Experimental Study of Sand Production during Depressurization Exploitation in Hydrate Silty-Clay Sediments

Jingsheng Lu, Dongliang Li, Yong He, Lingli Shi, Deqing Liang and Youming Xiong
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Jingsheng Lu: Key Laboratory of Gas Hydrate, Guangzhou Institute of Energy Conversion, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510640, China
Dongliang Li: Key Laboratory of Gas Hydrate, Guangzhou Institute of Energy Conversion, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510640, China
Yong He: Key Laboratory of Gas Hydrate, Guangzhou Institute of Energy Conversion, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510640, China
Lingli Shi: Key Laboratory of Gas Hydrate, Guangzhou Institute of Energy Conversion, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510640, China
Deqing Liang: Key Laboratory of Gas Hydrate, Guangzhou Institute of Energy Conversion, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510640, China
Youming Xiong: State Key Laboratory of Oil & Gas Reservoir Geology and Exploitation, Southwest Petroleum University, Chengdu 610500, China

Energies, 2019, vol. 12, issue 22, 1-14

Abstract: Silty-clay reservoirs are a weak point in sand production and sand control studies due to their low economy. However, China’s marine natural gas hydrates (NGH) mostly exist in silty-clay sediments, which restrict the sustainable and efficient development of NGH. In order to study the sand production of hydrate silty-clay sediments, hydrate production experiments in vertical wells and horizontal wells were carried out using a self-developed hydrate sand production and sand control simulation device. The results showed a great difference between the hydrate silty-clay sediments and hydrate sand sediments. The significant differences in production pressure and production temperature between the different layers indicated the low permeability and low heterogeneity of the hydrate silty-clay sediments. The sliding settlement of the overall depression in the horizontal well and overall subsidence in the vertical well of the hydrate silty-clay reservoir would easily lead to silty-clay flow and large-scale sand production. When water rates decreased, the property of “silty-clay sediment filtration and wall building” was found, which formed a “mud cake” around the wellbore. The good strength of adhesion and fracture permeability of the “mud cake” provided ideas for reservoir reformation. This study further discusses sand production and sediment reformation in hydrate silty-clay sediments.

Keywords: methane hydrate; silty-clay sediments; sand production; experiments; exploitation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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