5 Years Application of Acoustic Sand Detection Tool in Sandy Wells Environment

Author(s):  
T. Widarena

Significant production of Mahakam Block comes from sand prone reservoirs. Uncontrolled sand production can lead to catastrophic consequences. A robust sand detection and monitoring system is crucial for optimizing production without jeopardizing safety. A non-intrusive Acoustic Sand Detection (ASD) tool has been widely implemented in Mahakam swamp and offshore fields. The tool can be portable or permanently installed, depending on the availability of power and telemetry. Sand rate is derived from the signal received by sensor after listening to the sound of sand particle collision with the pipe wall. If the sand rate exceeds the defined Maximum Allowable Sand Rate (MASR) of 0.02 g/s, the well will be declared as sandy. As the consequence, the well could be ramped down or shut-in for choke verification. Of all the sandy cases detected by ASD, more than twenty cases turned out to be incident preventive. The wellhead choke had been eroded such that it could have been catastrophic. The erosion occurred on wells producing from shallow/upper layer reservoirs with high delta pressure between upstream and downstream choke. The application of acoustic sand detection tool as the primary sand monitoring system (78%) in Mahakam has proven to be rewarding. Around 149 BCF of additional production volume during 2014-2019 was the result of implementation of sand detection and monitoring using ASD tool, as means of optimizing the life of production wells. This paper demonstrates Mahakam invaluable experience with ASD tool to optimize sandy wells production safely.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caleb DeValve ◽  
Gilbert Kao ◽  
Stephen Morgan ◽  
Shawn Wu

Abstract Controlling downhole sand production is a well-known and often-studied issue within the oil and gas industry. The methods employed for sand management, and their ultimate cost, is greatly impacted by the amount of sand produced by the well. This paper presents an innovative, physics-based approach to predict sand production for various reservoir and completion types, explored through a case study of recent production wells in a sandstone reservoir development. Sand control may be executed through a variety of methods, for example at the reservoir-completion interface using a sand control completion, at topside facilities through sand monitoring / de-sanding equipment, or by using well operational limits to avoid downhole sand failure. Although different strategies exist for effective sand management, some capability to estimate sand production is needed to design a holistic sand management strategy. This paper presents a physics-based approach to predicting sand production on a well-by-well basis to inform the overall sand management design. The workflow integrates (1) geomechanical estimate of wellbore breakout and volume of failed sand downhole, (2) log-based prediction of the sand particle size variation along the well path, (3) modeling of sand filtration based on experimental and analytical methods for specific completion options (e.g. Open Hole Gravel Pack [OHGP] or Stand-Alone Screen [SAS]), and (4) a natural sand pack permeability prediction for SAS completions and associated well performance analysis. This paper describes the methods used in this work in more detail as well as the application to five wells in a recent sandstone reservoir development. The workflow can be described as follows: First, log-based predictions for geomechanical properties and sand Particle Size Distributions (PSDs) were generated for specific wellpaths, and the volume of failed reservoir sand and PSD characteristics were predicted along the entire wellbore length. Next, this analysis was combined with a novel filtration model to determine sand retention and production, specific to various completion types. Additionally, for a SAS completion, the PSD and volume of retained sand in the annulus was computed as the wellbore experience borehole breakout, combined with an analytical model to calculate the natural sand pack permeability and well performance. This workflow was initially applied to study five development well producers, and the results influenced a mixed design of OHGP and SAS completions for individual wells. Sand production was measured during recent well startup to validate the workflow, with excellent agreement observed between measured field data and the physics-based predictions. This innovative, physics-based approach and the associated case study demonstrate a significant advancement in the area of sand production prediction from hydrocarbon production wells. The current workflow is able to deliver improved sand prediction capabilities over rules of thumb or analog field performance, which can be used to better inform overall sand management strategies and associated business value.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gaurav Agrawal ◽  
Moustafa Eissa ◽  
Kamaljeet Singh ◽  
Shaktim Dutta ◽  
Apoorva Kumar ◽  
...  

Abstract The consequences of sand production are often disadvantageous to the short and long-term productivity of the well. Although some wells routinely experience controllable sand production, these are the exception rather than the rule. Sand production and its management over the life of the well is not an attractive situation but is often essential to extract the resource. Knowing the root cause behind sand inflow in a well and the possible results can inform an appropriate strategy to safely extract as much of the resource as possible. The sands in such reservoir units often have high permeability and are mechanically weak and prone to sand production. The producing wells are often completed with gravel-packed completions for efficient sand control. Most of the wells have multi-zone completions for better productivity but this further complicates reservoir characterization. This paper describes the first use of downhole sand impact detection technology in such fields. The sand detection technology integrates the fully digitized high-resolution acquisition with signal processing and interpretation algorithm to enhance the sand particle detections as small as 0.1 mm in diameter and up to 1,500 impacts per second. The tool is designed to immune the sensors from any background noise and gas/liquid jetting effect. A combination of production logging tools (PLT) and the sand impact detection tool, was used to understand four phase zonal contributions (gas, oil, water and sand) and pinpoint sand entry in these cases. Results exceeded expectations and the ability for the sand detection tool to accurately detect the point of sand entry enabled immediate intervention to eliminate sand production in these case studies. One of them also resulted in increased production of 7.4kb/d oil without any sand flow and with greatly reduced gas-oil ratio as compared to pre-intervention production. The work clearly demonstrates the practical and effective use of downhole sand impact detection with new sand detection technology to identify and isolate sand production in wells. The innovative tool design makes it feasible to detect even small sand particles in adverse wellbore conditions and varied production rates, thus adding a detection of the fourth phase in an otherwise three phase production log.


2013 ◽  
Vol 701 ◽  
pp. 440-444
Author(s):  
Gang Liu ◽  
Peng Tao Liu ◽  
Bao Sheng He

Sand production is a serious problem during the exploitation of oil wells, and people put forward the concept of limited sand to alleviate this problem. Oil production with limited sanding is an efficient mod of production. In order to complete limited sand exploitation, improve the productivity of oil wells, a real-time sand monitoring system is needed to monitor the status of wells production. Besides acoustic sand monitoring and erosion-based sand monitoring, a vibration-based sand monitoring system with two installing styles is proposed recently. The paper points out the relationships between sand monitoring signals collected under intrusive and non-intrusive installing styles and sanding parameters, which lays a good foundation for further study and actual sand monitoring in oil field.


Author(s):  
Ahmed Mohamed Nossair ◽  
Peter Rodgers ◽  
Afshin Goharzadeh

The understanding of sand particle transport by fluids in pipelines is of importance for the drilling of horizontal and inclined hydrocarbon production wells, topside process facilities, infield pipelines, and trunk lines. Previous studies on hydraulic conveying of sand particles in pipelines have made significant contributions to the understanding of multiphase flow patterns, pressure drop and particle transport rate in horizontal pipelines. However, due to the complexity of the flow structure resulting from liquid-sand interactions, the mechanisms responsible for bed-load transport flow for hydraulic conveying of sand particles have not been extensively studied in inclined pipelines. This paper presents an experimental investigation of hydraulic conveying of sand particles resulting from a stationary flat bed in both horizontal and +3.6 degree upward inclined pipelines. The characteristics of sand transportation by saltation from an initial sand bed are experimentally visualized using a transparent Plexiglas pipeline and high-speed digital photography. The dune formation process is assessed as a function of pipeline orientation. Based on the visualized dune morphology, pipeline inclination is found to have a significant influence on hydraulic conveying of sand dune dynamics (i.e., dune velocity), as well as sand dune geometry (i.e., dune pitch and characteristic dune angles).


2012 ◽  
Vol 217-219 ◽  
pp. 2283-2286
Author(s):  
Xiao Peng Zhai ◽  
Yi Shan Lou ◽  
Bao Sheng He ◽  
Hui Ji

Sand and fluid may both run into the wellbore during the production of loose sandstone reservoir, but cavities around the wellbore are prone to form when sand is produced, which makes the casing lost the protection of the formation and casing failure comes about. The limitation of thin cylindrical shell buckling model is analyzed and a mechanical model for casing under sand production is established by M.M.протодьяконоВ’ theory and the pressures of the casing where cavities exist are determined by numerical method. The research shows the cavity height and sand production volume are in a power relationship; the cavity height and axial force are in a linear relationship. With the increase of the overburden pressure, higher steel grade have to be used to keep the reliability of the casing. The research provides theoretical foundation for production casing design and casing strength verification with reasonable sanding.


2016 ◽  
Vol 1133 ◽  
pp. 624-628
Author(s):  
Sonny Irawan ◽  
Mahmood Bataee ◽  
Mohammad Reza Zare

This paper has reviewed the failure criteria that had been applied in the wellbore studies. Rock failure studies had applied in the wellbore and reservoir to establish the stability, which is a major problem in oil and gas wells. There problems are both in injection wells and production wells. In injection wells, fracturing is a problem and in production wells, sand production affects the oil flow rate. The stress state of the well determines the stability of the well using the failure criteria.Different failure criteria and their applications had been studied. The theory of the failure has expressed; then applied criteria, formulation and modification of different criteria is expressed for different wellbore studies. And finally the important aspects and differences in wellbore failure rather than the rock surface failure has been discussed.


2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 30-38
Author(s):  
Jadir Borges Pinheiro ◽  
Giovani Olegario da Silva ◽  
Jhenef Gomes de Jesus ◽  
Danielle Biscaia ◽  
Raphael Augusto de Castro e Melo

In Brazil, eggplant and gilo are important for the economy of small-scale farms located mainly in the southeast states and other regions, with a significant production volume year-round in the wholesale local markets. However, these species are very susceptible to root-knot nematodes, and there are few or almost none known sources of resistance. The objective of this studywas to prospect sources of resistance to root-knot nematodesin eggplant, scarlet eggplant (gilo), as well in interspecific hybrids between these species and with wildSolanumspecies, to be used as rootstocks. In the first experiment, in 2013,10 eggplant accessions, a hybrid between eggplant andgilo, and a Solanum stramonifoliumxeggplanthybrid, were evalu41atedfor theirreaction to Meloidogyne enterolobii. In the second, in 2016, 20 accessions of gilowere evaluated for their reaction to M. incognita, M. javanica,and M. enterolobii.. And in the third experiment,in 2017,one access and two experimental eggplant hybrids, and one Solanum scuticumx eggplant hybrid, were evaluated for their reaction to M. incognita, and M. enterolobii. All the trials were stablished inagreenhouse, and characters related to root infection were evaluated in a completely randomized design with six replications of one plant per pot, usinga 1.5 L pots filled with a mixedsubstrate inoculated with each nematode species.Itwas found thatall eggplant accessions were susceptible to M. incognitaand M. enterolobii, however, BER 3150 presented lower susceptibility to M. incognita. The gilogenotypes CNPH 056, CNPH 070, CNPH 220,and CNPH 363 shownbetter response to M. incognitaand M. javanicathan the susceptibility pattern, the tomato 'Rutgers'. Other giloaccessions CNPH 070, CNPH 219,and CNPH 387 showed better or equivalent response thanthe resistant tomato 'Nemadoro' for M. enterolobii.4-the BER EG203 x S. scuticuminterspecific hybrid can be recommended as a rootstock for eggplant susceptible to M. incognita, as well the wild S. stramonifoliumvar. inerme species for M. enterolobii.


Geofluids ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Yichen Li ◽  
Gang Liu ◽  
Zongwen Jia ◽  
Min Qin ◽  
Gang Wang ◽  
...  

Sand production is a problem that is often encountered in unconventional oil and gas exploitation and that is difficult to effectively solve. Accurate online monitoring of sand production is one of the keys to ensuring the safety and long-term production of oil wells as well as efficient production throughout the life cycle of production wells. This paper proposes a method for monitoring sand production in offshore oil wells that is based on the vibration response characteristics of sand-carrying fluid flow impinging on the pipe wall. This method uses acceleration sensors to obtain the weak vibration response characteristics of sand particles impinging on the pipe wall on a two-dimensional time-frequency plane. The time-frequency parameters are further optimized, and the ability to identify weakly excited vibration signals of sand particles in the fluid stream is enhanced. The difference between the impact response of the sand particles and the impact response of the fluid flow to the pipe wall is identified, and corresponding indoor verification experiments are carried out. Under different sand contents, particle sizes, and flow rates (sand content 0-2‰, sand particle size 96-212 μm, and flow velocity 1-3 m/s), the impact response frequency of sand particles to the pipe wall exhibits good consistency. The characteristic frequency band of sand impacting the pipe wall is 30-50 kHz. A statistical method is used to establish the response law of the noise signal of the fluid. Based on this knowledge, a real-time calculation model of sand production in offshore oil wells is constructed, and the effectiveness of this model is verified. Finally, a field test is carried out with a self-developed sand production signal dynamic time-frequency response software system on 4 wells of an oil production platform in the Bohai Sea. This system can effectively distinguish sand-producing wells from non-sand-producing wells. The dynamic time-frequency response, field test results, and actual laboratory results are consistent, verifying the effectiveness of the method proposed in this paper and further providing a theory for improving the effectiveness of the sand production monitoring method under complex multiphase flow conditions. This study also provides technical guidance for the industrial application of sand production monitoring devices in offshore oil wells.


1985 ◽  
Vol 25 (06) ◽  
pp. 848-856 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Geertsma

Abstract Elementary borehole- and perforation-stability problems in friable clastic formations for unrestricted fluid flow between reservoir rock and underground opening are treated on the basis of linear poroelastic theory. Thermal stress effects caused by a temperature difference between reservoir and borehole fluids can be predicted from the mathematical similarity of poro- and thermoelasticity. A tension-failure condition applies for the prediction of hydraulic fracture initiation in a formation around injection wells. The resulting equations are partially well-known. Similarly, a uniaxial compression-failure condition should predict perforation failure leading to sand influx in production wells. The major difference between these situations is that, at sufficient depth of burial, the tensile strength of a friable rock mass has only a minor effect on the fracturing pressure level, but the actual value of the compressive strength plays a crucial role in the prediction of sand-influx conditions. Practical suggestions for resolving the latter are given. Introduction This paper discusses borehole- and perforation-stability problems as encountered in friable sandstone formations that have in common free fluid flow between a reservoir and an underground opening. Such a condition prevailsduring fluid production through either casing perforations or open hole andduring injection of fluids into a reservoir for pressure maintenance, gas conservation, tertiary oil recovery, or well stimulation. In the absence of a membrane (such as a filter cake) at the rock/hole interface, the effective stress normal to the rock surface is zero. Rock failure can result either in tension during fluid injection or in compression during fluid production. Because one of the principal effective stresses (the radial stress) is zero and the effect of the intermediate principal effective stress is small, failure is of either the unconfined tension or compression type. Rock failure resulting from fluid production from friable sandstones causes sand-particle influx. Failure caused by fluid injection means either planned or unintentional formation fracturing. The production technologist has to foresee such failure conditions as a function of changes in the stress regime with time. He has to start with a best possible estimate of the initial in-situ state of stress. On the basis of log data and core sample analysis, relevant rock deformation and strength properties must be determined next. Finally, an estimate of changes in the stress field resulting from prolonged production or injection must be made. Problem Areas Formation Particle Influx in Production Wells. Although significant improvements have been made in well-completion techniques aimed at sand-particle retention by both gravel packing and sand consolidation, straightforward production through casing perforations is the preferred production method because of minimum costs and maximum usage of well-flow potential. Moreoever, gravel packing long intervals of strongly deviated holes remains a difficult, expensive operation to perform, while sand consolidation processes for oil wells at temperatures above 75 degrees C [167 degrees F] are not available commercially. Friable formation sands i.e., formations that have some strength of their own-do not necessarily present a sand-influx problem initially. Sand production may develop gradually in time, once total drawdown increases and/or water breakthrough occurs. Deviated boreholes may encounter less favorable stress concentrations around perforations than vertical holes. All in all, it is necessary to predict the sand-influx potential of a well as soon as possible after drilling to serve as a basis for a completion policy. A perforation pattern that both results in production from only the more competent zones and enables delivery of the required well production capacity could be implemented. Formation Fracturing Around Injection Wells. A familiar type of formation failure is fracturing in tension around injection wells. Formation fracturing always occurs when the injection pressure surpasses the formation breakdown pressurei.e., the fluid pressure that brings the hoop stress around the opening in a tension equal to the tensile strength. Once initiated at or below this pressure level (because the formation may contain natural fractures), fracturing proceeds while the injection pressure surpasses the least principal in-situ total stress. The instantaneous shut-in pressure recorded during or after a fracturing job provides the best value of the least principal total stress component. The in-situ state of stress is not necessarily a constant during the production life of a reservoir. Changes both in reservoir pressure and in temperature adjacent to a well affect the local stress field in the formation. The effect of reservoir pressure variations on formation fracturing potential is well-known. Breckels and van Eekelen explicitly account for this effect. It is less recognized that in deeper formations cooling of the borehole surroundings by injection of liquids at near-surface temperature causes reservoir-rock shrinkage, leading to a reduction in both fracture initiation and propagation pressure. SPEJ P. 848^


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