Addressing sand production challenges — an integrated research approach

Abstract

Sand production may be induced by many factors, such as reservoir pressure depletion, excessive draw-down pressure and water-cut. When transported from the formation, the sand particles can cause serious damage to completion and topside assets, impacting the overall productivity and safety of the operating wells. The sand management strategy for a particular field requires careful planning, evaluation and implementation to ensure effective and safe well productivity. The associated CAPEX and OPEX implications and risks can be high if the sanding problem is not managed carefully. This requires a good understanding of field-specific sanding problems. PETRONAS and CSIRO have collaborated on an integrated research program to provide a better understanding of the critical issue affecting sand production and develop associated predictive tools. This involved a multidisciplinary team from geomechanics, fluid mechanics and mathematics to examine the entire sand production process from sand generation, control and transportation to ensure an optimum sand management strategy. This extended abstract provides an overview of the research methodology based on experimental and numerical modelling techniques supported by field information. The study focuses on sand production behaviour, as well as failure of down-hole sand control equipment. The research led to better prediction and quantification of the sand production propensity, as well as erosion severity on critical production equipment. Insights and operational guidelines were also established to assist production and facility engineers in managing sand production challenges. This integrated research methodology would be applicable to unconventional resource areas, such as coal seam gas or shale gas production.