INFLUENCE OF THE SAND PRODUCTION ON THE WELL DRAINAGE AREA
Authors: Jabrayil Eyvazov Jabrayil Eyvazov 
Published: March 2022

Most oil resources throughout the world have an issue with formation sand output. Because of its negative impact on well productivity and equipment, the generation of formation sand into a well is one of the oldest challenges afflicting the oil and gas industry. It's usually found in shallow, geologically young formations with little or no natural cementation to keep individual sand grains together. As a result, drag forces are applied to the formation of sands as a result of fluid production when the wellbore pressure is lower than the reservoir pressure. Sand will be drawn into the wellbore if the formation's restraining forces are surpassed. The sand that is generated has almost little commercial worth. Formation sand, on the other hand, can not only plug wells but also degrade equipment and collect in surface vessels. Controlling formation sand is expensive, and it typically entails slowing down output or employing control mechanisms. Safety, well or field economics, and continuous production are all affected by major sand production consequences. This has pushed the oil and gas sector to continue looking for ways to reduce sand output over time. Exclusive sand control or passive sand management are two methods that are frequently used. Sand Management is a concept in which production is controlled by monitoring and controlling well pressures, fluid flows, and sand input rather than using standard sand control methods. Sand Management has been adopted on a considerable number of wells in traditional oil and gas production in recent years. It has shown to be practical in almost all circumstances, and has resulted in the development of extremely favorable well skins as a result of self-cleaning caused by the sporadic sand explosions that occur. Low skins have resulted to greater productivity indices, and each well where sand treatment has been successful has seen enhanced oil or gas production rates. Additionally, costly sand control devices are avoided, and the viability of future well interventions is guaranteed.
The capacity to forecast when a formation will fail and create sand is the foundation for determining which sand management method to employ (whether down-hole sand control system will be required or a sand management approach). As a result, sand prediction serves as the foundation for a significant reservoir development strategy. The variety of models available, as well as their relevance and accuracy, could be confusing and unrepresentative of the manufacturing process. Production engineers are often concerned about formation sand control.
There are several strategies for preventing the creation of sand. Choosing a strategy to avoid formation sand generation is influenced by a variety of reservoir characteristics as well as political and economic factors. Economic and political factors can sometimes be more helpful than reservoir characteristics in determining the best option. Simultaneous analysis of political and economic factors with reservoir characteristics frequently yields results that deviate from what is expected. As a consequence, selecting the optimal sand control approach is the product of extensive research. Large amounts of hydrocarbons that may flow readily through the sand and into production wells are created through perforations into the well in formations where the sand is porous, permeable, and well cemented together. These produced fluids may have sand entrained in them, especially if the underlying deposit is unconsolidated. For a variety of reasons, manufactured sand is undesirable. Sand may harm equipment such as valves, pipes, pumps, and separators when it reaches the surface, thus it must be removed from the generated fluids at the surface. Furthermore, the generated sand may partially or totally choke the well, resulting in poor well performance and, eventually, production inhibition, necessitating a costly work-over. Sand production is a concern in several oil and gas sites across the world. Unconsolidated sandstones create formation sand with reservoir fluids in most of the world's oil and gas wells. Operators frequently prefer to implement down-hole sand control in all sand-prone wells since certain reservoirs can produce several tons of sand per day. The traditional approach to sand prediction is to recognize that if you get down to a specific pressure regime and rock strength, you will almost certainly create sand at some point during the well's life. Heavy oil reservoirs have been linked to sand production and its influence on well productivity. Increased aggressive gas production from conventional reservoirs, on the other hand, has resulted in increased sand output from gas reservoirs. Breakdown or disaggregation of rock into tiny enough bits to pass through perforations or screen apertures is a need for sand production. In many circumstances, rock breaks down gradually, a process known as strength deterioration. Following the commencement of field strength degradation, the reservoir rock must be further degraded before it can be broken down into producible aggregates in response to production conditions. As a result, recognizing and quantifying field-scale rock strength deterioration and having it included into a proper sand production quantification model is critical for forecasting and managing sand output during the life of a well. Sand formation is also a natural result of reservoir fluid flow into a wellbore.
Keywords: sand control, well productivity, methods of sand control, viscoplastic modeling, layer parameters, nodal analysis