Development of a Sand Prediction Model for a Gas Field Located in South Tunisia

Sand production is a major problem in many fields worldwide resulting from the presence of the disintegrated grain around the wellbore and/or the perforation. In order to develop the effective sand management strategy, it is necessary to predict the production condition that may lead to the sanding failure. The purpose of this study is to build an analytical sand prediction model for a gas field located in the south of Tunisia which could assist the engineer to make better decisions by estimating the critical well pressure below which sand production is expected. The prediction scheme is an analytical solution based on dynamic mechanical rock properties determined from well-logging data utilizing the sand production criterion described by Wilson et al. Being based on well logging data, the model is a quick, low cost, first-hand prediction method that can be implemented to avoid the potentially serious problems associated with sand production. The model was implemented in Microsoft Excel by using Visual Basic which provides a user-friendly interface and it was validated using field data gathered from three gas wells that have shown sand production during testing. The model-generated results of the three wells successfully matched the sand production during testing and they indicate the likelihood of sand production at an early stage of production