COMPLETIONS TODAY
Effective Perforating and Gravel Placement:
Key to Sand-Free Production
Cased-hole gravel packing is used to
control sand production from oil and
gas wells. The success of a cased-hole
gravel-pack job depends on the ability
to pack perforation tunnels effectively.
The full-length paper presents a system-
atic approach for perforation-damage
removal, effective gravel placement,
and packing of the perforation tunnels.
Guidelines to surging the formation
and executing the perforation-packing
job are presented.
Introduction
Every year the petroleum industry
spends USD millions cleaning sand
out of wells and repairing problems
related to sand production, and it loses
additional dollars by restricted pro-
duction rates. Sand production is a
common occurrence in highly uncon-
solidated formations.
In cased-hole applications, perfora-
tions act as a conduit for fluid flow
between the formation and the wellbore.
Production rates can be reduced severely
if the packed perforations are damaged.
The ability of the well to deliver its
potential productivity depends on the
This article, written by Assistant Tech-
nology Editor Karen Bybee, contains high-
lights of paper IPTC 12581, “Effective
Perforating and Gravel Placement: Key
to Low-Skin, Sand-Free Production in
Gravel Packs,” by Samyak Jain, SPE,
Raymond Tibbles, SPE, and Jock
Munro, Schlumberger, and Rajeswary
Suppiah and Norhisham Safin, SPE,
Petronas Carigali, originally prepared
for the 2008 International Petroleum
Technology Conference, Kuala Lumpur,
3–5 December. The paper has not been
peer reviewed.
Copyright 2008 International Petroleum
Technology Conference. Reproduced by
permission.
For a limited time, the full-length paper is available free to SPE members at www.spe.org/jpt.
62
inflow area these perforations provide
for fluid flow. Perforations may be dam-
aged for a number of reasons includ-
ing perforation debris, a compacted or
crushed zone consisting of pulverized
sand grains, perforations filled with
reservoir sand, and other drilling- and
completion-related activities.
Background
Perforation Surging. Perforating is the
critical process connecting the reservoir
with the wellbore. The selection of the
gun system is driven by many factors
including wellbore dimensions and for-
mation and reservoir properties. One
of the most critical parameters for per-
foration strategy is the rock strength,
measured as unconfined compressive
strength. It is recognized throughout
the industry that for sand-control com-
pletions, both high shot density and
big-hole charges are the optimum gun/
charge configuration.
Increased area open to flow max-
imizes the productivity of the well
while it reduces the fluid velocity per
perforation, reducing the risk of sand
production through the gravel pack
and sand screens. High-velocity flow
through isolated perforations can cre-
ate “hot spots” that, with time, can
erode through the screens, resulting
in massive sand production and some-
times the loss of the zone or the well.
One conventional technique for
removal of perforation damage is
underbalanced perforating, which is
achieved by having a lower hydrostatic-
fluid-column weight in the wellbore
in relation to the pore pressure of the
reservoir when the guns detonate. This
reduced pressure in the wellbore allows
fluid to flow from the reservoir into
the wellbore during the perforation
process. A moderate underbalance of
300 to 500 psi will assist in remov-
ing some of the perforating debris.
Fig. 1—Perforations filled with
gravel from prepacking.
The reality, however, is that in most
conventional underbalanced-perforat-
ing operations, particularly with the
big-hole, high-shot-density charges, an
overpressure is created in the wellbore
for a short duration after the gun deto-
nates. This overpressure negates much
of the effect of the initial static under-
balance. As the wellbore equalizes with
the reservoir pressure, the underbal-
ance generated across the perforation is
insufficient to allow effective cleanup.
Post-perforation flow in which a partial
cushion is used will produce sand and
clean out some of the perforations, but
this typically does not treat the entire
zone effectively. A combination of fric-
tion or choking effect as the wellbore
fluids enter the tubing string and the
lifting of the fluid column inhibits any
significant drawdown across the per-
forations to remove the damage. Any
drawdown that is produced will have
the greatest cleanup effect on the upper
portion of the perforated zone or any
higher-permeability streaks. A small
percentage of perforations, once freed
of debris, will be capable of producing
all the cushion flow, and other perfora-
tions will remain blocked or restricted.
The surging technique outlined in
the full-length paper describes a system
JPT • SEPTEMBER 2009
that removes drilling and perforation
damage post-perforation while negat-
ing the risks of “sanding in” the guns.
The system involves running an atmo-
spheric chamber into the well with the
gun assembly. To remove the risk of
sanding-in the gun string, the atmo-
spheric chamber is activated with the
guns clear of the zone after perforat-
ing in an overbalanced condition. This
then exposes the perforated interval to
a short, sharp pressure drop, creating a
differential pressure, or underbalanced
state, across the perforations. This drop
in pressure draws a controlled volume
of fluid into the wellbore which breaks
down a hemispherical region at the
entrance of each perforation, pulling in
the crushed region, perforation debris,
and any mud from the invaded zone.
The initial drop in pressure is followed
by a controlled flow into the chamber,
pulling the loose sand and debris from
the collapsed region through the cas-
ing cement tunnel into the wellbore
and resulting in a cavity with minimal
damage behind casing. The dynamic
pressure drop created by this downhole
surge provides a uniform cleanup of
the perforations over the entire inter-
val, increasing communication with the
reservoir and allowing increased leakoff
for better transportation of high-per-
meability gravel into a greater number
of perforations.
Perforation Prepacking. Prepacking
involves placing gravel through the per-
foration tunnels, into the cavity created
at each perforation behind the casing,
and out into the formation, as shown in
Fig. 1. Prepacking helps control fluid
loss and increases perforation-filling
efficiencies, which, in turn, decreases
drawdown pressure drop across the
perforation tunnels by preventing for-
mation sand from filling the tunnels
during production. Filling the perfora-
tions with gravel is the key to obtain-
ing high productivity from the well.
Research and field experience recom-
mend that in cased-hole gravel packs,
the best results are obtained when the
perforation damage is removed and
is followed with prepacking of the
perforations. In an unconsolidated for-
mation, any perforation not filled with
gravel will fill with formation sand. The
greatest potential for flow restriction is
at the perforations, where the flow pat-
tern becomes linear instead of radial.
A major challenge of packing opera-
JPT • SEPTEMBER 2009
tions is to transport gravel through
the perforations to pack the entire area
around the perforation tunnels with
high-permeability gravel.
Pressure drop at the sandface is
minimized if the perforation tunnel is
filled with high-permeability gravel as
opposed to formation sand. Table 1
in the full-length paper compares the
calculated pressure drops in different
perforation diameters for formation-
sand-filled and gravel-filled perforation
tunnels. This emphasizes the critical
importance of complete packing of
the perforations during the gravel-
placement process. Failure to pack
the perforations before or during the
gravel-pack process will result in the
perforation tunnels being filled with
formation sand, leading to a significant
reduction in production and probable
earlier onset of sand production.
Perforation-pack permeability is so
important to the success of a cased-hole
gravel pack that some researchers have
used it as a primary indicator of gravel-
pack effectiveness. Because perforation
filling with gravel is so important, it
is recommended that the prepacking
operation be carried out at the earli-
est possible opportunity (i.e., immedi-
ately after perforating). In addition to
helping control fluid loss, prepacking
immediately after perforating gives two
opportunities to place gravel in the per-
forations (i.e., during the prepack and
the gravel pack).
The prepacking operation can be
accomplished either with a dedicated
operation before running the gravel-
pack assembly or by forcing injection
into the perforations during gravel
packing. Prepacking also can be per-
formed either above or below the frac-
ture pressure. The full-length paper
focuses on prepacking conducted
below fracture pressure.
Method
The technique presented involves effec-
tive perforating combined with packing
the perforations with high-permeability
gravel in a prepacking operation con-
ducted before the actual gravel-pack job.
Leakoff of the treatment fluid into the
perforations is a primary requirement
for successfully packing the perfora-
tions with gravel. Perforating with con-
ventional methods leaves debris along
with the nonpermeable compacted zone
inside the perforations. This restricts
the leakoff, which, in turn, leads to poor
perforation packing. While there are
a number of methods for cleaning the
perforations, such as perforation wash-
ing, they are normally time consuming
and costly. The ideal solution is to
perform the perforation operation and
the cleanup in one step. This combined
perforating and cleanup operation is
possible by designing the perforation
assembly to be capable of delivering a
post-perforation surge to remove the
perforating debris and present the per-
forations in a nondamaged state, ready
to be packed with high-permeability
gravel. After successfully perforating
and surging, well control is established
and the guns are removed. Following
this, the gravel-pack assembly is run in
preparation for the gravel-pack opera-
tion. Before conducting the gravel-pack
treatment, a dedicated prepack stage
is conducted to pack the perforations
with gravel. This stage is performed
with the tool in circulating position
and the annulus closed at the surface,
ensuring that all fluid is forced into the
perforations to achieve maximum rate
per perforation and optimum gravel
transport. The pumping schedule con-
sists of alternating stages of acid, brine
spacer, and viscoelastic-surfactant fluid
with proppant slugs that are displaced
by completion brine. The acid stage
helps to remove any damage caused by
the fluid-loss-control pill and/or any
damage in the near-wellbore region
caused during the drilling process. The
viscoelastic surfactant is a nondam-
aging carrier fluid with viscous and
mechanical-suspension capabilities that
carries the gravel and ensures that the
gravel enters the perforations. During
flowback, the fluid breaks completely
on contact with the reservoir fluids and
therefore does not cause any damage
to the formation. The gravel slugs are
pumped at concentrations ranging from
1 to 3 lbm of gravel added to 1 gal of
fluid. These slugs range from 5 to 7 bbl
in volume and are pumped intermit-
tently between stages of the completion
fluid to minimize the risk of annular
bridge formation and early screenout.
When the gravel slugs hit the perfora-
tions, a positive pressure indication is
observed, which confirms that gravel
is entering the perforations. Depending
on the length of the perforated inter-
val, three to four gravel slugs may be
pumped. Following the prepack opera-
tion, the gravel-pack operation can be
performed in a routine manner. JPT
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