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Predicting sand production

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Predicting whether a well will produce fluids without producing sand has been the goal of many completion
engineers and research projects. There are a number of analytical techniques and guidelines to assist in
determining if sand control is necessary, but no technique has proven to be universally acceptable or completely
accurate. In some geographic regions, guidelines and rules of thumb apply that have little validity in other areas
of the world. Predicting whether a formation will or will not produce sand is not an exact science, and more
refinement is needed. Until better prediction techniques are available, the best way of determining the need for
sand control in a particular well is to perform an extended production test with a conventional completion and
observe whether sand production occurs. Normally, it is not necessary to predict sand production on a well-by-
well basis because wells in the same reservoir tend to behave similarly. The prediction required is on a
reservoir-by-reservoir basis. However, initial good results may prove misleading, as reservoir and flow
conditions change.

Contents
1 Operational and economic influences
2 Formation strength
3 Sonic log
4 Formation properties log
5 Porosity
6 Drawdown
7 Finite element analysis
8 Time dependance
9 Multiphase flow
10 References
11 Noteworthy papers in OnePetro
12 External links
13 See also
14 Category

Operational and economic influences

The difficulty of determining whether sand control is required in a given well is compounded when the well is
drilled in a remote area where there is no producing experience and where the various reservoir factors are
slightly different from previously exploited regions. Even if the reservoir and formation properties are almost
identical to other developments, the operating conditions and risks may be such that different strategies apply.
One example might be a subsea project, as opposed to a land development project. Here, the consequences and
risks associated with sand production are significantly different because of differing costs and risks associated
with remedial well operations; hence, the decision to use a sand-control technique is both an economic and
operational decision that must be made with limited data.

The decision is complicated by the fact that sand-control techniques, such as gravel packing, are expensive and
can restrict well productivity if not performed properly. Therefore, gravel packing cannot be applied
indiscriminately when the possibility for sand production from a well is unknown. Making the decision whether
to gravel pack is fairly easy if the formation material is either hard (no sand production) or weak (sand
production). The difficulty arises when the strength of the formation material is marginal. At that point, the
decision normally ceases to be primarily a technical issue but more of an economic and risk management
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exercise. If there is uncertainty, the conservative approach is to always apply sand-control completions. This
obviously will solve the sand production problem but will also increase costs and may reduce well productivity.
If sand control was actually unnecessary, the implementation of sand-control completions was a bad economic
decision.

Formation strength
The procedure followed by most, to consider whether sand control is required, is to determine the hardness of
the formation rock (i.e., the rock’s compressive strength). Because the rock’s compressive strength has the same
units as the pressure difference between the reservoir and the well (the drawdown), the two parameters can be
directly compared, and drawdown limits for specific wells can be determined. Research performed in the early
1970s[1] showed that rock failed and began to produce sand when the drawdown pressure was more than about
1.7 times the compressive strength. As an example, formation sand with a compressive strength of 1,000 psi
would not fail or begin to produce sand until the drawdown exceeded 1,700 psi. Others use Brinnell hardness as
an indicator of whether to apply sand control. The Brinnell hardness of the rock is related to the compressive
strength but is not as convenient to use because the units of hardness are dimensionless and cannot be related to
drawdown as easily as compressive strength.

Sonic log
The sonic log can be used as a way of addressing the sand production potential of wells. The sonic log records
the time required for sound waves to travel through the formation, usually in microseconds. The porosity is
related to formation strength and the sonic travel time. Short travel times, less than 50 microseconds, indicate
low porosity and hard, dense rock; long travel times, 95 microseconds or greater, are associated with soft, low-
density, high-porosity rock. A common technique used for determining whether sand control is required in a
given geologic area is to correlate incidences of sand production with the sonic log readings above and below
the sand production that has been observed. This establishes a quick screening method for the need for sand
control. The use of this method requires calibration against particular geologic formations to be reliable.

Formation properties log

Certain well logs, such as the sonic log and density and neutron devices, are indicators of porosity and
formation hardness. For a particular formation, a low-density reading indicates high porosity. The neutron logs
are primarily an indicator of porosity. Several logging companies offer a formation properties log that uses the
results of the sonic, density, and neutron logs to determine if a formation will produce formation material at
certain levels of drawdown. This calculation identifies weak and strong intervals; the weaker ones are more
prone to produce sand. While the formation properties log has been used for over 20 years, experience has
shown that this log usually overpredicts the need for sand control.

Porosity
The porosity of a formation can be used as a guideline as to whether sand control is needed. If the formation
porosity is greater than 30%, the probability of the need for sand control is high because of the lack of
cementation. Conversely, if the porosity is less than 20%, the need for sand control will probably be minimal
because the sand has some consolidation. The porosity range between 20 to 30% is where uncertainty usually
exists. In natural media, porosity is related to the degree of cementation present in a formation; thus, the basis
for this technique is understandable. Porosity information can be derived from well logs or laboratory core
analysis.

Drawdown

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The pressure drawdown associated with production may be an indicator of potential formation sand production.
No sand production may occur with small pressure drawdown around the well, whereas excessive drawdown
can cause the formation to fail and produce sand at unacceptable levels. The amount of pressure drawdown is
normally associated with the formation permeability and the viscosity of the produced fluids. Low viscosity
fluids, such as gas, experience smaller drawdowns, as opposed to the drawdown that would be associated with
a 1,000-cp fluid produced from the same interval. Hence, higher sand production is usually associated with
viscous fluids.

Finite element analysis

The most sophisticated approach to predicting sand production is the use of geomechanical numerical models
developed to analyze fluid flow through the reservoir in relation to the formation strength. The effect of
formation stress, associated with fluid flow in the immediate region around the wellbore, is simultaneously
computed with finite element analysis. While this approach is by far the most rigorous, it requires an accurate
knowledge of the formation’s strength around the well in both the elastic and plastic regions where the
formation begins to fail. Input data on both regions are difficult to acquire with a high degree of accuracy under
actual downhole conditions. This is the major difficulty with this approach. The finite element analysis method
is good from the viewpoint of comparing one interval with another; however, the absolute values calculated
may not represent actual formation behavior.

Time dependance
The effect of time on the production of formation sand is sometimes considered to be an issue; however, there
are no data that suggest that time alone is a factor. There have been undocumented claims that produced fluids
could possibly dissolve the formation’s natural cementing materials, but the data are not substantiated.

Multiphase flow
Predicting when multiphase fluid flow will begin can also be an aid. Many cases can be cited where wells
produced sand free until water production began, but produced unacceptable amounts afterwards. The reason
for the increased sand production is caused by two primary phenomena: the movement of water-wet fines and
relative permeability effects. Most formation fines are water wet and, as a consequence, immobile when a
hydrocarbon phase is the sole produced fluid because hydrocarbons occupy the majority of the pore space.
However, when the water saturation is increased to the point that water becomes mobile, the formation fines
begin the move with the wetting phase (water), which creates localized plugging in the pore throats of the
porous media. Additionally, when two-phase flow occurs, increased drawdown is experienced because two
phases flowing together have more resistance to flow than either fluid alone. These relative permeability effects
can increase the drawdown around the well by as much as a factor of 5 per unit of production. The result of
fines migration, plugging, and reduced relative permeability around the well increases the drawdown to the
point that it may exceed the strength of the formation. The consequences can be excessive sand production. The
severity of fines migration varies from formation to formation and whether gas or liquid is being produced.

References
1. Penberthy, W.L. Jr. and Shaughnessy, C.M. 1992. Sand Control, 1, 11-17. Richardson, Texas: Monograph
Series, SPE.

Noteworthy papers in OnePetro

Use this section to list papers in OnePetro that a reader who wants to learn more should definitely read

External links
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Use this section to provide links to relevant material on websites other than PetroWiki and OnePetro

See also
Sand control

Sand control techniques

Rock types

Compressive strength of rocks

Rock density and porosity

PEH:Sand_Control

Category

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Categories: 3.2.5 Downhole produced sand or solids management and control 2.1.3 Sand or solids control
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This page was last modified on 16 July 2015, at 15:44.

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