Laboratory Studies Of A Process To Consolidate Oil Sands With Plastics
Authors: Treadway B.R. , Brandt H. , Parker P. Harold 
Published: December 2007

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This paper is to be presented at the 39th Annual Fall Meeting to be held in Houston, Tex., on Oct. 11–14, 1964, and is considered property of the Society of Petroleum Engineers. Permission to publish is hereby restricted to an abstract of not more than 300 words, with no illustrations, unless the paper is specifically released to the press by the Editor of the Journal of Petroleum Engineers or the Executive Secretary. Such abstract should contain conspicuous acknowledgment of where and by whom the paper is presented. Publication elsewhere after publication in JOURNAL OF PETROLEUM TECHNOLOGY or SOCIETY OF PETROLEUM ENGINEERS JOURNAL is granted on request, providing proper credit is given that publication and the original presentation of the paper.

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Research to develop a process to consolidate oil sands is presented. A new three-step process has been developed which consists of injecting resin into sand, following the resin with a fluid to establish permeability, then injecting an activator-containing fluid to polymerize the resin. Experiments are described in which loose sand, placed in a Hassler cell and subjected to temperatures up to 200F and to pressures up to 4,000 psi, was consolidated by this process. Other tests were made to study the permeability retention of the consolidated sand and the polymerization characteristics of the resin at well bore temperatures and pressures.

The consolidated sand retained about 50 per cent of its original permeability. The compressive strength ranged from 3,000 to 12,000 psi depending on the conditions of the test. Consolidated sand samples were exposed to flowing and stagnant brines at temperatures of 125, 150 and 212 F. The compressive strength of these exposed sand samples decreased slowly with time, but exceeded 1,000 psi after exposure to brine for one year.

The process has been applied successfully in wells in the Gulf Coast area and in California. More than one-half million barrels of oil have been produced from wells treated with the sand consolidation process.

Introduction

Controlling unconsolidated sand in producing formations has been an oil industry problem for many years. To control sand, gravel packs, special liners and plastic sand consolidation have been used with varying degrees of success. Gravel packing, prepacked liners and slotted liners are probably the most widely used methods. Their advantages are relatively low cost for materials and ease of application. However, passage of formation fines into the well bore sometimes causes plugging of the packs. Also, gravel packs and liners require equipment inside the wellbore, thereby limiting the use of multiple completions with these methods. Workover operations in multiple completion installations with prepacked liners are usually difficult and costly and there is a high risk of losing a producing zone during these operations.

Plastic sand consolidation has several advantages over gravel packs and special liners.