Consolidate and Gravel Pack in One Step

Abstract

American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical, and Petroleum Engineers, Inc. This paper was prepared for the 46th Annual Fall Meeting of the Society of Petroleum Engineers of AIME, to be held in New Orleans, La., Oct. 3–6, 1971. Permission to copy is restricted to an abstract of not more than 300 words. Illustrations may not be copied. The abstract should contain conspicuous acknowledgment of where and by whom the paper is presented. Publication elsewhere after publication in the JOURNAL OF PETROLEUM TECHNOLOGY or the SOCIETY OF PETROLEUM ENGINEERS JOURNAL is usually granted upon request to the Editor of the appropriate journal provided agreement to give proper credit is made. Discussion of this paper is invited. Three copies of any discussion should be sent to the Society of Petroleum Engineers office. Such discussion may be presented at the above meeting and, with the paper, may be considered for publication in one of the two SPE magazines. Abstract Over 500 field applications have been made with a sand control process which achieves gravel packing and sand consolidation in essentially one treating step. It was designed to improve conventional gravel packing and yet offer advantages over sand control achieved by gravel packing followed by sand consolidation techniques. In a related application, successful repair of damaged areas in wire-wrapped screens or slotted liners in place has been accomplished with this method. This has eliminated the expense of pulling and repairing or replacing the screening device and then repacking. The application of the resin-sand pack method of sand control results in a strong, highly permeable filter around the wellbore. In addition, a portion of the formation sand may be consolidated with the treatment, resulting in an effective screen for preventing formation fines from entering the preventing formation fines from entering the pack sand and acting as a possible deterrent pack sand and acting as a possible deterrent to production declines which frequently follow gravel packs. The consolidated pack sand offers additional strength over gravel packs to withstand overburden and other stresses. This will tend to lessen damage to casing and cement jobs. Also, in conventional perforated casing completion treatments, perforated casing completion treatments, mechanical screening devices are generally not needed. The method described uses selected pack sand coated by a small quantity of furfuryl alcohol resin finely dispersed in a low viscosity oil. This provides for all the pack sand's being resin-coated. This method pack sand's being resin-coated. This method is generally more economical than gravel packs followed by consolidation techniques since the latter method normally requires more resin to coat all the gravel pack solids. Low pump rates may be used to minimize damage to the formation. The resin can be externally or internally catalyzed, a feature which allows flexibility of this method for use in perforated casing completions, around liners perforated casing completions, around liners in casing or open hole, or for repairing holes in old gravel screens or liners.

A Review on Chemical Sand Production Control Techniques in Oil Reservoirs

“…This causes the gravel to stick to each other and remain still when faced with high oil flow rates. In addition, by fixing the gravel in place, these chemicals prevent the increase of cavities between the gravels and the decrease of the filtration effect. , However, the injection of strengthening materials after placing the gravels in the well has important disadvantages, such as consuming large amounts of chemicals and different distributions of strengthening materials within the gravel pack . Gravels and sands coated with chemicals such as resins, epoxies, phenols, and furans are developed to mitigate this issue.…”

“…60,61 However, the injection of strengthening materials after placing the gravels in the well has important disadvantages, such as consuming large amounts of chemicals and different distributions of strengthening materials within the gravel pack. 62 Gravels and sands coated with chemicals such as resins, epoxies, phenols, and furans are developed to mitigate this issue. Coated gravels have been used in the oil industry since the 1960s.…”