Publications

The Handil field is a mature oil and gas field that has been developed since 1975 and is located in the Mahakam Delta, East Kalimantan, Indonesia. The reservoirs accumulate on four main intervals between depths of 300 and 4000 m TVDSS. The oil-bearing shallow reservoirs are unconsolidated with strong aquifer support and completed by gravel pack-sand screen. The main zone reservoirs are consolidated with moderate aquifer support, supplemented by water injection and completed by either tubingless or standard. The production from the both zones are supported by gaslift. The field perforation strategy is bottom up and the current perforations are focusing on the shallower reservoirs. Statistically, one third of the upper main zone started producing sand due to pressure depletion, meanwhile some shallow wells produced sand due to gravel pack failure. Historically, it is known that the erosion due to sand in liquid production results in less severe well integrity & surface facility issues than the sand produced with gas. The manual sampling of liquids are taken periodically to measure sand/liquid volume and to monitor sand production with a sand limit of 0.4cc/10L. Exceeding this limit, a remedy for sand consolidation (SCON) is needed. A dedicated Production Test (with special procedures) is necessary to understand the maximum oil potential considering high water cut (>50%), sand rate and IPR/VLP curves for reference. This paper presents a methodology & workflow of sand monitoring on Handil oil wells and shares the successful pilot application of SCON as well as the challenges and constraints encountered. Candidate selection depends on oil potential, reserves and well integrity reviews. The pilot test yielded an oil production up to 300 bopd without sand, resulting in ~30-50% production impairment with 50 – 100 Mbbl of incremental reserves. Four remedial SCON jobs were implemented and successfully decreased the sand limitation from ~2700 to ~1500 bopd. Additional jobs will soon be applied on more challenging environments to expand SCON application envelopes in TOTAL E&P INDONESIE.