Sand Production Prediction and Well Completion Optimization

Sand production is an important challenge in upstream oil and gas industry, causing operational and safety problems. Therefore before drilling the wells, it is essential to predict and evaluate sanding onset of the wells with the intention of drilling trajectory optimization. In spite of choosing optimized trajectory, in some producing wells by variation of well production condition, sand production may be occurred. So in this situation, appropriate well completion design is crucial. This research considers sanding problems in two steps. At the first stage, an analytical sand prediction model using Mogi-Coulomb failure criterion was presented for determination of maximum sand free drawdown. In this model, by changing the drawdown and wellbore trajectory, sand failure will be predicted by comparing the sand strength to the failure criteria. The results show that in different in situ stress regimes the inclination and azimuth have a significant role in wellbore stability during production. At the second stage, by considering a well with sanding problem, different well completion scenarios were simulated and modelled in order to select the optimum well completion method.