of Sand Management is an introduction to the Sand Management approach for optimization of production rates and well productivity. Because of the drawbacks of classical sand control techniques and the risks involved in uncontrolled sand production, Sand Management is proposed as a synthesis of the two philosophies. Furthermore, the challenges of developing complex, marginal and HPHT fields require new solutions. Historical steps in preventing sand production risk. Classical sand control techniques, such as gravel packing, wire wrapped screens, frac-and-pack, chemical consolidation, expandable screens, etc., are based on a sand exclusion philosophy: absolutely no sand in the production facilities can be tolerated. Alternatively, in the absence of means of totally excluding sand influx, the traditional approach is to reduce the production rate to minimise the amount of entering sand. The decision to exclude or control sand is based on a sand prediction analysis, for example, where the suitability of a perforated liner solution is evaluated based on a no-sand condition [1]. This has led to development of various techniques to predict the onset of sand production [2 – 5]. Thus, sand influx is usually viewed as a factor that limits the production rate (and thereby the cash-flow) through the induced production limitations set by installed sand control methods, production losses due to failures and workovers, and induced production restrictions arising from low maximum sand-free rate limits.

Publisher

SPE

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