Browsing by Author "Olanrewaju, O."

Filter results by typing the first few letters
Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    A model for predicting sand production in horizontal wells
    (Nova Science Publishers, Inc., 2012) Isehunwa, S. O.; Nwokeke, N.; Olanrewaju, O.
    Sand produced along with oil and gas causes operational, safety, environmental and severe economic challenges. The cost of installing sand control facilities which may not really be needed could also be substantial. Therefore, determining the critical flow rate for the onset of sand production is very important. There are several published studies on sanding in vertical wells, but few on horizontal wells, which have now become very prominent in the industry. The aim of this study was to develop a simple but robust model for predicting sand rates in horizontal wells. A novel geomechanical model incorporating gravity, buoyancy, drag and lift forces was developed and validated with data from 3 oil fields in the Niger Delta. The results showed that sand production could take place in horizontal wells even at low production rates but increases at high production rates in the fields of study. Critical sand rate is also affected by horizontal well length, fluid viscosity and diameter of the sand particles.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    A simple analytical model for predicting sand production in a Niger Delta oil field
    (2010) Isehunwa, O. S.||; Olanrewaju, O.
    Sand production, which is predominant in the Niger Delta, is a growing concern in the petroleum industry because of the associated technical, operational and economic challenges. The development of sanding predictive tools and effective management strategies has received much attention in literature. However, most of the published theoretical models have been validated with laboratory or data obtained from petroleum provinces other than the Niger Delta. This work developed a simple analytical model for predicting sand production and validated it using 16 wells in a Niger Delta Field. The results confirmed the well-known impact of flow rate, fluid viscosity and grain size and density of sanding rates. It was also observed that at moderate production rates, sanding in the Niger Delta Field has relatively small arch lengths of below 30 feet.