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SIMULATION OF SAND PRODUCTION PREDICTION IN GAS RESERVOIRS

Ibrahim Ayuba *1
H. Isma’il 2
T.S. Manasseh 3
M.S. Gwio 4
M.M. Aminu 5
*1, 2, 3, 4 & 5
Department of Petroleum Engineering, Bauchi, Nigeria
[email protected]

ABSTRACT
Sand production due to result of unconsolidated grains in wellbore formations, as lead to many adverse effect,
such as plugging, accumulation in surface equipment, increase in skin and tubing roughness.
Sensitivity analysis using PROSPER software was run on different well parameters, (tubing roughness, skin)
and under free gas effect for an open hole completion to predict effect of sand production in life of the well. The
tubing and skin analysis shows a decline in well flow potential across the years, due to sand production. The
future performance indicate sand control remedy must be deploy to maintain and revive the well to it optimum
flow potential.
Analysis on free gas effect was used to determine the highest free gas value under the reservoir condition for
the well optimum production. (3.5 - 4.023) MMscf/day gave the optimal flow potential for the well. This
analysis shows the amount and condition of free gas in the well before the effect of sand production
.
Keywords: Unconsolidated grains, Sand production, Wellbore formations, Plugging, Accumulation, PROSPER
software, Tubing roughness, Open hole completion, Skin analysis, Free gas, Optimal flow potential.

INTRODUCTION
Sand prediction model have the capability to indicate whether initial sand production may take place somewhere
during the lifetime of an oil gas field. Prediction of maximum sand-free production rate provides information for
sand-control decisions and allows maximization of rate in those wells that are completed without sand control.
In this paper, filed data will be used for modelling and making this predictions.
A significant proportion of the world gas reserves is contained in weakly consolidated sandstone reservoirs and
hence is prone to sand production. Material degradation is a key process leading to sanding. Drilling operations,
cyclic effects of shut-in and start-up, operational conditions, reservoir pressure depletion, and strength-
weakening effect of water may gradually lead to sandstone degradation around the perforations and boreholes.
High pressure gradient due to fluid flow also facilitates the detachment of sand particles. In addition, fluid flow
is responsible for the transport and production of cohesionless sand particles or detached sand clumps to the
wellbore. Sand production is the cause of many problems in the oil industry and it affects the completion
adversely. These problems include, but are not limited to, plugging the perforations or production liner, wellbore
instability, failure of sand control completions
Sand-production problems can be experienced in various ways. In conventional oil wells, transient sand
production, where the sand production rate declines rapidly with time, is frequently experienced during the
clean-up period after processes such as perforating or acidizing, after rapid bean-up of production, or after water
breakthrough. It is assumed that sand production in these cases is merely the removal of weakened or sheared
and dilated sand. However, there are different “types” of sand-production behavior. Conventional-oil sand
production has been classified on the basis of distinct reservoir evolution stages:
 The early transient sand-production period, when some of the perforation-induced damage has been
removed and the cavities may have a zone of reduced permeability around them, leading to a steep exit
gradient.
 A stable production period with enlarged cavities, when the damaged zone and the permeability
impairment have been removed.
 A general increase in sand influx after a water-cut increase, a process that is considered to be related to
capillary forces and is a type of flow-rate-induced sand production.

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 An unstable sand-production period because of reservoir pressure depletion, considered to arise when
large effective-stress increase causes straining, destroy cohesion, alter fabric, and induce almost-
continuous sanding.
Common Techniques Used in Sand Management Decisions
A number of approaches have been developed to predict or help to understand the sand production problem,
using physical model testing, analytical and empirical relationships, and numerical models Routine laboratory
tests can only predict the onset of sand production. More sophisticated Physical model could predict volumetric
sand production, they are also time-consuming and expensive. In addition, because of the small sizes of the
laboratory setup, the results are usually influenced by boundary effects. Analytical models are fast and easy to
use but they are only suitable to predict the onset of sand production and they have limitations. Most of them are
only valid for capturing a single mechanism of sanding and under simplified geometrical and boundary
conditions which are not usually the complicated field-scale problems. Numerical models are by far the most
powerful tools for predicting sand production. They can be combined with analytical correlations to obtain the
results more efficiently. Experimental results are also utilized to calibrate or validate a numerical model. Yet,
numerical models have their own limitations and extensive efforts have been made to improve them.
Discrete element method (DEM) is a useful tool to simulate sand production especially to understand the
mechanism of sanding. However, it cannot be used for large scale problems because of large computational time
required. (Thallak et al. 1991), have used discrete element models to predict the development of borehole
breakouts in an assemblage of spherical particles.
The calibration of the model is also difficult and involves several uncertainties as it is not possible to create a
model with the exact particle arrangement as the real material. Further, methodologies to directly measure
sandstone micro properties have not been developed yet. Presently, the micro-properties are obtained in
calibrating against the actual sand behavior. Therefore, continuum-based models are more popular especially for
field-scale problems. However, there can be advanced models which couple continuum and discontinuum
models together to take advantage of both methods, these are known as hybrid models.
Modeling of sand production requires coupling of two mechanisms, the first mechanism is mechanical
instability and degradation around the wellbore and the second one is hydro-mechanical instability due to low-
induced pressure gradient on degraded material surrounding the cavity (e.g perforation and open hole).
At larger perforation lengths, as for openhole production conditions, the effects of non-Darcy flow on rock
yielding are not very significant. This conclusion is consistent with the findings of (Wang and Peden, 1991).
In general, numerical methods in the mechanical modeling are categorized under continuum and discontinuum
approaches.
In the continuum approach, matters are treated as continuous in deriving the governing differential equations.
The assumption of continuity implies that the material cannot be separated or broken into smaller pieces. In the
case when there is a discontinuity, the magnitudes of deformation along or across the discontinuity are about the
same as the rest of the continuum.
Numerical models based on discontinuum approach sand production is a continuous and dynamic process that
occurs at the microscopic scale and the rock becomes a discontinuum in nature, discontinuum approach is
promising to simulate phenomena such as detachment of individual particles from the rock matrix.
Other techniques used for predicting sand includes; Formation Strength; Sonic Log; Formation Properties Log;
Porosity; Drawdown Finite Element Analysis; Time Dependence.
Formation Strength
Rock failure and/or degradation in commonly accepted as prerequisite for sanding. Failure of geo-materials is
usually associated with formation of shear bands which are narrow zones of concentrated plastic deformation.
This phenomenon, which is known as “deformation localization” or simply “localization,” is one of the key
parameters in sanding prediction models. Further details about this concept can be found in (Sulem et al.1999),
(Nouri et al.2009), and (Jafarpour et al.2012).
The general procedure followed by most operators considering whether or not sand control is required, is to
determine the hardness of the formation rock (i.e., the rock’s compressive strength). Since the rock’s
compressive strength has the same units as the pressure drawdown in the reservoir, the two parameters can be
compared on a one to one basis and drawdown limits for specific wells can be determined.
Finite Element Analysis
Probably the most sophisticated approach to predicting sand production is the use of geo-mechanical numerical
models developed to analyze fluid flow through the reservoir in relation to the formation strength. The effects of

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formation stress associated with fluid flow in the immediate region around the wellbore are 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 both in the elastic and plastic regions where the formation begins to fail.
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.
Drawdown
The pressure drawdown associated with production may be an indicator of potential formation sand production.
No sand production may occur with low pressure drawdown around the well whereas excessive drawdown can
cause formation material to be produced at unacceptable levels. The amount of pressure drawdown is normally
associated with the formation permeability and the viscosity of the produced fluids.
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 in microseconds. The porosity is related to the
sonic travel time. Short travel times, (for example, 50 microseconds) are indicative of low porosity and hard,
dense rock; while long travel times (for example, 95 microseconds or higher) are associated with softer, lower
density, higher porosity rock. A common technique used for determining if sand control is required in a given
geologic area is to correlate incidences of sand production with the sonic log readings.
Causes of Sand Production
The solid material produced from a well can consist of both formation fines (usually not considered part of the
formation’s mechanical framework) and load bearing solids. The production of fines cannot normally be
prevented and is actually beneficial.
The following list summarizes many of the factors that influence the tendency of a well to produce
Sand, these factors can be categorized into rock strength effects and fluid flow effects
 Degree of consolidation
 Reduction in pore pressure throughout the life of a well
 Production rate
 Reservoir fluid viscosity
 Increasing water production throughout the life of a well

Degree of Consolidation
The ability to maintain open perforation tunnels is closely tied to how strongly the individual sand grains are
bound together. The cementation of a sandstone is typically a secondary geological process and as a general
rule, older sediments tend to be more consolidated than newer sediments. This indicates that sand production is
normally a problem when producing from shallow, geologically younger Tertiary sedimentary formations.
Young Tertiary formations often have little matrix material (cementation material) bonding the sand grains
together and these formations are generally referred to as being “poorly consolidated” or “unconsolidated.
Production Rate.
The production of reservoir fluids creates pressure differential and frictional drag forces that can combine to
exceed the formation compressive strength. This indicates that there is a critical flow rate for most wells below
which pressure differential and frictional drag forces are not great enough to exceed the formation compressive
strength and cause sand production.
Reservoir Fluid Viscosity.
The frictional drag force exerted on the formation sand grains is created by the flow of reservoir fluid. This
frictional drag force is directly related to the velocity of fluid flow and the viscosity of the reservoir fluid being
produced. High reservoir fluid viscosity will apply a greater frictional drag force to the formation sand grains
than will a reservoir fluid with a low viscosity.

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Modelling

Figure 1: Inflow and Outflow Performance Plot.

The figure above shows the inflow performance relationship curve (IPR) and vertical lift performance (VLP) for
an open-hole completion. The well has an absolute open flow 22439.6 (STB/day) with a productivity index of
18.17 when the skin factor is 4 and reservoir pressure of 3242 (psig). Hence this implies deliverability of the
well performance is quite effective, (the fluid flow to the reservoir for production). Whereas, the outflow (VLP)
is the ability of the reservoir deliver fluid to the tubing to effectively convey to the surface, which will be used
to determine and predict the effect of produced sand in this paper work.
Sensitivity Analysis to Predict the Effect of Sand Production

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Well Parameters under the effect of Sand Production

Years Tubing Roughness Free gas Skin Liquid rate Oil rate
(MMscf/day) STB/day STB/day
2016 0.0005 1.5 2 6368.9 4776.4
2017 0.0008 2.78 4 6127.3 4595.5
2018 0.001 4.023 6 5847.2 4385.4
2019 0.005 6.14 8 4956.6 3717.5
2020 0.01 8.55 10 4190.7 3143.0

Initial Condition without Sand

Free gas Liquid Oil
(STB/day)
(MMscf/day) (STB/day)
1.5 6160.8 4580.1
2.78 6222.0 4666.5
4.023 6299.0 4671.7
6.14 6115.9 4586.9
8.55 5894.8 4421.1
From the table above analysis were run on different well parameters under the influence of tubing roughness,
skin and the free gas at reservoir condition, for an open-hole production to predict the yearly future
performance, without any remedy for sand control.
Due to effect of sand production towards the years the tubing roughness and skin increases, which reduces the
flow potential of the well optimum productivity. This is clearly analyzed using the performance plot below.

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Figure 2: Performance Plot across the Years.

It can be seen that the production rate declines over year, were a sharp decline was observed in 2018, the use of
sand control measure must be used to resolve this sand effect, for the well optimum production.
Condition without Sand
Analysis were run using the differences in free gas at initial well condition were skin and tubing roughness were
at fixed parameters without sand production effect, to determine the maximum value of gas that gave the
optimum production in the well condition.

Figure 3: Oil Production under Effect of free Gas

The free gas rate from (3.5 - 4.023) MMscf/day gave the highest production rate of 4671.7 (STB/day). This
shows the optimal value of free gas rate that will be available in the well for production without sand effect.
While the decline in oil production from 4MMscf, is an indication of the frictional pressure loss, were the gas
phase travels faster than the liquid phase, therefore leaving behind the oil phase, at this point, more gas will be

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produced to oil, when the amount of gas exceed the production limit. This will help to convey unconsolidated
sand grains to surface during production.
Further analysis in PROSPER at a skin of 4 with different tubing roughness are shown below:

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CONCLUSION
This paper analysis determines and present a model used to predict sand production, using the petroleum expert
software PROSPER, the following features were used to predict sand production, in the flow life of the well.
 The sensitivity analysis on well parameters in predicting the future performance, shows decline in flow
potential of the well optimum productivity under the influence tubing roughness and skin, due to the
effect of sand production.
 For the free gas effect in the well, analysis indicates (3.5 – 4.023) MMscf/day of free gas in optimizing
the well productivity optimally. Above the free gas limit, shows decline in production, due to effect of
frictional pressure loss (where the gas phase travels faster than the liquid phase) therefore the well
producing more of gas to oil. Hence causing the production of unconsolidated sand grains during cause
of production due to high gas rate.

Nomenclature
k = Permeability
h = Thickness
GOR = Gas Oil Ratio
MD = Measured Depth
THT = Tubing Head Temperature
THP = Tubing Head Pressure
IPR = Inflow Performance Relationship
VLP = Vertical Lift Performance
TVD = True Vertical Depth
SSSV = Subsurface Safety Valve
PROSPER = Production and Systems Performance Analysis Software

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