Sand Production Prediction and Safe Differential Pressure Determination in a Deepwater Gas Field

Sand production is a critical issue during the development of offshore oil and gas fields.Certain gas fields(e.g.the AB gas field)have high porosity and high permeability,and with water at the bottom of the reservoir,the risk of sand production greatly increases at high differential pressures.Based on reservoir properties,geological conditions,production requirements,and well logging data,in this study an ultrasonic time difference method,a B index method,and a S index method are used together with a model of rock mass failure(accounting for water influx and pressure depletion)to qualitatively predict sand production.The results show that considered sample gas field has an overall high risk of sand production.The critical differential pressure(CDP)without water influx is in the range of 1.40 to 2.35 MPa,the CDP after water influx is from 0.60 to 1.41MPa.The CDP under pressure depletion is in the range of 1.20 to 1.92 MPa.The differential pressure charts of sand production are plotted,and the safe differential pressure windows with or without water influx are obtained.The model calculation results and the experimental results are consistent with the field production data,which indicates that the implemented prediction method could be taken as a reference for sand production prediction in similar deep water gas fields.

Phase behavior of gas condensate in porous media using real-time computed tomography scanning

The phase behavior of gas condensate in reservoir formations differs from that in pressure-volume-temperature(PVT)cells because it is influenced by porous media in the reservoir formations.Sandstone was used as a sample to investigate the influence of porous media on the phase behavior of the gas condensate.The pore structure was first analyzed using computed tomography(CT)scanning,digital core technology,and a pore network model.The sandstone core sample was then saturated with gas condensate for the pressure depletion experiment.After each pressure-depletion state was stable,realtime CT scanning was performed on the sample.The scanning results of the sample were reconstructed into three-dimensional grayscale images,and the gas condensate and condensate liquid were segmented based on gray value discrepancy to dynamically characterize the phase behavior of the gas condensate in porous media.Pore network models of the condensate liquid ganglia under different pressures were built to calculate the characteristic parameters,including the average radius,coordination number,and tortuosity,and to analyze the changing mechanism caused by the phase behavior change of the gas condensate.Four types of condensate liquid(clustered,branched,membranous,and droplet ganglia)were then classified by shape factor and Euler number to investigate their morphological changes dynamically and elaborately.The results show that the dew point pressure of the gas condensate in porous media is 12.7 MPa,which is 0.7 MPa higher than 12.0 MPa in PVT cells.The average radius,volume,and coordination number of the condensate liquid ganglia increased when the system pressure was between the dew point pressure(12.7 MPa)and the pressure for the maximum liquid dropout,Pmax(10.0 MPa),and decreased when it was below Pmax.The volume proportion of clustered ganglia was the highest,followed by branched,membranous,and droplet ganglia.This study provides crucial experimental evidence for the phase behavior changing process of gas condensate in porous media during the depletion production of gas condensate reservoirs.