Sand Production of the Shale Gas Well in Different Production Periods: Structure and Component

Xiangchen Li, Lin Yi and Zhang Fan
Additional contact information
Xiangchen Li: State Key Laboratory of Oil and Gas Reservoir Geology and Exploitation, Southwest Petroleum University, Chengdu 610500, China
Lin Yi: State Key Laboratory of Oil and Gas Reservoir Geology and Exploitation, Southwest Petroleum University, Chengdu 610500, China
Zhang Fan: State Key Laboratory of Oil and Gas Reservoir Geology and Exploitation, Southwest Petroleum University, Chengdu 610500, China

Energies, 2021, vol. 14, issue 17, 1-13

Abstract: Complex geology and fracturing operations have led to frequent sand production problem in the shale gas well. Sand production brings huge engineering risks and seriously affects the normal production of the shale gas well. In order to study the property and source of the yielded sand, sand samples in three production periods of flowback, production test and gas production are collected from Sichuan Basin of China. Combining the methods of particle size analysis, microscope observation, scanning electron microscope, CT scanning, infrared spectroscopy and energy dispersive spectrum analysis, the multi-scale structure and composition characteristics of the yielded sand from different production periods were investigated. Results show that the sand size is the largest in the production test period and the smallest in the gas production period. The large-size sand is blocky in the flowback period, while it is flaky in the period of production test and gas production. The roundness of sand becomes worse as the sand size decreasing. Sand composition has the characteristics of fracturing proppant and shale mineral. Cementing material between large-size sands has the network structure and the higher content of aluminum and iron. Organic chemicals are found to be adhered to the sand surface in all three periods. Both shale fracture and proppant failure can generate particles that provide the material source for sand production. This research provides the source of the yielded sand and a theoretical guidance for the sand production mechanism.

Keywords: shale gas; sand production; multi-scale structure; composition; fracturing proppant (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: 2021
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/17/5588/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/17/5588/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:14:y:2021:i:17:p:5588-:d:630275

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().