Field and laboratory observations of post-failure stabilizations during sand production

Sand flow models have been successfully applied to heavy oil reservoirs ^1,2,3. However, when these models are applied to light oil and gas reservoirs, the equations controlling generation of eroded solid mass or sand release rate are vastly simplified^4-11 necessitating further field observations controlling sand flow rate in order to improve accuracy. Sand flow is catastrophic when formation is soil. However, if certain conditions arc satisfied, the sand rate is reasonably stable. This paper clarifies nine forms of post-failure stabilization. Subsequently, field methods to deal with sand problems with uncertain sand rate predictions are proposed.