The Development and Use of Sand Probes
Authors: Swan Richard D. , Reimer Charles M. 
Published: December 2007

American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical, and Petroleum Engineers, Inc.

This paper was prepared for the 48th Annual Fall Meeting of the Society of Petroleum Engineers of AIME, to be held in Las Vegas, Nev., Sept. 30-Oct. 3, 1973. Permission to copy is restricted to an abstract of not more than 300 words. Illustrations may not be copied. The abstract should contain conspicuous acknowledgment of where and by whom the paper is presented. Publication elsewhere after publication in the JOURNAL OF PETROLEUM TECHNOLOGY or the SOCIETY OF PETROLEUM ENGINEERS JOURNAL is usually granted upon request to the Editor of the appropriate journal provided agreement to give proper credit is made.

Discussion of this paper is invited. Three copies of any discussion should be sent to the Society of Petroleum Engineers office. Such discussion may be presented at the above meeting and, with the paper, may be considered for publication in one of the two SPE magazines.

Sand probes have proven to be a reliable means of detecting sand production from oil and gas wells and activating surface shut-in equipment. The probes, which are thin walled, hollow steel cylinders with a closed end, are installed perpendicular to flow in the flowline and connected to a pilot valve. When the wall of the probe has been penetrated by sand erosion, flow stream pressure is probe has been penetrated by sand erosion, flow stream pressure is transferred to a pilot valve which effects closure of the safety valve on the Xmas tree.

Based on the successful results of both laboratory and field tests, Exxon had installed sand probes on all of its Offshore Louisiana wells by January 1, 1973. Field experience to date has shown that the probes will successfully shut in wells before flowline or equipment damage can occur. In addition to providing an increase in safety and a decrease in pollution risk, the use of probes has significantly reduced the costs associated with equipment probes has significantly reduced the costs associated with equipment failures due to sand erosion. The data obtained from sand probes is also used analytically to evaluate precautionary sand control workovers.

Introduction

Equipment or flowline erosion caused by produced sand has long been a major operating problem in many areas, both in terms of cost of equipment replacement and in terms of the risk of pollution and/or fire caused by flowline or equipment cutouts. While it is obvious that a dependable, long-lasting sand control workover procedure would be the best solution to this problem, such a procedure would be the best solution to this problem, such a procedure has yet to be attained, and a method of detecting procedure has yet to be attained, and a method of detecting produced sand prior to well sandup or equipment cutout is necessary. produced sand prior to well sandup or equipment cutout is necessary. Until the development of sand probes, the foremost obstacle in the path of controlling sand erosion was the fact that there was no continuous, 'on-stream' way to detect the erosion of flowlines or equipment until a cutout actually occurred. The occasional detection of sand production by shakeout was not particularly helpful, as this gave no indication of how much, if particularly helpful, as this gave no indication of how much, if any, damage had already been done. Ultrasonic and radiographic inspection are expensive and only indicate damage already done.