Abstract
As the global demands on the oil and gas industry for increased production are met, pressure on operators has increased significantly. Therefore higher velocities, more horizontal drilling / completions, higher production, production from less consolidated zones, quicker payout for wells and facilities, more complicated fluid / gas streams, and more concern for safety and failures have resulted in more solids flow in produced oil and gas.
Sand flow topside can cause a loss of production and high maintenance and operation costs. Plugging, erosion of equipment, increased corrosion, contamination of the product, increase inhibitor requirements, and safety issues due to failures are all the result of increased solids flow. Down hole effects can include reduced production (well sand-up), erosion of equipment, damage to down-hole equipment, formation damage, work-over costs, increased corrosion, and demands for larger volumes of inhibitor.
The impact of solids production is not just felt in the oil and gas industry, but also in hydrocarbon pipelines, slurry pipelines, underground gas storage facilities, breweries, food production, mining and shipping.
In the oil and gas industry it is imperative that operators know the profile of their sand flow so that they can operate at maximum output with minimal solids production as well as monitor the effects of their solids production - erosion - on their equipment. Though it has been purported that quantifying sand, i.e. inputting particle size to determine quantity is possible, unless all parameters remain constant and unchanging (which is rarely the case), the true benefit of sand monitoring lies in the profiling of the sand flow, not quantifying particles.
Monitoring the flow of solids and monitoring the effects of solids flow - erosion - are very different and each must be handled differently and separately. Likewise the solutions for control of solids flow and elimination of erosion again are very different and each must be handled in its own manner.
