An investigation into current sand control methodologies taking into account geomechanical, field and laboratory data analysis

Abstract

Sand production is one of the major issues in the development of reservoirs in poorly cemented rocks. Geomechanical modeling gives us an opportunity to calculate the reservoir stress state, a major parameter that determines the stable pressure required in the bottomhole formation zone to prevent sand production, decrease the likelihood of a well collapse and address other important challenges. Field data regarding the influence of water cut, bottomhole pressure and fluid flow rate on the amount of sand produced was compiled and analyzed. Geomechanical stress-state models and Llade’s criterion were constructed and applied to confirm the high likelihood of sanding in future wells using the Mohr–Coulomb and Mogi–Coulomb prototypes. In many applications, the destruction of the bottomhole zone cannot be solved using well mode operations. In such cases, it is necessary to perform sand retention or prepack tests in order to choose the most appropriate technology. The authors of this paper conducted a series of laboratory prepack tests and it was found that sanding is quite a dynamic process and that the most significant sand production occurs in the early stages of well operation. With time, the amount of produced sand decreases greatly—up to 20 times following the production of 6 pore volumes. Finally, the authors formulated a methodological approach to sand-free oil production.