An Assessment of Gravel Packing Methods Used in the Petroleum Industry

An Assessment of Gravel Packing Methods Used in the Petroleum Industry

Project / Seminar Material
Reference ID: PS-2428-TM

DEDICATION

This research material titled “An Assessment of Gravel Packing Methods Used in the Petroleum Industry” is dedicated to God for his enabling grace, and to all computer enthusiasts who contributed to make life a pleasant experience during my research documentation.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I extend my sincere gratitude to all those who contributed to the completion of this project. Special thanks to my Supervisor (Name of your Supervisor), the Head of Department (Name of your HOD), the Lecturers in the department of Petroleum Engineering, Book Authors and Profound Scholars of existing or related project material on “An Assessment of Gravel Packing Methods Used in the Petroleum Industry” for their invaluable guidance, support, and expertise throughout the journey.

I am also grateful to your study area (mention any funding organizations, if applicable) for their financial assistance. This research would not have been possible without the encouragement and assistance of some stakeholders (mention any mentors, teachers, or colleagues). Additionally, I would like to acknowledge the understanding and patience of my family and friends during this endeavor. Your unwavering support has been a constant source of motivation. Thank you all for being part of this meaningful endeavor.

An Assessment of Gravel Packing Methods Used in the Petroleum Industry

CHAPTER ONE

1.0 Introduction

Many reservoirs are comprised of relatively young sediments, which are so poorly consolidated that sand will be produced along with the reservoir fluids unless the production rate is reduced significantly. Sand production leads to many numerous production problems including erosion of down hole tubular, valves, fitting and surface flow lines, collapsed casing because of lack of formation support. Thus a means to eliminate sand production without greatly limiting production rates is desirable.

Sand production can be controlled using different methods but the method of utmost importance to this project is the mechanical method which basically involves the use of gravel pack (GRAVEL PACKING).

This method is considered the oldest and most effective sand control mechanism. It is simply a down hole filter designed to prevent the production of unwanted sands which involves the placement of gravel across a perforated interval in the sand screen annulus and also in the perforation tunnel to prevent the influx of sand.

Inaccurate determination of gravel pack size, could lead to sand influx which could be detrimental to both the technical and economic aspect of production which is the overall objective of this project aimed at identifying means to selectively select appropriate gravel pack sizes from formation sands produced through sieve analysis to meet optimum sand control for maximum production without any detrimental effect to production hard wares.

In a gravel pack completion, sand that is larger than the average formation sand grain is placed between the formation and a screen or slotted liner with the aim of retaining most of the formation sand, but letting very fine particles through it and be produced.

The two most common types of gravel pack completion are the inside casing gravel packing or internal gravel packing (IGP) and underreamed gravel pack or external gravel pack (EGP). The underreamed casing gravel pack provides better conductivity through the gravel but is limited to single zone completion.

1.1 Aim and Objectives of the Study

The aim of the study is to assess the Gravel Packing Methods Used in the Petroleum Industry. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out as follows:

  1. To study the various types of gravel packing methods used in the petroleum industry.
  2. To analyze sieve analysis data of formation sands gotten from OBEN13L in other to determine the appropriate gravel pack size used.
  3. To make conclusions on the state of OBEN WELL 13L on the basis of sieve data analysis and give possible recommendations.

1.2 Scope of Study

The scope of this project is limited to the mechanical method of sand control with more emphasis on the sieve analysis of formation sands gotten from OBEN13L.

1.3 Limitations of the Study

During the course of this study, there were some problems encountered which stood as limitations to the research work. Some of the limitations include:

  1. Time Constraint:

    The time frame given to accomplish this project was very short due to school academic calendar and it was carried out under pressure which made the researcher not to implement some necessary features.

  2. Financial Constraint:

    Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet).

1.4 Methodology

The method to be adopted for this project is the use of sieve analysis and sucier correlation to determine the gravel pack size to be used for OBEN WELL 13 with formation sands gotten from the case study as mentioned above and useful information gotten from the internet, textbooks, petroleum journals.

This method simply involves collecting core samples and running them through different sieves with different opening sizes, usually sieves with larger openings at the top and sieves of smaller opening at the bottom and plotting each weight retained on each sieve against the sieve opening size to determine the average formation sand size which is used to find accurate gravel size using sucier correlation.

…

CHAPTER TWO

2.0 Literature Review

2.1 Introduction

This chapter focuses on the review of related literature. A literature review includes the current knowledge as well as theoretical and methodological contributions to a particular topic. It documents the state of the art with respect to the topic you are writing. It surveys the literature in the topic selected. In this research work the literature review includes the …

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