Sand production: A smart control framework for risk mitigation

Abstract

Due to the current global oil price, the sand production is considered undesirable product and the control of sand production is considered as one of the main concerns of production engineers. It can damage downhole, subsea equipments and surface production facilities, also increasing the risk of catastrophic failure. As a result of that it costs the producers multiple millions of dollars each year. Therefore, there are many different approaches of sand control designed for different reservoir conditions. Selecting an appropriate technique for preventing formation sand production depends on different reservoir parameters. Therefore, choosing the best sand control method is the result of systematic study. In this paper the sand production factors and their effects are presented where the emphasis is given towards the sand prediction to determine the probability of producing sand from the reservoir, followed by the correct prevention implementation of sand control method. The combination of these two is presented as a smart control framework that can be applied for sand production management.