Abstract
Sand control screens (SCD) have been widely installed in wells producing bitumen from unconsolidated formations. The screens are typically designed using general rules-of-thumb. The sand retention testing (SRT) technique has gained attention from the industry for the custom design and performance assessment of SCD. However, the success of SRT experimentation highly depends on the accuracy of the experimental design and variables. This work examines the impact of the setup design, sample preparation, near-wellbore stress conditions, fluid flow rates, and brine chemistry on the testing results and, accordingly, screen design. The SRT experiments were carried out using the replicated samples from the McMurray Formation at Long Lake Field. The results were compared with the test results on the original reservoir samples presented in the literature. Subsequently, a parametric study was performed by changing one testing parameter at a test, gradually making the conditions more comparable to the actual wellbore conditions. The results indicate that the fluid flow rate is the most influential parameter on sand production, followed by the packing technique, stress magnitude, and brine salinity level. The paper presents a workflow for the sand control testing procedure for designing the SCD in the steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) operations.
Highlights
These naturally loose reservoirs require sand control devices (SCD) to simultaneously support the well, avoid excessive sand production, and let the fine particles pass through the slots and avoid plugging [2,3,4]
The water cuts applied in this investigation are comparable with the values observed in the Considering the challenges in quantifying the steam flux during the steam breakthrough events in steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) wells, it was assumed that all injected steam flows toward the production well during a steam breakthrough
The bottom section experiences the fines mobilization and receives some fines from upper sections. the section could theusing mobilized. This the paper investigates impactthe of bottom the testing setup anddischarge procedure repliand receive through the screen
Summary
Steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) is a thermal production technique for oil extraction from bituminous reservoirs. A pair of horizontal wells are drilled into the reservoir formation. The in-situ bitumen reserves in Canada are located in unconsolidated oil sands. These naturally loose reservoirs require sand control devices (SCD) to simultaneously support the well, avoid excessive sand production, and let the fine particles pass through the slots and avoid plugging [2,3,4]. The slotted liner has been the most common SAS in SAGD operations due to its lower cost, mechanical strength, and reasonable performance in unconsolidated and high-permeable oil sands [4].
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