Control of sand in production gas wells (based on well tests and industrial operations)

The article is devoted to fundamentals of automation system, necessary for registration the mechanical impurities (sand) in gas producing wells.RVTF “KADET” VN1228, the solids carryover recording device, manufactured in the country, is described in the article; it is able to determine the occurrence of the sand in gas current and fractional change of sand quantity, taking into account the unit of time.
Сonclusions
The tests and technology operations, concerning the RVTF “KADET” VN1228, were carried out in twenty facilities of gas industry, they allows for the conclusion that:
• Clamp-on acoustic-emission system (KADET) for registration of sand production ingas wells was developed and is ready for industrial manufacturing and application, the system provides constant monitoring of the sand on a real-time basis.The system provides the real-time reacting on the solids in the production fluid,that helps to prevent of the equipment destruction and afford producibility of the given well.
• The system consists of recording devices and modules, managing radio net, flash logic controllers and acoustic simulators of sand recovery for performance monitoring of log route availability.
• The system is designed to be installed directly at the wellhead, it keeps readings in safety; the flow of sand (and its subsidence) can induce distortions in long flowlines and provides high accuracy and acceleration capacity in comparison with the similar system, designed at the end of the flowline.
• The design of the system components does not suppose assembly operations and hot works when carrying out the installation arrangement.
• The cartridge of the recording device is usually made in two modifications: self powered; radio channel on a frequency of 868 MHz, outsourced; computer gateway RS-485 (Modbus-RTU).
• Self powered system modules without any electric cables provides flexibility inapplication and serviceability of the system RVTF “KADET” and allows integrating into the Computer-Assisted Management and be incorporated of the wireless sensor network. The radio net allows controlling the recording deviceand reading the measurement results directly on-site, using a mobile work station.
• The problem of highlighting, concerned with the presence of sand in the gas stream and the difference from the incoherent data, caused by other interference units, is solved in the system "KADET".
• Tests showed that the dynamic properties and the location of the system allow registering the transient phenomenon in the sand ingress, which are caused by the minor modifications of the output.