ABSTRACT

In 1985 the Arabian Gulf Oil Company (AGOCO) decided to start installing Electrical Submersible Pump (ESP) as a solution to maintained productivity of the Sarir oil field. Following the initial installation of the ESP pumps several problems arose. The sand concentration in the field was determined to aid the company taking decision concerning the well completion design and selection of sand control methods. The only sand control method applied in the Sarir field was Gravel Pack method which shows acceptable sand control but has a negative impact on the productivity. The current method used in signifying a well as sand producers is dependent on ESP failure and measuring length of the fill in comparison to the previous workover measurement. Moreover, there is no on-line sand mentoring instrument installed on the Sarir field. It’s clear from the data collected that the most of wells are sand producers or born to be sand producers. In addition, there are numerous ESP failures all these facts indicate that the trend in the Sarir field is that the sand production well becomes a serious problem. Data analysis using Cu-Sum (change point analysis) indicated that there some events concerning sand production happens at intervals ranging from months to several years, these events could not be correlated to any obvious parameter, and this leads to many expectations and these in turn requires detailed study in the future. Finally, a number of recommendations are formulated which perhaps helps the company overcome the ESP failures, Understand the sand production phenomena, more reliable analysis should be used which is require prolonged study e.g., sanding modelling based on integrate soil and rock mechanics principles coupled with fluid flow may works satisfactorily for interpretation of these changes.