Experimental Study on Type and Accuracy Optimization of Sand Control in Sand-Producing Heavy Oil Well

Abstract

Abstract This paper proposes a set of methods for selecting the type of sand control screen and optimizing the accuracy in heavy oil Wells, which take into account the requirements of sand control and productivity protection in heavy oil Wells. Sand retaining experiments are carried out with slotted screen, wire wrapped screen and metal filter screen under the condition of oil and water mixed sand carrying flow. In order to optimize the sand control screen suitable for heavy oil well, this paper uses the weighted average method to quantitatively evaluate the flow performance, sand retention performance and oil conductivity of the screen. Then, repeat the experiment by changing the accuracy of the screen to optimize the accuracy. The experimental results show that the permeability of the three kinds of sand control screens is about 5μm2 when only heavy oil plugging occurs. Under the combined plugging action of formation sand and heavy oil, the slotted screen has the highest permeability, and its conductivity to heavy oil is 10% higher than that of the other two screens. The slotted screen and wire wrapped screen have the higher sand retention performance, with a sand retention rate of about 90%. Through the quantitative evaluation of the sand control performance of three kinds of screens in different production stages of heavy oil Wells, the slotted screen is selected as the optimal screen. For simulated formation sand with a median particle size of 250μm, the optimal sand control accuracy is 200μm. This paper provides a quantitative optimization method of screen type and accuracy for sand control design of sand-producing heavy oil Wells, so as to maximize the productivity under the premise of ensuring sand-producing control of heavy oil Wells.