3M Ceramic Sand Screens use ceramic materials, which are one order of magnitude harder than metallic materials and show no indications of abrasion under reservoir conditions.
Advanced ceramic design resists erosion – helps reduce workovers, increase production
Sand screens are commonly used in downhole completions to prevent the spread of formation sand throughout facilities and pipelines. Many conventional sand screen systems are made of metals that are vulnerable to abrasion, which can affect both system performance and equipment life.
3M Ceramic Sand Screens offer a major improvement over standard wire wrap screens – utilizing the unique properties of technical ceramics to provide effective filtration, while resisting erosion from sand and corrosion from water and harsh chemicals.
3M Ceramic Sand Screens are highly effective in unconsolidated reservoirs where sand grains are only loosely packed together, resulting in a significant risk of sand production. These versatile screens can be retrofitted to existing wells that suffer from sand problems as a result of reduced reservoir pressure, or installed in new wells. Retrofitting with the system is possible in almost any prevailing wellbore condition; available configurations include thru-tubing ceramic sand screen, standalone ceramic sand screen and sleeve protector.
Product Description
The new 3M Ceramic Sand Screen offers a breakthrough sand control technology especially under demanding conditions where erosion is a major challenge.
State-of-the-art sand screen systems generally consist of metals that offer limited resistance to erosion. Since the degree of erosion is determined by material properties, 3M Ceramic Sand Screens use ceramic materials, which are one order of magnitude harder than metallic materials and show no indications of erosion under reservoir conditions.
The screens can be deployed for regular sand-control in new wells or retrofitted to existing wells that suffer from sand problems as a result of reduced reservoir pressure. They can be set in most standard well completions and offer the opportunity to product reserves that would otherwise have been lost.
The 3M Ceramic Sand Screen design is well suited to ceramics and gives flexibility to the stack of ceramic rings while providing stability against torsion and flexure. As a consequence, the 3M Ceramic Sand Screen savely passes dog legs and can even be retrieved without harming the ceramic rings.
Minimizing pressure losses is a major issue during oil and gas production. To meet this important goal, extensive modeling on ring and gap design as well as a set of flow tests have been performed. The comparison of theory and practices is fully congruent: The pressure loss over the 3M Ceramic Sand Screen stays very low for a broad range of flow rates.
Product Benefits
-Working beyond the limits of state-of-the-art metallic sand screens;
-Designed for unconsolidated reservoirs with the risk of significant sand production;
-Twice the stiffness & 10 times the hardness of metallic screens;
-Proven to resist wear even under high velocity flows;
-Reduces workovers;
-Can control proppant flowback in PSI completions;
-Helps extend equipment life;
-Helps minimize pressure losses;
-Can eliminate the need for complex sand control methods;
-Customizable for specific downhole conditions;
-Can be used in vertical, slanted and horizontal wells.
Product Features
3M technology improves the known wire wrap screen principle by taking advantage of the unique properties of technical ceramics.
-No abrasion (10 times higher hardness than metal);
-Higher collapse resistance (twice the stiffness than steel);
-Flexible stack of ceramic rings;
-For horizontal, slanted and vertical wells;
-Gap width, length and diameter tailored to the specific application / wellbore
-Protection of valves and sliding sleeves is also an option
-Specially designed with v-shape or keystone gaps
-Retrofitting with the system on existing commercial landing nipples
-Alternatively as self-supported systems or provided with an internal perforated tube.
Application
Erosion-resistant 3M Ceramic Sand Screens are proven to deliver high performance sand control in a variety of applications, from mature fields to well interventions where conventional metallic sand control systems have failed.
-Increased well life-cycle longevity helps lower capital expenditures and increase production;
-Drop-in technology offering quick and long-lasting reestablishment of sand free production;
-Easy deployment through existing production tubing helps reduce HS&E and operational risk while improving return on investment;
-The exceptional hardness of 3M Silicon Carbide maximizes repeatable and reliable erosion protection at sand face;
-Provide superior corrosion and erosion resistance;
-Excellent thermal properties, including thermal resistance and coefficient of thermal elongation, compared to conventional metal screens;
-Placement directly opposite perforations or in open hole, easy deployment via wireline/slickline, coiled tubing or conventional rig system;
-Modular construction system allows for length flexibility, easy operational planning and short delivery times.
About Interwell
Interwell, established in Norway in 1992, has become an international service company providing technologies from wellbore construction right through plug & abandonment.
Interwell offers a wide range of solutions across the lifecycle of any oil and gas field – from Drilling & Completions, Wellbore Interventions through to Plug & Abandonment operations. As a solutions innovator, Interwell is bringing to market cost-effective, next generation systems meeting the developing requirements in both the Plug & Abandonment and Unconventional markets.