Predictive Study to Identify the Sanding Initiation Threshold Depending on Physical and Mechanical Rock Characteristics

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Petroleum Engineer

2 Petroleum engineer

10.22077/jgm.2025.9953.1059

Abstract

Sand production is an undesirable phenomenon that occurs in wellbores extracting resources from sandstone formations. It presents a significant challenge to the advancement of oil and gas operations. The main implications of sand production include the disintegration of geological formations, deterioration of both surface and downhole systems, reduced hydrocarbon extraction efficiency, and various environmental concerns. These challenges can result in annual costs amounting to billions of dollars for the petroleum industry. Motivated by these issues, this study conducted a field case study in southern Iraq to introduce predictive techniques based on geomechanical and physical properties to anticipate and mitigate the risk of sand production hazards. Moreover, seven threshold criteria were utilized to identify the critical limits at the onset of sanding. These criteria include unconfined compressive strength (UCS), total porosity (PHIT), shear modulus and rock compressibility ratio, sonic compression wave, B-index, S-index, and Ec-index. Additionally, some of these techniques are strongly related to elastic and strength rock parameters; hence, to perform them accurately, more appropriate correlations were used for the area of interest. The results indicate that sand production is likely to occur when the threshold values for the UCS, B-index, and S-index fall below 4,200 psi, 1.6 × 106 psi, and 9.2 × 109 psi, respectively, while the PHIT value exceeds 20%. Finally, this investigation can serve as a guide for optimizing sand management to achieve maximum completion performance.

Keywords

Journal of Geomine
Volume 3, Issue 3
September 2025
Pages 174-181

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