Sand control

Definition:

Conventional well completions in soft formations (compressive strength less than 1,000
psi) typically produce sand or fines with fluids.

These formations are generally geologically young and shallow, and have little or no
natural cementing.

 Sand control is a method of controlling sand production in a wellbore, and it is a

common requirement for many oil and gas producing wells around the world.
 "consolidated" and "unconsolidated" are two terms commonly used to describe the
nature of the reservoir material.
Causes:
 Non-consolidated formations :
 Little cohesion
 Fluid-sensitive cementing materials
 Constraints in place
 Inappropriate well treatment (bad acid stimulation)

 Modified constraints in the edges of the well :

 Stress concentration due to drilling
 Excessive drawdown
 Production of high viscosity fluids
 Sand mobilization :
 Capillary forces (water passage)
 Viscous fluids
 High production rates
 Consequences:

 At the bottom of the well :

 Filling the well .
 Damage to the connection between the well and the reservoir .
 Equipment problems due to sand filling
 Erosion and corrosion .

 On the surface :
 Damage to surface instruments
 Erosion and corrosion
 Sands in lines and surface equipments
 Sand disposal
Technologies used to solve the sand
production problem: Active
In order to avoid the production of sand there are two main methods
passive
 Active sandControl :
This method relies on the use of filters to control sand production:

1/Stand-alone screen
2/expandable sand screen
3/gravel pack and frac pack
4/chemical consolidation

 Passive sand control :

This method uses non-intrusive measures to control the mitigation or avoidance of sand
production from the reservoir :

1/Oriented and selective perforation.

Stand-alone screen
 This type of sand control consists of putting a
screen to stop the production of sand in a
wellbore.
 Initially fine sand and silt will pass through
the screen, once the sand blocks are
developed around the screen they will act as
a filter media that prevents sand from
flowing into a wellbore.
 This is suitable for well sorted clean with a
large grain size formation.
 Expandable sand screen:
The expandable screen is the latest in screen technology and consists of a perforated pipe,
filter media and an outer shell.
The screen is inserted into a wellbore and the expansion insert is used to expand the
screen to the diameter of the production hole.

 Advantages :
 effective sand control
 provides wellbore support
 gives a maximum hole diameter
 gives a high flow area
 Gravel pack and frac pack:

The gravel pack is a method of sand control and uses sized

sands as a filter media to prevent sand production, the ring
between the well and a sand control screen is filled with
sized gravels that prevent sand formation from flowing into
a wellbore.
 The open hole gravel pack is useful to control sand in
heterogeneous formations, however a tubed gravel block
is used to control sand and protect sand screens from
erosion flow
 Frack pack is a gravel pack combined with a wide and
long conductor, this technique will control sand
production and improve well productivity
 The disadvantages of the gravel pack are as follows :

 complex operation to install equipment and place gravel

 risk of incomplete gravel
 difficult to use in deviated and horizontal wells
Chemical consolidation:

 Chemical consolidation is an alternative to the mechanical method of

controlling the production of unconsolidated sand formations by injecting a
chemical into the formation to strengthen or consolidate the sand, the main
objective being to cement the sand grains together to provide stable
compressive strength while maintaining as much of the initial permeability as
possible.
 This is the most complex method of sand control and carries a high
risk of damaging the reservoir.
 This technique involves the injection of several chemicals into the
reservoir in several stages.
Same problem, different mechanism different solutions
Perforation
 Definition :

 Perforation consists of creating

a connection between the
wellbore and the pay zone.
 Objectives :

 We need to perform perforation:

 To provide a flow path for reservoir fluids .

 It's a key factor in well productivity.
 The stimulation and sand control operations will
strongly depend on the perforation.
When we need to perform a perforation job?
 In cased hole completions

The well will be drilled down past the section of the formation desired
for production and will have casing or a liner run in separating the
formation from the well bore. In fact considered as the final stage of
the completion that will involve running in the whole perforating guns,
a string of shaped charges, down to the desired depth and firing them
to perforate the casing or liner.

 In Open hole completions

They generally have no liner, the reservoir is directly connected to the well
bore so there is less requirement for perforation. However, perforation is
sometimes carried out with the intention of providing a better connection to
the reservoir, especially if the wellbore has been damaged during the drilling
process.
 Methods :

 Casing Gun System (Conventional)

The casing gun system is the oldest perforation technique.

Wellbore conditions can be either overbalanced or
underbalanced when perforating. Before running a CGS the
wellbore should be neutralized because it will minimize
formation damage.
 Tubing Conveyed Perforation System (TCP)

For this system, the perforation gun is

attached and run with a completion
string. This system requires drilling an
additional hole called a "sump" in
order to accommodate a perforated
gun to be dropped and left in the well
after a gun is fired.
The steps of a TCP perforation as listed as follow:
 Running the TCP tool in the wellbore by a wireline convey and
place it across the production area (The pay zone).
 Once the production packer is set, the wireline setting equipment
will be pulled out of the hole.
 Production seals will be fixed and runned into the hole and then
landed into the packer.
 The lighter weight fluid is introduced in the production tubing to
create an underbalanced condition.
 Pressure will be applied in production surface equipment in order
to rupture the disc of the RD firing head adapter.
 The casing is then perforated.
  Through Tubing System (TTP)

 In Through Tubing Perforations (TTP), tubings are lowered

within the well bottom to the required depth and positioned.
 To carry out this job we need well head pressure control
system.
 Here the guns are usually run with a de-centralizer.
 Through tubing perforation allows perforation to be
performed with the existing completion string.
 This system has limitations on size of charge and perforation
gun because the guns must be small enough to run into a
completion string. Typically, the gun size is smaller than 2-
1/8."
 THANK YOU FOR
YOUR ATTENTION

QUESTIONS
TIME!!