The Influence of Steam Injection Volume on Sand and Oil Production in Cyclic Steam Stimulation (CSS) Wells

Abstract

Sand production is one of the major challenges that petroleum industry faces in an oil field. It is one of the oldest problems plaguing the oil and gas industry, because of its adverse effects on well productivity and petroleum equipment. Fula North East ( FNE ) a Sudanese oil field is selected as case study, to study the effect of steam volume variation through different cycles on the amounts of sand and oil been produced by the end of each cycle in cyclic steam stimulation(CSS) wells, trying to understand the production behavior of those wells and relate injected steam volume with those two major parameters .we found that, no relationship between steam volume and sand production, also Data analysis shows that when production period is about 50 days before shutting the well for workover then well will continue to produce for a very long period compared to prior workover operation. On the other hand, if the production period was more than 50 days, then it will operate for shorter periods after recovered from workover operation. In this case, well needs to start another cycle of steam injection instead of continuing production since sand production (especially for long production periods) is an essential indicator for the next steam cycle timing. Also we found Sand production quantity in CSS wells basically depends on soaking period, more soaking time means formation temperature gets low, crude becomes colder, and more sand is expected to flow after well start up. Eventually, reduction of oil production and short operation period for these wells.