The Nominal Sand Control Screen: A Critical Evaluation of Screen Performance

Abstract

Abstract Over the past few years, several "premium" sand control screens have been introduced into the market. The proliferation of new screens has raised questions about how to choose the proper sand control screen for a particular formation. In order to address this concern, a project was initiated at Chevron to devise a method to evaluate sand control screens. As a result of this program, a method has been standardized for the evaluation of sand control screens. The method known as the Screen Efficiency Test shows the relationship between the normalized sand control characteristics (i.e., Sand Control Factor) of the screens and the normalized length of time it takes a screen to plug under a certain set of conditions (i.e., the Performance Factor). The results of Screen Efficiency tests to evaluate several sand control screens for a North Sea and West Africa field are discussed in the paper. The data in this paper also documents that the numerical rating given the screens by the manufacturers are generally not very useful in understanding the sand control rating of the particular screen, or comparing screens from different manufacturers. In addition, the effect of particle size distribution and sand concentration on the relative performance of sand control screens was demonstrated.