SPE 122138

An Inflow Prediction Model for Open Hole Gravel Pack and Frac & Pack
Completions
Juan J. Tovar, Ferney Moreno and Syed R. Haider, Innovative Engineering Systems Global

Copyright 2009, Society of Petroleum Engineers

This paper was prepared for presentation at the 2009 SPE European Formation Damage Conference held in Scheveningen, The Netherlands, 2729 May 2009.
This paper was selected for presentation by an SPE program committee following review of information contained in an abstract submitted by the author(s). Contents of the paper have not been
reviewed by the Society of Petroleum Engineers and are subject to correction by the author(s). The material does not necessarily reflect any position of the Society of Petroleum Engineers, its
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Abstract
Predicting gravel pack performance is a complex and
difficult task. Current practices account for expectation of
performance by assigning a range of skin values that
consider all the mechanisms that generate formation
damage in the gravel pack. Other methods of identifying
damage in the gravel pack include pressure build up
analysis and the use of logging tools to investigate gravel
placement. Using techniques such as NODAL analysis,
overall well performance can be validated and the level of
damage within the gravel pack estimated. This practice
assumes that other damaging mechanisms present at the
sand face are part of the overall gravel pack damage.
This paper presents a methodology that integrates near
wellbore damage, such as solids invasion and mechanical
damage during drilling, with damage caused to the gravel
pack by solid particles as the well is started up for the first
time. The model developed is supported by a laboratory
test program of granular filter media to determine the
various pore blocking mechanisms present during well
start up. The results of this work indicate that impairment
of the granular filter media is a function of flow rate,
particle concentration and particle sizes. The final inflow
model developed takes into account the volume of solids
(mud cake and sand particles) that will be dragged into the
gravel pack causing impairment. The result is an inflow
profile from the gravel pack to the wellbore on a foot-byfoot basis that will dictate the final reservoir contribution
and flow rates at the internal side of the screen.
Background
Reservoir contribution to production or inflow is highly
influenced by its original and impaired petrophysical
properties such as porosity and permeability. A similar
analogy can be made for sand face completions that utilize
granular filter media such as gravel packs or frac &
packs (1). The main difference is that, in granular filter
media, property such as permeability is constant and do
not depend on geological or depositional conditions.

NODAL is a Trademark of Schlumberger

Determination of reservoir permeability is carried out

using a laboratory test that is then calibrated with another
petrophysical property such as porosity, which can be
derived on a continuous basis. Permeability of granular
filter media such as gravel or proppant is normally
specified by the manufacturer after detailed testing. It is
considered that its size might vary depending on the
manufacturers quality control process. Table 1 presents
various properties for gravels and proppants commercially
available.
In order to characterize reservoir inflow, it is imperative to
determine the level of impairment caused during drilling
and completion. This involves determination of the
magnitude of each skin component along the exposed and
contributing formation. Currently this is somewhat simpler
for open hole completions, as it is assumed that although
the contribution is not equal on a foot by foot basis current
practices assume that it is even throughout the interval.
Impairment is sometimes determined by running return
permeability tests on reservoir core samples. These tests
quantify the change in permeability that results due to mud
invasion and the remaining permeability after simulated
start up production conditions. Figure 1 illustrates the
results obtained from such a test for an Andrew sandstone
reservoir in the UKCS.
These calculations and laboratory test results indicate on a
foot-by-foot basis what the inflow contribution might be at
the sand face. These results must be integrated with the
mobilization of the formations invading solids as well as
formation sand grains that will be dragged into the
granular filter media as production is started. In practical
terms, the reservoir section will be drilled, cleaned and the
gravel pack or frac & pack installed as required. A
drawdown will be applied to induce flow; hydrocarbons
and solids at the damaged zone will be submitted to the
drag forces generated by the initiation of flow. Solids and
grains will be mobilized from the damaged zone into the
granular filter media. Provided that optimum filter media

SPE 122138

sizing has been carried out, then only bridging should

occur at the interface and sand retention achieved. During
this period of time, some solids penetrate the filter media
and will either settle inside or pass through along with the
produced hydrocarbons. Figure 2 illustrates (2) the interface
between the formation sand and granular filter media, as
well as some of the solids that have already penetrated the
filter media.
Determination of reservoir inflow impairment
Our inflow model was developed taking into
consideration three (3) different types of skin acting on the
sand face: filtrate invasion, solids invasion and mechanical
damage due to the change of stresses. These mechanisms
and their integration have been previously (3) presented.
Additional development work has since been carried out
and it contributes to quantify their impact on inflow
behaviour at the sand face. Mechanical damage in
particular allows determination of the permeability at the
near wellbore area that resulted from rock deformation
during drilling. Under severe pore pressure depletion, this
skin can be very high due to dilatancy or compression of
the rock at the
sand face (4); figure 3 illustrates the
change in permeability at the sand face for a highly
depleted sandstone reservoir.
Current formation characterization techniques
Geometrical characterization of rock samples is required
in order to design a control mechanism that can stop the
grains from moving into the wellbore along with the
produced fluids. In this respect, we look to determine
properties such as grain size, sphericity and roundness.
Two (2) current experimental techniques (5) are commonly
used to determine the grain size distribution of formation
sand. These are: sieving and laser diffraction analysis or
LDA.
A continuous grain size prediction model was developed
using Hertzian fracture principles (4) which relate grain size
to porosity and critical grain crushing pressure P*. This is

P* = 0.5 D

(1)

On this basis, D50, D10, D90 can be determined (foot by

foot) resulting in an accurate and continuous
characterization of the grain sizes along the sand face.
This step also allows identification of the sand quality
(sorting and uniformity) on a continuous basis to optimize
filter media selection. Figure 4 illustrates the application
of the model for the determination of the continuous mean
grain size and sand quality in terms of sorting and
uniformity for a sandstone reservoir in the Irish Sea.
Flow impairment in granular based filter media
Granular based sand control systems such as gravel pack
and frac-pack are impaired in their capability to allow free
flow of fluids by retaining solids by a number of
mechanisms in general and mechanical plugging in

particular. It occurs as a result of solid particles being

retained within the filter media blocking the pore system
within the pack. Other impairment mechanisms such as
gravel/sand intermixing can also result in flow impairment
through the filter media. This impairment was first
identified by Saucier (6) and presented in his test results:
the ratio of gravel to formation sand (i.e. 5 to 6) actually
defines a relationship where none or very little impairment
occurs.
Flow impairment by solids blocking the pore spaces
within a gravel pack is illustrated in figure 2. This figure
illustrates 20/40 gravel invaded by sand grains and other
formation minerals.
The solids invasion model uses Wojtanowicz (7) et als
work to determine the severity of plugging by solids into a
granular based filter media such as the gravels and
proppants used for gravel pack and Frac & Pack. They
identified 4 main plugging mechanisms: bridging, shallow
pore blocking, combined pore blocking and deep invasion.
Further laboratory work was carried out to investigate
extended movement of the smaller particle sizes through
the filter media. An HP/HT fluid cell with continuous flow
capability was set up to investigate the various plugging
mechanisms and pack response to solids concentration;
figure 5 illustrate the equipment set up (8). The results
confirm the original findings in the literature (9) and
indicate that the mud cake builds on a granular filter media
with solids volume in the range of 4-5 %. Larger solid
volumes that invade the granular filter media cause very
little damage to the inflow capacity of the pack. Figure 6
illustrates these results as a function of pore volumes (8). It
can also be seen that for larger pore volumes, no further
impairment will occur. This behavior is representative of
the bridging and shallow pore blocking process followed
by deep invasion.
Mechanical skin along the wellbore
The drilling process imposes loads that result in
deformation along the wellbore. A well known effect (10)
of the drilling process is that of the yield zone, which
can vary in radial extension depending on the mechanical
properties of the formation; the field stresses, pore
pressure and the actual drilling conditions. Our model
considers only the near wellbore deformation and assumes
that the reservoir is not affected by the deformation at the
sand face. A key characteristic of this deformation is that it
may cause a change in the permeability of the sandstone at
the near wellbore area. This change, together with both
fluid and solids invasion, results in the actual reservoirs
inflow contribution along the wellbore as shown in Figure
3.
Highly dependant on porosity and mechanical strength,
the mechanical skin being a permanent deformation is
irreversible but not necessarily a restriction to the flow. In
other words, depending on the rock properties, the
deformation can result in an area with higher or lower
permeability than the original one. Figure 7 illustrates the

SPE 122138

radial extent of this deformation for an 8 open hole in a

highly depleted reservoir.
Integration of the damage mechanisms and
inflow
Integration of the damage mechanisms at the sand face
was presented in earlier work (3). The model was then
developed to address the issue of starting the well up and
allow the inflow to mobilize the solid particles from the
sand face onto/into the granular filter media. The
computational element of the model addresses the volume
of material at the sand face that can be mobilized
depending on the severity of the invasion and the
mechanical damage. Whether all the solids can be
mobilized by the inflow can be determined from the
model, however the solids which plug the reservoir
through deep and combined invasion mechanisms, this
might not be the case. The model also addresses the
amount of solids from the mud that are left inside the
matrix assuming that the cake at the surface of the sand
face has been removed during cleanout and well
preparation.
Filter media selection gravel vs. proppant
Both gravel and proppants are used for gravel packs
and frac & packs. Due to the high magnitude of the
closure stresses, proppant is mostly preferred to gravel for
frac & packs. Permeability decline varies depending on
which is being used. Proppants are of better quality in
terms of roundness and sphericity than gravels, which
make them more tolerant to solids flow through the packed
media. Conversely, natural gravels tend to be more
angular and less homogeneous, which make them more
sensitive to plugging, even for very low concentration of
fines. Results for pack plugging presented in figure 6 refer
to permeability impairment for proppants; similar curves
have been derived for gravels.
Modeling inflow into the filter media
A hydrodynamic model computes the necessary inflow
conditions for mobilizing any of the solids in the sand
matrix including sand grains and solids from the mud. For
a particular drawdown, an inflow profile is generated and
the volume of solids that can be mobilized for a particular
rate is determined. This model computes the drag forces
required to mobilize solids of any particular size, which
allows design of the filter media in such a way that the
rapid formation of the bridge can be achieved. Bridging
efficiency is computed throughout the length of the pack
in order to determine the pack area open to flow.
Figure 8 illustrates the plugging process starting when
the flow is initiated through the test sample (8). The first
event to occur as the flow initiates is the movement of
solids towards the filter media. Depending on the sizing of
the filter media, these solids will be retained at the surface
or will flow into the media creating a variety of plugging
levels, some of them reversible while others are
irreversible. Maximum plugging is then reached when no
further reduction in filter media permeability occurs

despite continuous flow of solids laden fluid. Coupling

solids invasion with the change in permeability through
the filter media will allow determination of the final
inflow profile from the granular filter media into the
wellbore. Figure 9 illustrates the final output of the inflow
model.
Applications of the model for frac & pack
The geometry of frac & pack completions vary in
comparison to the open hole configuration that forms the
basis of this model. Frac & packs are used in cased and
perforated completions; therefore, a number of changes
had to be made to the model. The model takes into account
the actual geometry of the fracture being the primary
change; parameters such as fracture length, height and
thickness are determined using either published models (11)
or data from fracturing simulators such as those used by
the service companies for fracture design. Final fracture
dimensions will define the actual flow area and hence,
fluid rates flowing from the reservoir into the fracture. In
practical terms, the conditions for inducing plugging in
fractures are much better than for gravel pack conditions
as the majority of the fracture is generated in virgin rock
and therefore, mud cake or mechanical damage should not
be present at the fracture face. Mobilization of the solids
and sand grains is limited to fines and mobile particles in
the, reservoir as bridging does not takes place.
Drag forces generated by the production fluids on the
other hand are very low as the flow area can be quite large,
provided there is very low damage at the near fracture
area. This results in the mobilization of very small
particles from the formation into the proppant in the
fracture.
Two distinctive permeability zones are developed
along the length of a fracture; the first one is from the
wellbore wall up to the boundary of the mechanical
damage (Rd) and then a very long zone from this
boundary until the final tip of the fracture. As a result, the
analysis and determination of the inflow needs to address
the anisotropy of permeability. The volume of solids that
can be mobilized and result in plugging are much larger at
the mechanically damaged zone than in the virgin
reservoir. This analysis indicates that in many cases, the
fracture damage and production impairment might be
severe at the near wellbore but not necessarily through the
fracture itself. The resulting inflow can be treated as
conventional for a perforated completion with a skin that
can be integrated along with other damaging mechanisms
such as perforating damage.
Other applications for the model
In addition to the inflow prediction in open hole, there
are other applications that the model can contribute to the
optimization of sand face completion and production.
These are discussed in the following paragraphs.

SPE 122138

Sand and fines migration

For open hole completions, even if sand control is not
required, the inflow model can be used to predict fines
migration. Size of the fines, volumes to be produced as
well as the flow rates and pressures required to mobilize
the fines can be determined. Formation plugging at the
sand face can also be determined using the model and
specific location of the plugging. Figure 10 illustrates the
output of the model predicting fines migration, their
location and the volumes expected for various drawdown
pressures applied to the sand face.

Conclusions
A new inflow prediction model for open hole gravel
pack and frac & pack completions has been developed.

Open hole stand alone & expandable screen

completions
For stand alone screens in open hole, the model can be
used to determine the conditions under which annular
packing will start, while determination of the solids to be
produced through the screen can also be carried out.
Identification of potential hot spots and plugging profile of
the screen is more difficult because solids transport in the
annular space between the sand face and the screen surface
depends on other factors such as flow regimes, grain sizes
and pressure drop. For expandable sand screens (ESS), the
model can be used in a similar manner to the open hole
gravel pack applications. In this case, if the screens are
fully expanded onto the wellbore walls and no annular gap
exists, mobilization of solids from the sand face towards
the expandable screen can be computed to determine the
bridging efficiency and the volume of fines to be produced
before the bridge is formed. For some of the expandable
screens which are non-compliant, the inflow model can
also be used based on the assumption of a stand alone
screen completion, where an annular gap might be present.

A continuous grain size prediction model ensures that

all reservoir heterogeneities in terms of grain size are
accounted for and that the inflow model allows
determination of what grains will be mobilized from the
sand face and into the gravel or proppant.

Inflow control in open hole gravel packs

Previous work (12) discussed the main issues associated
with the use of ICDs in sand control completions.
Regardless of the hydraulic principles on which the
various ICDs in the market work, they can achieve the
desired distribution of flow from the pack into the
wellbore. However, this is not by any means
representative of the source of inflow from the reservoir
into the gravel pack, as it will be dictated by the
permeability of the damaged zone and its grain and solids
size distribution. This model can be used for the
identification of the optimum locations for the ICDs as it
removes the assumption that there is a uniform pressure
drop and flow contribution from the reservoir.
Inflow modeling for injection wells
The developed model can also be used for water
injectors with or without sand control, particularly to
understand whether plugging at the gravel pack or the sand
face is occurring. This might contribute to identify
problems in the surface filtration system; it can also be
used in wells that produce fines and to check whether
impairment of the sand control method is caused during
flow back periods.

The model predicts the final contribution of the

reservoir through the gravel pack and into the wellbore on
a foot by foot basis. The results show that regardless of the
mechanical configuration of the well, reservoir
permeability at the sand face and grain size distribution are
the main parameters controlling the final permeability of
the granular filter media (gravel or proppant).

The model allows determination of the location of the

plugging within the filter media along the wellbore which
can be used to predict the formation and location of hot
spots along the gravel packs.
For frac & pack, the model can be used to predict
fracture impairment and plugging, particularly in
formations where the ratio Xlf / Rd < 100; determination
of damage through the extension of the fracture or at the
near wellbore.
Plugging will occur much more rapidly in gravel than
in proppant as a result of the quality of the grains. Gravels
are less uniform and more angular which make them more
sensitive to plugging even for very low concentration of
fines.
The model can be used in remedial operations for sand
control completions where plugging of the filter media has
been identified. Gravel pack plugging and damage
localization through the reservoir will allow use of
remedial measures such as acidification at the right
location, while minimizing the screen and gravel exposure
to high strength acid solutions. This is of particular
importance in horizontal wells where coiled tubing is
considered to spot the remedial fluids.
Acknowledgments
The authors wish to thank Innovative Engineering Systems
Ltd. for permission to publish this paper and to C. Craig
for his review and comments on the manuscript.
Nomenclature
P*
D
UCS
ESS
ICD
LDA
VShale
Xlf
Rd

Grain crushing pressure (psi)

Grain size diameter (m)
Unconfined compressive strength (psi)
Expandable sand screen
Inflow control device
Laser diffraction analysis
Shale volume (%)
Fracture half length (feet)
Radius of mechanical damage (feet)

SPE 122138

Porosity (%)
Permeability (mD)

References
1.

Yildiz T.: The impact of nonuniform formation damage on

long term well performance, SPE paper 98123, 2006
2. Tovar J. and Webster C., Recent advances in granular
based sand control design operations and their
performance evaluation, SPE paper 97956, 2006
3. Salazar A., et al Integrating drilling and geomechanical
damage
in
sandsotne
reservoirs.
Identification,
quantification and removal, SPE paper 107611, 2007
4. Wong TF. et al.: The transition from Brittle faulting to
cataclastic flow in porous sandstones: Mechanical
deformation, Journal of Geophysical Research, Vol 102,
1997
5. Innovative Engineering Systems Global: Well Completion
Design for Reservoir with sanding problems, Training
manual, 2007
6. Saucier, R.J., Gravel Pack Design considerations, Paper
No. SPE 4030, 1972
7. Wojtanowicz A.K. and Langlinais J.P. Study of the effect
of pore blocking mechanisms on formation damage, SPE
paper 16233, 1987
8. Haider S.R.: Self cleaning materials in granular based
filtration systems and their application to sand face
completions, MSc. Thesis, 2008
9. Faga A.T., et al Application of neural networks for
improved gravel pack design , SPE paper 58722, 2000
10. Charlez P.: Rock Mechanics, Volume 1 & 2, Editions
Technip, 1991 & 1997
11. Le Tirant P. et al: Manuel de fracturation hydraulique
Editions Technip, 1972
12. Tovar J.: Inflow control in sand control completions. What
happens behind the pipe? Presentation at the Sand
Management Network, 2007

Table 1 Proppant specifications

(www.fairmountminerals.com)

SPECIFICATIONS

Figure 1 Original K vs. return K test results

20/40

30/50

Sieve distribution

API RP 56

Acid solubility (%)

<1

Specific gravity

2.65

Roundness

0.85

Sphericity

0.85

0.75

Bulk density (lbs/cuft)

100

98

Absolute volume (gal/lb)

0.454

0.465

SPE 122138

Figure 3 Permeability change as a function of depletion

Figure 2 20/40 Gravel impairment by invasion(Courtesy of

BP)

Figure 4 Continuous sand quality, sorting and UC

SPE 122138

Figure 5 HP/HT laboratory testing apparatus

(8)

100
Remaining Permeability(%)

90
20/40 Proppant

80

30/50 Proppant

70
60
50

Figure 7 Mechanical damage around the wellbore

40
30
20
10
0
0

Pore Volumes

Figure 6 Permeability impairment in proppants

(8)

Figure 8 Permeability changes vs. solids concentration

(8)

SPE 122138

Figure 10 Fines migration application - Location and mass

Figure 9 Model output Original and final K