A Simplified Pseudo 3D Model to Evaluate Sand Production Risk in Deviated Cased Holes

Kessler, Nicolas; Wang, Yarlong; Santarelli, F.J.

doi:10.2118/26541-ms

Cited by 40 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…[32][33][34][35] This assumption, however, ignores the fundamental effect of stress anisotropy on sanding, so the technique cannot explain sanding risk related to borehole orientation. [36][37][38] Additionally, the failure criterion used in this circumstance considers critical plastic deformation (e.g., it specifies the allowable extent of plastic deformation before instability occurs), but this factor is difficult to determine and is somewhat arbitrary.…”

Section: Review Of Sanding Prediction Approachesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…36,39 A significant merit of this method is that it takes into account the most important aspects of sand production: stresses, rock strength, and the effect of in-situ stress anisotropy. 8 Compared to numerical methods, this elastic approach reduces the time and effort needed for analyses and also overcomes the difficulties of obtaining complex input parameters.…”

Section: Review Of Sanding Prediction Approachesmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Practical Approach to Achieve Accuracy in Sanding Prediction

Qiu¹,

Marsden²,

Alexander³

et al. 2006

Proceedings of SPE Asia Pacific Oil &Amp; Gas Conference and Exhibition

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TX 75083-3836, U.S.A., fax 01-972-952-9435. AbstractSand production is a major concern for many operators. It can impact production, cause erosion in downhole and surface facilities, require additional separation and disposal, and lead to significant economic loss. On the other hand, precautionary but unnecessary sand prevention will mean unwarranted reduction in productivity. Reliable sanding prediction analysis thus provides a basis for designs that achieve appropriate sand management strategies and maximization of economic production, and overestimates or underestimates of sanding risk increase the chances of serious economical loss. This raises the question of how accurate and reliable sanding predictions might be achieved without overcomplicating the analyses and without requiring complex lab and field data that, in most instances, will be unavailable or the acquisition of which will incur unwanted delays and costs.This paper presents the case of a sanding study for the Messla field in Libya; a field that has produced oil for more than 30 years. This field experiences massive sanding from some wells but experiences no problems with other wells. This variation made the Messla field an ideal candidate for a detailed sanding and geomechanics investigation aimed at optimizing completions and production and at dramatically reducing the current sanding without having to enter into a lengthy data acquisition programme or time-consuming modelling.In this study, sanding prediction analyses were conducted using a technique that combines easily measurable lab data, log data, and analytical calculations with empirical methods that are supported by the results from previously run rigorous and advanced numerical code. The result of this integration is a sanding analyses tool that uses input parameters such as rock strength, geostresses, and particle size to: account for plasticity effects that modify the strength behaviour of sands surrounding openhole wells and perforations during drawdown to reduce uncertainty and conservatism such as seen in simple elastic models, account for scale effects associated with different perforation and borehole diameters, provide a significant improvement and predictive capability over simple empirical methods, provide the above accuracies without needing complex or extensive lab programmes to determine advanced rock mechanics properties. The application of this approach to the Messla field and a later comparison of the results to actual field data and observations validated the analyses and methods used. The application and comparison also disclosed that the approach was not only able to provide results that closely matched field experience but was also able to predict correctly, to the year, the onset of sanding in wells.This paper describes the methods employed in this investigation, provides details of the data acquisition and processing required, and demonstrates that accurate sanding predictions can be achieved by focusing effort on certain input data, targeting and reducing specific ...

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Section: Review Of Sanding Prediction Approachesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Review Of Sanding Prediction Approachesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Practical Approach to Achieve Accuracy in Sanding Prediction

Qiu¹,

Marsden²,

Alexander³

et al. 2006

Proceedings of SPE Asia Pacific Oil &Amp; Gas Conference and Exhibition

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…This generally requires a rock mechanics model incorporating in situ stresses, material behavior parameters (strength and deformation parameters), and knowledge of stress and pressure evolution, perhaps even incorporating hydrodynamic drag. Analyses can range from highly complex 3-D elastoplastic finite element models 11 , to analytical or semi analytical models based on only a few stress and strength parameters 12,13,14 , to laboratory studies of sands under as realistic conditions as possible 15 , integrated analysis and field studies 16 , and collation and correlation of empirical data 17 .…”

Section: Risk Managementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Skin Self-Cleaning in High-Rate Oil Wells Using Sand Management

Dusseault¹,

Waterloo²,

Tronvoll³

et al. 2000

SPE International Symposium on Formation Damage Control

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TX 75083-3836, U.S.A., fax 01-972-952-9435. AbstractMechanical skin develops around high-rate oil wells because of mineral salt precipitation in the near-wellbore region, because of fine-grained minerals accumulation that block the near-wellbore pore throats, because of capillary forces development that impair free flow, and because of asphaltene or other organic substance deposition that reduces effective porosity. The removal of mechanical skin is normally carried out by workover techniques that require wellbore intervention.As early as 1994-95, it was found that for wells in poorly consolidated sandstones many of the problems of mechanical skin could be mitigated by producing the wells at a rate that allowed periodic sand bursts, yet without initiating massive sand influx. Also, deliberate sand clean-up activities during well testing could be used to generate skin-removing bursts. The sand bursts are triggered by stress and by the increased hydrodynamic drag associated with steep exit gradients arising from skin, and they have a remarkable clean-up effect on the near-wellbore, bringing flow skin into the range of consistently negative values. Wells that are amenable to this production methodology, called Sand Management, benefit from reduced completion costs, increased production rates, lowered intervention frequency, and the development and maintenance of a negative skin.Sand Management, in contrast to sand exclusion, requires coping with higher risks because episodic sand influx events carry with them some danger to integrity of the well and surface facilities. Risk management implies three actions: high-quality evaluation and analysis before implementation, a commitment to monitoring during production, and a process of continuous re-evaluation of the well during its production life.These risk management activities and protocols form the basis of the Sand Management approach.

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“…3,4 This model computes the stress concentration around the perforations and compares it with the critical conditions given by the adopted failure criterion. In this case, such failure criterion was calibrated using experimental results of cavity failure tests.…”

Section: Adopted Strategy To Predict the Risk Of Sand Productionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…σ h : 508 bar (4) which means that a strike-slip regime acts on the Varg field (the maximum and the minimum principal stresses are horizontal). This situation has already been observed in other fields in the North Sea.…”

Section: Analysis Of the In-situ State Of Stressmentioning

confidence: 99%

Orienting Live Well Perforating Technique Provides Innovative Sand Control Method in the North Sea

Eriksen¹,

Sanfilippo²,

Kvamsdal

et al. 1999

SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition

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TX 75083-3836, U.S.A., fax 01-972-952-9435. AbstractThe Varg field is a development in the North Sea operated by Saga Petroleum. It consists of a not-normally-manned wellhead platform (WHP) with dry wellheads and a floating production storage offloading (FPSO) vessel for processing the crude. The reservoir is heterogeneous sandstone of Upper Jurassic age, with estimated reserves of approximately 35 million stock-tank barrels.During development planning of the field, it was felt that sand production was likely to occur, and this phenomenon was actually experienced during well testing. Since this development was considered to be a marginal field, an extensive program was initiated to review and select a technical completion solution that would minimize the risk of sand production so that production potentials could be maximized. This paper will discuss how a unique perforating solution was developed to provide the controls needed to manage the potential for sand production.The first part of this paper will summarize: 1) the drainage strategy and implications of this strategy on selecting the perforation intervals, and 2) results of a rock mechanics study that focused on the conditions critical for the onset of sand production as well as recommendations for minimizing the risk. The primary recommendations were to avoid perforation of the weakest intervals and to shoot perforations that would be oriented parallel to the maximum horizontal stress.The second part of the paper will describe how successful oriented perforating was achieved in these wells. The primary completion challenges included the following: 1. Development of a slickline system that could perforate the entire zone simultaneously in a given direction in a vertical well. 2. A means to remove the perforating guns from the well without having to kill it after completion of the perforation as there was insufficient rathole to leave the guns in the hole.An oriented modular perforating system was developed so that the above conditions could be achieved. The requirements were met by installing a gun anchor in the well before the completion was installed. Then, the orientation of an orienting lug was measured with a gyro, and based on the data from the survey, the guns were aligned in the correct orientation. Subsequently, gun sections of length maximized to available lubricator length were run on slickline. The gun section aligned itself automatically to the measured orientation of the orienting lug because of the equipment design. Currently, three wells have been perforated using this system, and the desired results have been obtained.

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A Simplified Pseudo 3D Model to Evaluate Sand Production Risk in Deviated Cased Holes

Cited by 40 publications

References 4 publications

Practical Approach to Achieve Accuracy in Sanding Prediction

Practical Approach to Achieve Accuracy in Sanding Prediction

Skin Self-Cleaning in High-Rate Oil Wells Using Sand Management

Orienting Live Well Perforating Technique Provides Innovative Sand Control Method in the North Sea

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