Simulation of Sand Production during Oil and Gas Production through Models and Lab tests

It is reported that approximaty 70% of the world oil and gas reserves are found in unconsolidatted formations. Sand production is a phenomenon associated with drag forces induced by fluid flow through unconsolidated porous media, and it has been proven that this mechanism is a most effective way to increase well productivity. It is reported that there is a several-fold increase in oil production in Alberta heavy oil reservoirs and up to 44% increase in sand-free oil rate after a certian amount of sand production in conventional light oil reservoirs. On the other hand, large amount of sand production leads to various costly problems such as well instability, equipment damage, and environmental problems. Consequently, there is a global interest in research and development for understanding the mechanisms, associated enhanced oil recovery, and sanding control. There are some unconsolidated reservoires in Iran and sand production is a major dilemma facing operating oil and gas companies over years. Significant progress has been achieved in understanding the mechanisms involve in sand production but tha actual mechanisms still are unclear and may unknown. The existing models for predicting sand prodution and simulating near wellbore and far reservoir during sanding are not well developed, therefore the application of these models are imited. The main objective of this research is to investigate the available modeling tools especially fully coupled reservoir-geomechanics models in an effort to establish a better insight in the mechanisms of sand production through comparison between findings from the models and observations from the lab tests. The result will help to predict and analyze anticipated amount of produced sand and cavity propagation over the time.