Publications

Significant production of Mahakam Block comes from sand prone reservoirs. Uncontrolled sand production can lead to catastrophic consequences. A robust sand detection and monitoring system is crucial for optimizing production without jeopardizing safety. A non-intrusive Acoustic Sand Detection (ASD) tool has been widely implemented in Mahakam swamp and offshore fields. The tool can be portable or permanently installed, depending on the availability of power and telemetry. Sand rate is derived from the signal received by sensor after listening to the sound of sand particle collision with the pipe wall. If the sand rate exceeds the defined Maximum Allowable Sand Rate (MASR) of 0.02 g/s, the well will be declared as sandy. As the consequence, the well could be ramped down or shut-in for choke verification. Of all the sandy cases detected by ASD, more than twenty cases turned out to be incident preventive. The wellhead choke had been eroded such that it could have been catastrophic. The erosion occurred on wells producing from shallow/upper layer reservoirs with high delta pressure between upstream and downstream choke. The application of acoustic sand detection tool as the primary sand monitoring system (78%) in Mahakam has proven to be rewarding. Around 149 BCF of additional production volume during 2014-2019 was the result of implementation of sand detection and monitoring using ASD tool, as means of optimizing the life of production wells. This paper demonstrates Mahakam invaluable experience with ASD tool to optimize sandy wells production safely.