Investigation on Coating Materials to Enhance Sand Proppant Performance for Sand Production Control

• Main Author: Rohaizreen Irdayu Binti Mohd Radzi, Rohaizreen Irdayu
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: Universiti Teknologi Petronas 2012
• Subjects: TC Hydraulic engineering. Ocean engineering
• Online Access: http://utpedia.utp.edu.my/3396/1/Dissertation__Rohaizreen_Irdayu_Bt_Mohd_Radzi_12436.pdf; http://utpedia.utp.edu.my/3396/

Disclosed herein is review/research for investigations on coating materials to enhance sand proppant properties exploiting local sand supply, reported methods of forming resin coated particulates and present invention provides sand production control using resin coated sands. The objectives of this project are to determine the desired behavior of local resin coated silica with desired mesh size of 40/70 sand particles as well as to investigate and analyze the characteristics and physical properties of the obtained sample of resin coated silica using different types of resin; Epikote628, Epoxy, Polyester and Vinyl Ester. This research has been done as a result of the extremely high well maintenance cost due to abrasive mechanical erosion of downhole equipment during operation by massive sand productions; meanwhile the limitation of natural sand and delivery period for current proppant are time consuming which cause a significant delay in oil/gas yield production. Likewise, current proppants application has met with limited success due to the reaction of the resin coating in the wellbore. For this particular project, the scope of study will widely covers but are certainly not limited to the investigation of coating material for sand proppant, its types and properties, even so include studies on local sand potential for sand proppant, coating methods, types of resin and its properties, testing for physical properties of the sample that will be obtained will be predetermined in this paper. Basically, background of study of the project covers the feasibility of the project – sufficient supply of local sand and resins, equipments needed/availability for sample(s) testing, potential of local sand to be commercialize. Findings trough research/review of books, journals, patented articles, web site, etc. are been inferred throughout this paper. The method is applying a coating including the continuous phase resin and nonreactive sand particles embedded or adhered to the continuous phase. The final finding is that vinylester resin shows the high potential characteristic of good resin for application.