Title: Sand control in oil and gas wells using slotted and perforated tubing design

Authors: Pritish Barman; Dhiraj Kumar Deka; Nirupam Dhekial; Biki Saikia; Bhaskar Jyoti Gogoi

Addresses: Department of Petroleum Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad, 826004 Jharkhand, India ' Department of Applied Geology, Dibrugarh University, Dibrugarh 786004, Assam, India ' Department of Petroleum Technology, Dibrugarh University, Dibrugarh 786004, Assam, India ' Department of Petroleum Engineering, DUIET, Dibrugarh University, Dibrugarh 786004, Assam, India ' Department of Petroleum Engineering, DUIET, Dibrugarh University, Dibrugarh 786004, Assam, India

Abstract: Sand production is a prevalent problem associated with continued production of hydrocarbon in unconsolidated sandstone reservoir. As sand accumulates in the bottom-hole over time, it reduces permeability, chokes flow line and well-head equipment, and increases complexity of handling. To address this issue, a tubing attached secondary sand screen can reduce the need of expensive intervention jobs. This paper illustrates the design and calculation for a modified tubing to prevent sand from entering the production tubing while increasing the inflow area into the tubing thus addressing the problem of sanding as well as pressure drop due to flow restriction. The concept of inflow area increase is illustrated as to design the modified tubing to produce through the lateral surface instead of the conventional bottom circular opening of the tubing. The net increase in the new inflow area with respect to conventional inflow from bottom of tubing is discussed.

Keywords: sand control; sand screen design; slotted tubing; perforated tubing; sand screen modification; slotted tubing; perforated tubing; economic sand control; petroleum engineering.

DOI: 10.1504/IJPE.2018.093156

International Journal of Petroleum Engineering, 2018 Vol.3 No.2, pp.105 - 115

Received: 12 Sep 2017
Accepted: 06 Jan 2018
Published online: 11 Jul 2018 *

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