Abstract
Development of weakly and unconsolidated sand reservoirs require effective sand control media to prevent sand production. The existing sand control devices in the market are either relying on surface filtration to prevent sand production through size exclusion or bridging or depth filtration which relies on the pore size distribution of a porous filter or pack to prevent the sand from producing along the production fluids. In this study, we introduce a new hybrid sand screen that works based on a combined surface and depth filtration.
Radial Sand Control Evaluation (RSCE) testing facility was used to compare the solid production and flow performance of the new hybrid screen with various mesh media in multi-phase gas and liquid flow under various fluid injection scenarios. Solid production and flow performance were compared with investigated cases.
The new hybrid screen provides an optimized Open to Flow Area (OFA) in comparison to available surface filtration or depth filtration media, which provides required OFA, while prevents sanding. The robust design, low cost and manufacturing ease make it a suitable screen media for most sand control applications. The sand retention test results under various fluid injection scenarios including multi-phase oil, brine, and gas show that it outperforms the Dutch Twill (DT) weave and Reverse Dutch Twill (RDT) weave of equivalent aperture size, with better flow performance at constant flow rate tests compare to best-performing mesh media, while keeping the produced sand far below the acceptable thresholds. Hybrid design handles both high velocity and high Gas-Oil Ratio (GOR) better than equivalent depth filtration media of equivalent size.
This paper presents a detailed characterization, flow performance testing of a new hybrid sand control media that combines the surface filtration and depth filtration properties to achieve better solid retention and flow performance. The hybrid screen media is suitable for high-rate producers with high GOR.
Keywords: Hybrid Screen, Surface Filtration, Depth Filtration, Radial Sand Control Evaluation (RSCE) Testing
