How to Cope With Sand Production without Any Additional Sensor When Using the Right Multiphase Technology

Abstract

Abstract The multiphase metering business is shifting over the last years from "conventional" 3-Phase metering (i.e. only Water, Oil, and Gas measurement) to most complex combination of 4 phases. With the wells ageing, the reservoir strength is becoming weaker and the production of sand starts. This sand production is happening at the time of the well life where usually large completion upgrade and/or large CAPEX are necessary to maintain production, and need to be balance with economics. This is a generic concern in brown fields; where in some areas up to 25%-50% of the wells, for a given field, are having sand production issues. Few ways are used to mitigate the sand production ranging from shutting the sandy wells to sand extraction and monitoring. The former is leading to a drastic loss of oil production, when the latter requires accurate equipment to detect the lowest possible sand production. In Asia, the problem is usually becoming more complex due to the large presence of gas field and therefore little amount of liquid is produced which can lead to a quicker erosion and pipe integrity issues. It is not acceptable in such schemes to have either inconsistent data between different equipment (permanent installations and periodic checks) or let undetected sand production. The main objective is to investigate in detail the response of the most common acoustic sand detector and Multiphase Flow Meter (MPFM) with capability to measure 4th phase from production and to highlight the best solution for the oil company. This field study is based on measurement made in control conditions to get the lowest level of sand detection, and then in a second step a measurement of the sand velocity and erosion. Beyond the exercise of measuring sand, it is flow assurance, pipe integrity, and reservoir management that are addressed. What most complex conditions to operate a multiphase flow meter that in 4th phases and high accuracy is compulsory? This paper will describe in detail the field operation, and the innovative and advanced data processing of a top-of-the-class multiphase meter to answer this challenge. This step forward in the production monitoring is instrumental in solving the measurement issues that plague solid production. The innovative work presented in this paper creates the foundation for future work in sand monitoring. We believe that this study is a cornerstone to state the robustness of current specific design, and opens opportunity to future development for mature field and wells with early sand production.