Experimental and Analytical Investigation of Sand Production in Weak formations for Multiple Well Shut-Ins

Sand production is a severe problem in oilfields and is majorly associated with weak and unconsolidated formations. Therefore, identifying the expected amount and rate of sand has been approached by different analytical and numerical prediction methods. Within them the former requires less computational time and therefore being widely used. However, despite some of the analytical models proved to be fairly predictive for sand production during steady-state flow, they cannot be used directly for the wells with complex production profiles. The current study focuses on the experimental investigation of the sand production pattern during well production and shut-in periods. The laboratory work was conducted on artificial sandstone replicating weak Cretaceous formations in Kazakhstan using customized High Pressure Consolidation System (HPCS) for sand production experiments. HPCS accommodates a sandstone sample of a large diameter to diminish boundary effect when the fluid is injected. The tests were conducted at different overburden stresses as well as pressure drawdowns in several well shut-in runs. The paper presents a modification of the classical steady-state flow analytical solution incorporating field and fluid conditions as well as the dependence on the well shut-in runs. The model showed good convergence with the experimental and well data.