Expandable sand screens are a globally accepted sand control system with more than 600 installations worldwide across all vendors. A growing body of data suggests that when compliantly expanded in openhole they perform very well, with consistently low skins and high PIs. Where comparisons have been done, the expandable screens perform at least as well as other sand exclusion systems such as standalone screens and openhole gravel packs. There are a number of possible reasons for the high performance:1) The ESS presents a large open area to the formation. This gives a low pressure drop across the screen and minimizes the possibility of plugging to a minimum. 2) The compliant expansion into contact with the wellbore limits the zone of deformation around the hole. 3) Compliance also improves filter cake clean up by reducing mixing with failed sand.The effect of compliance has been investigated in two sets of experiments. The first was full scale test with a compliant expandable screen and a stand alone screen with an annulus. The expandable showed 60% higher productivity than the screen with an annulus. The second set of experiments was in a specially designed Perspex cell. This cell allowed the effect of an annulus to be investigated for a variety of different sands from well sorted to poorly sorted. The results show that the compliant screen has advantages in sand retention and 100% greater productivity.Taken as a whole, the field results and the two types of experiment show in a very clear way the benefits on productivity of compliant sand screens. * Now with Chevron 1 ESS is a registered trademark of Weatherford to isolate using conventional mechanical techniques and ability to subsequently isolate sources of unwanted water production.
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