Simulation of sand production in CHOPS

In a recent inquiry from our Heavy Oil Monitoring and Control Forum, one reader asked if there was any industry use or application of sand production in heavy oil simulation as applied to the planning and optimization of Cold Heavy Oil Production with Sand (CHOPS).

In CHOPS, vertical wells are drilled into the zone of interest, and sand production is encouraged using special screens and slotted liners. Producing sand from unconsolidated formations produces ”wormholes” which facilitate oil flow to the surface.

The physics of numerically modeling CHOPS is non-trivial as you might expect but many of the commercial and in-house heavy oil simulators enable some level of sand production modeling and there continues to be active research in this area.

I found the paper published by the Alberta Energy group, Cold Heavy Oil Production with Sand in the Canadian Heavy Oil Industry a good reference on the subject including aspects of modeling sand production associated with CHOPS.

Kambiz.