Sand Production Causes Excessive Wear On Down Hole And Surface Equipment

SUMMARY

Sandproduction causes excessive wear on down hole- and surface equipment – especially in bends and curves in the flow line and on the choke valve. Down hole, sand screens may erode until they are no longer functional.1 Decrease of well productivity may also result from sand production. This may happen when sand is produced, but not transported to the surface, hence accumulating down hole and in the end blocking off the whole wellbore. It may also happen when sand is transported to the surface, but accumulates in surface equipment like for example the separator, heater treater or flow line. This is two examples of scenarios that may cause lost time as the well needs to be cleaned. If the sand is in the surface equipment the cleaning may be done manually. If the accumulation of sand is down hole - wireline with bailer or coiled tubing operations may be required. Cleaning is costly both in terms of the extra operations needed and also the lost production time. If sand production is large enough the formation may be weakened to a point where the formation will collapse. A sand formation that collapses towards the wellbore may rearrange and result in lower permeability.