During development of high pressure/high temperature (HP/HT) gas wells in Oman, clean-up operations that remove up to 10 tons of proppant fracture material from individual gas wells have become routine. The continuing development of fracturing, clean up and testing processes in the HP/HT well-testing environment has provided a unique opportunity to fulfill the need for enhancement of proppant clean-up equipment and methods.

Efforts have been concentrated on improving clean-up times, equipment efficiency and refining the design of the desander/filter sand management system (SMS). As a result of the improvements, the clean-up and testing processes have undergone significant modification.

During the initial phase of the project, numerous challenges had to be overcome, and improvements were made in the solids clean-up process. This paper will describe how proppant and other solids materials were managed during the wellbore and formation clean-out process.

Keywords:
valve, cyclone, upstream oil & gas, design 2, equation, proppant, separation, desander, desander vessel, well testing
Subjects:
Hydraulic Fracturing, Well & Reservoir Surveillance and Monitoring, Formation Evaluation & Management, Unconventional and Complex Reservoirs, Drillstem/well testing, Gas-condensate reservoirs
Copyright 2001, Society of Petroleum Engineers
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