EnerCorp Manages Largest Sand Producer In Company History in the Permian
The Problem
One of our clients was completing a well that had a 2-mile lateral and was expected to reach high production volumes quickly after opening.
This could be problematic for the operator if they didn’t use the right flowback equipment to manage the sand. If the high volumes of sand flowed into the production facility, the operator would see damage there — and would have to incur a lot of expenses as a result.
However, our customer felt comfortable flowing their well hard because they had full trust in EnerCorp’s sand management processes, technology, and people.
The Solution
To manage the sand and anticipated production volumes on this well, our application engineers designed a setup that included flowing through 3-inch iron, two Sahara Advanced Sand Cyclones, and a 3-inch manifold on each side of the wellhead, then back to the sales header and into the facility.
We opened the well on an aggressive choke schedule and the high volumes of sand started immediately. We captured 429,066 lbs of sand in the primary Sahara Sand Cyclone. In the secondary downstream Sahara, we captured just 2,165 lbs of sand, showing the efficacy of the equipment. Our highly engineered Sahara Advanced Cyclones had a sand capture rate of 99.5+% at this stage.
Between weeks two and six, the chokes were fully opened and the primary cyclones captured 1,288,598 lbs of sand, with the secondary Sahara capturing only 3,717 lbs of sand. The volume of sand was enormous and sand rates peaked at over 5,000 lbs of sand per hour. This capture rate of the primary Sahara over this interval was greater than 99.7%.
The Results
After 71 days, equipment was temporarily removed for artificial lift installation. Over the entire job, EnerCorp’s primary Sahara captured 1,541,558 lbs of sand and the secondary Sahara captured 6,968 lbs of sand. Our overall sand capture rate for this well was 99.6% — well above the industry average.
Our customer was incredibly pleased with the results, but they wanted to see with their own eyes how much sand carried over to the production facility. We opened up the production test separator and found just an estimated 175-200 lbs of sand — a tiny amount when compared to the amount of sand captured by the Saharas.
Through this well, EnerCorp is able to prove that the Sahara Advanced Sand Cyclone can handle over 5,000 lbs of sand per hour with only 2 operators per shift. This well is now the largest sand producer EnerCorp has ever managed in the Permian basin.
Do you have a well that is predicted to be a large sand producer? Don’t risk any damage to your production facility. Get in touch with EnerCorp today to learn how we can effectively manage the sand production from your well.
