Mitigation of Sand Production Risk using Thermally Expandable Polymeric Beads

Sand production is nearly always detrimental to the short- and/or long-term production of the well. It can present major obstacles to well production through reduced production rates, sand bridging, erosion of equipment, and sand disposal and removal. In this work, we introduce a new concept of using thermally expandable, high-stiff polymeric beads as gravel pack materials, either replacing the regular gravel sand pack partially or fully to fill the annulus between production tubing/slotted liner/screens and reservoir to compensate the high stress near the wellbore during sand production. Under the reservoir condition (treated with bottom hole temperature), these polymeric beads will expand in volume. The volume expansion of gravel pack materials in the annulus space will result in additional mechanical pressure against the wellbore, which will subsequently decrease the hoop stress and increase the radial stress in the near wellbore region; therefore, the mechanical failure and the risk of sand production can be reduced.