Abstract

The Virginia Indonesia Company (VICO) has developed an approach for avoiding sand-cut failures in the flowlines of high deliverability (Hi-Del) gas completions in the Badak Field located in East Kalimantan, Indonesia. In VICO's Badak Field, Hi-Del gas completions are produced at rates in excess of 60 mmcfd (1.7 × 10⁹ m³/d) from zones that also produce varying degrees of sand and water. These completions are part of the company's B-12 reservoir Hi-Del gas blowdown project in which maximizing flow rates is a top priority. The potential for flowline erosional failures in high rate gas wells is magnified when the wells also produce sand.

Investigation following two flowline leaks, during 1995 Hi-Del wells production, revealed that they were caused by sand erosion. To avoid additional sand erosion failures, VICO implemented a program to reduce the level of erosion from these completions and also to monitor the flowlines to identify problem areas prior to failure. In an effort to reduce the level of erosion, downhole screens have been installed in some of the wells to reduce sand production while flowlines and manifolds have been modified to reduce gas velocities. The company uses special sand production monitoring equipment and also conducts regular flowline wall-thickness inspections.

To safely produce Hi-Del gas completions, while monitoring Hi-Del flowlines in the Badak field, a correlation has been developed relating erosional tendencies to gas production rates. This data is then extrapolated to predict potential failures which then allows the failures to be avoided.

VICO has avoided at least 4 (four) flowline failures using this technique. Such a failure would not only disrupt production but also could potentially cause substantial loss of equipment and/or life. VICO's current method could be applied by other operators that produce Hi-Del gas completions with associated sand production.