Within the sand-control-technology sector today, there are many sand-exclusion screen options available for use in completion design. Sand-control screens have steadily improved with the introduction and enhancement of metal sand-retention-mediabased sand-exclusion products in the early 1990s. However, recent catastrophic sand-exclusion failures have led some operators and independent laboratories to perform additional testing and quality control checks on sand-exclusion products to ensure full life cycle field value.This paper describes a process to select sand-exclusion products by uniquely qualifying an individual product design, which includes retention media, metallurgy, subcomponents, manufacturing process, and the final assembled product. The technical evaluation is based on a two-tier qualification process that "uniquely qualifies" products for purchase consideration.Step 1 of the process tests the sand-retention media for plugging potential and solids retention.Step 2 then tests full-joint screens manufactured using media qualified during Step 1 for burst and collapse to ensure the product meets downhole performance specifications.Recent testing has illustrated a range of significant conclusions that the industry should be aware of:• Published screen burst and collapse ratings are not always equivalent to actual screen performance.• Burst and collapse pressures are not equivalent to basepipe rating.• Welds can vary by plant; therefore, screens may vary by manufacturing location.• Excessive drainage layer gap leads to premature burst or collapse failure.• Not adjusting screen design for changes in metallurgy may lead to premature failure.• Delamination has been observed in some sintered retention media.• Scaling a product design up or down without conducting a detailed engineering analysis may lead to premature failures.
Within the sand control technology sector today, there are many sand exclusion screen options available for use in completion design. Sand control screens have steadily improved with the introduction and enhancement of metal sand retention media based sand exclusion products in the early 1990's. However, recent catastrophic sand exclusion failures have led some operators and independent laboratories to perform additional testing and quality control checks on sand exclusion products to ensure full life cycle field value. This paper describes a process to select sand exclusion products by uniquely qualifying an individual product design which includes retention media, metallurgy, subcomponents, manufacturing process, and the final assembled product. The technical evaluation is based on a 2-tier qualification process that "uniquely qualifies" products for purchase consideration. Step 1 of the process tests the sand retention media for plugging potential and solids retention. Step 2 then tests full-joint screens manufactured using media qualified during Step 1 for burst and collapse to ensure the product meets downhole performance specifications. Recent testing has illustrated a range of significant conclusions that the industry should be aware of:Published screen burst and collapse ratings are not always equivalent to actual screen performance.Burst and Collapse pressures are not equivalent to basepipe rating.Welds can vary by plant; therefore screens may vary by manufacturing location.Excessive drainage layer gap leads to premature burst or collapse failure.Not adjusting screen design for changes in metallurgy may lead to premature failureDelamination has been observed in some sintered retention media.Scaling a product design up or down without conducting a detailed engineering analysis may lead to premature failures. Introduction There is significant industry experience and a wide-range of publications that reference plugging and sand retention testing for selection of sand screens1–4. However, there is currently no recognized industry standard to extend this type of small-scale media qualification testing to include full joint screen testing (FJST) to qualify the final manufactured product's performance specifications. Operators in the past have taken vendor-supplied screen performance specifications at 'face value' and used them as a basis for sand control completion designs. For example, sand screen burst and collapse ratings are two key parameters when selecting an appropriate screen for a completion design. These parameters provide crucial design limits during completion installation and early-time well flow-back for both cased hole and open hole sand control completions. As a result, if these burst and collapse limits are inaccurate then the entire completion design including sand control integrity for the well may be compromised. To mitigate this risk, a rigorous screen qualification process has been implemented within ConocoPhillips. This process has been incorporated into the Company's vendor technical qualification procedures for large field development completion tenders. This tender-based screen qualification process consists of two steps:Step-1: Initial small-scale laboratory testing is performed to establish appropriate sand retention media size. This testing is followed by further laboratory-based corrosion testing to determine appropriate screen metallurgy for the life of the well from initial acidizing during completion installation through the production period to late-life water production and remedial acid treatments.Step-2: Large-scale burst and collapse tests are performed on vendor supplied full-joint screens manufactured with specified quality plans using the sand control media identified in Step-1 above. These full-joint tests validate or disprove vendor-supplied screen burst and collapse performance specifications, resulting in a particular screen design being qualified or disqualified.
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