Sand Management Services

Maximizing Asset Value

through Detailed Sandface Completion Selection
September 29, 2009
St. Johns, Newfoundland & Labrador
Bryan Stamm
Introduction
Every sand prone field (or well) has its optimum sandface completion
from a commercial standpoint.
As a completion engineer, you have many options:
Managed sand production
Separation and Disposal
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Sanding prevention
Selective and orient perforating, managed drawdown, etc.
Sand Control
Cased hole gravel pack, fracpack, SAS, ESS, OHGP + intelligent completion,
etc
Your job is to investigate the technical and financial aspects of each,
and determine which one provides the best value for your company
Agenda
Geomechanics and Sanding Prediction
Sandface completion options and screening Technical Qualification
(FEED)
Capex, Production, Opex, Recoveryspeaking a common language
and quantifying $
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and quantifying $
Conclusions / Example
Technology advancements
Questions
Geomechanics and Sanding Prediction
Onset of sanding can be modeled
Some wells will sand immediately
Some may never produce sand
Some may sand later in the well /
field life
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The degree of certainty in sanding prediction is dictated by the
quality of the inputsrock strength, drawdown, completion type,
wellbore inclination, etc.
Dipole Sonic, Sonic Scanners, Cores, Tectonics, etc
Previous similar field experiences or rock mechanics studies
should not be used in isolation.
General Guidelines
Zero strength dry sand
(UCS 0)
E < 100,000 psi Porosity
< 35%
Very very weak damp sand
(UCS < 200 psi)
E < 300,000 psi Porosity
< 30%
Very weak weakly-
cemented (UCS <500)
E < 500,000 psi Porosity
< 25%
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cemented (UCS <500)
Weak stronger cemented
(UCS < 1000 psi)
E < 1,000,000 psi Porosity
< 22%
Gray area (UCS < 4000 psi)
E < 2,500,000 psi Porosity
< 20%
Consolidated rock
E< 4,000,000 psi Porosity
< 18%
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Sanding prediction and depletion
Many wells will not produce sand initially, but depletion or onset of
water may lead to sandingeven for formations that are initially
consolidated.
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Sand production occurs only if the rock fails and subsequently is
transported into the wellbore or to surface.
Quantification of sand rate and volume is currently inaccurate.
Sanding Analysis Results
You can spend as little or a much time and money at this stage.
Get it wrong, and it negatively impact the NPV of the project, one
way or another.
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Managed Sand Production
Requires accurate quantification of the sand volumes to be produced
Sand detection, separation, and disposal costs need to be quantified
Flow rate must be sufficient to produce the sand to surface, or the well
will plug resulting in costly intervention
OPEX costs and safety concerns generally eliminate this for high rate,
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OPEX costs and safety concerns generally eliminate this for high rate,
subsea or remote wells
Positives low installation costs and low skin completions
Sanding Prevention
Sanding prevention involves keeping sand prone reservoirs from failing
Options include
Drawdown Management
Oriented wellbores and perforating
Selective perforating
Special guns Special guns Special guns Special guns
with deepest penetration with deepest penetration with deepest penetration with deepest penetration
350/10
Special guns Special guns Special guns Special guns
with deepest penetration with deepest penetration with deepest penetration with deepest penetration
350/10 350/10
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Selective perforating
Insitu Consolidation
Applicable to sand that are weak (not unconsolidated)
In some cases, the well may be designed for intervention, and future
installation of sand control.
OrientXact OrientXact OrientXact
Sand Control
Sand control involves stopping sand production at the wellbore,
generally by mechanical means (i.e. screens)
Cased hole techniques
Gravel packs and Fracpacks
Open hole techniques
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Open hole techniques
Stand Alone Screens (SAS), Expandable Sand Screens (ESS), and
Gravel packs
Sandface completion options and technical
screening - FEED
The purpose of the Front End Engineering Design (FEED) is to:
confirm the sandface completions types which are technically viable
flag issues with certain techniques that will later help quantify costs,
production, isolation, or potential longevity issues
Examples:
stand alone screens in reservoirs with extremely poor sand sorting or a
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stand alone screens in reservoirs with extremely poor sand sorting or a
high fines content
circulating open hole gravel packs in extremely low frac gradient reservoirs
fracpacks in extremely high pressure reservoirs (technical limitations)
cased hole completions in extremely high permeability reservoirs
open hole gravel pack completions where complete zonal isolation is
required
FEED Results
Based on the results of the FEED, and/or project timing, many
sandface completion options will be eliminated
Typically a detailed commercial analysis is performed on the 2-4 most
relevant sandface completion options. However, care must be taken
not to discard a particular option because of biases and preconceived
notions
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notions
CAPEX, OPEX, Production, Recoveryspeaking a
common language and quantifying $
The sandface completion technique with the maximum value is
determined by investigating the effect of each completion type with
respect to CAPEX, OPEX, Production, and Recovery.
In all cases CAPEX is quantified ($)
In most cases Production is quantified (BOPDE)
In some cases Recovery is quantified (MMBOE recovered)
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In some cases Recovery is quantified (MMBOE recovered)
In few cases OPEX is quantified ($ per year)
In even fewer cases is a combination of OPEX and Production truly
quantified
CAPEX, OPEX, Production, Recoveryspeaking a
common language and quantifying $
Unless a common metric is used , it is impossible to properly
evaluate the impact CAPEX, OPEX, Production, and Recover for each
sandface completion type.
Requires iteration between drilling, completions, reservoir and
production engineering.
One (or possibly two) sandface completion techniques will emerge as
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One (or possibly two) sandface completion techniques will emerge as
providing the best Net Present Value (NPV).
Photo courtesy of BP
CAPEX
For each sandface completion type, detailed operational steps and
times should be constructed
This should also include any drilling or upper completion time or cost
differences
Typically the following are used to determine the cost estimate for
each completion type
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each completion type
Completion time (baseline and with historical NPT)
Rig rate + spread rate
Lump sum intangibles (perforating, frac job, etc.)
Lump sum tangibles (packers, screens, etc.)
CAPEX
Uncertainty analysis should be included (learning curve, installation
train wrecks requiring workover, etc.)
At this point, no option should be discounted because unfamiliarity or
unavailability of a certain sandface techniques. The costs must be
properly quantified to obtain that expertise or equipment, no matter the
perceived cost
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perceived cost
Example:
No current stimulation vessels available in XYZ location.
Do not overlook the costs of engineering studies or facility changes
i.e. OHGP or SAS may require $2MM additional for cores to characterize the
shale or formation vs CH. This could be significant in projects with a limited
number of wells.
i.e. C&P may require sand monitoring devices on the flowline jumpers
OPEX
Each sanding prevention or sand control completion type has a
historical frequency of failure (FoF)
The FEED study should help identify any high risk of failure completion
types under the particular field conditions (i.e. incomplete packs,
unacceptably high Flux, etc.)
Historical databases* and reference material is available, but caution
should be taken to examine the statistics as they apply to your
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should be taken to examine the statistics as they apply to your
particular field conditions.
OPEX costs can have a very powerful influence on the overall project
value, and therefore a truly unbiased analysis must be taken.
Uncertainty analysis should be included (Monty Carlo).
*SPE 84262 Sand Control Completion Reliability & Failure Rate Comparison with a Multi-Thousand Well Database, G. King et
al.
*SPE 112456 Sand Control Completion Failures: Can we all talk the same language, B. Wagg
*SPE 97282 Expandable Sand Screens Selection, Performance and Reliability; a review of the first 340 Installation, C. Jones
OPEX
In order to quantify the cost of OPEX for each potential sandface
completion type, a detailed workover and re-completion steps and
times should be constructed
Unless the route cause of the failure is understood, caution should be
take if this exercise involves re-installation of the exact same
completion technique
Thinks to consider
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Thinks to consider
Well may deplete before a likely failure
Repair may make more financial sense than replacement in late field life
OPEX $ are added to the program. (i.e. FoF is X.XX failures / well year
x well years online x workover cost / failure)
FoF and workover costs may drive field architecture decisionsdry
tree vs subsea, multiple flow lines, etc.
Deferred production should be accounted for (existing well + delay in
subsequent wells while rig is performing the workover)
Production
Different sandface completion techniques and wellbore sizes yield
different productions rates
Skin (completion efficiency)
Maximum drawdown
A range of historical skins can be determined for the various
completion techniques during the FEED
Examples Skins
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Examples Skins
OHGP (-3 to 5) depending on angle
CHGP (5 to 25+)
CHFP (-2 to 5)
Nodal analysis can help quantify rate dependent skin
Analysis should be conducted at initial choked, flowline pressure
limited, and abandonment pressures
Production
A production profile should be created for
each sandface completion type,
accounting for drilling and completion
installation time, flow rate per well, most
probable $/bbl or $/mscf, and production
plateau.
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plateau.
NPV for the different sandface completion options with respect to
production should be quantified
* A alternative (simplified) analysis is to compare production deltas between competing sandface options by
converting to $M per skin point (i.e. every skin point = $3MM USD)
Production differences between the various completion types may
increase or decrease the well count, and will have an addition impact on
Capex.
Recovery
Different sandface completion techniques may have different effects
on the ultimate recovery factor, which should be quantified
Abandonment pressure or commercial abandonment rate (i.e. skin)
Ability to reduce or isolate unwanted water / gas
Trajectory / Distance from water or gas
Adaptable or applicable with Intelligent Completions or Inflow Control Devices
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Adaptable or applicable with Intelligent Completions or Inflow Control Devices
Zonal Isolation Ability
Ability to drain multiple geobodies
Example: Single 1000 meter OHGP vs 3 stacked fracpacks
Conclusions (Example 8 well field)
CHGP CHFP ESS SAS OHGP
(a/b)
C&P
(no SC)
CAPEX
(D&C)
-$130 MM -$190 MM -$110 MM -$100MM -$140 MM -$55 MM
OPEX -$50 MM -$10 MM -$120 MM -$150MM -$35 MM -$300 MM
Production +$650 MM +$980 MM +$850 MM +750MM +$950 MM +$900 MM
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Production
(including lost and
deferred production)
+$650 MM +$980 MM +$850 MM +750MM +$950 MM +$900 MM
Recovery
(Delta)
-$100 MM $0 MM $0 MM $0 MM $0 MM $-40 MM
Total NPV +$470 MM +$780 MM +$630 MM +$500MM +$775 MM +$465 MM
Uncertainty analysis should be conducted (i.e. Monty Carlo simulations) to determine the
uncertainty range for each sandface type
Technology advancements
Examples
Efficient Cased Hole Multi-Zone Fracpacks (MZ service tools or APS)
Benefits in production and reliability, with reduced APEX over
conventional stacked
Open hole zonal isolation packers (SAS, ESS, or GP)
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Open hole zonal isolation packers (SAS, ESS, or GP)
Benefits in CAPEX and production over CH without sacrificing
recovery
Gravel pack compatible Inflow Control Devises (ICD)
Increased recovery without reduced reliability
Thank you
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Thank you