Through-tubing sand screens (TTSS) are used routinely by the operator to mitigate sand production in offshore wells. A smaller outer-diameter wire-wrap or premium mesh screen is retrofitted inside or set at the end of an existing tubing to filter sand ingress from a failed primary sand-control zone. Given the many recurring annual installations performed by the operator, a study was conducted on past TTSS installations to evaluate performance and develop a workflow with the aim of improving future installations.
TTSS Performance Analysis
One hundred and twenty-five TTSS installations have been made in offshore wells in eastern Malaysia since 2009. The remedial screens are installed in various types of completions. Parameters from these TTSS installations, including screen type, length, opening size, and installation depth were collected and analyzed against net service life in a crossplot to identify any correlations between the parameter and the installation performance.
Methodology. The following steps were used to conduct the TTSS performance analysis:
- Data were extracted from well-intervention histories and wellbore diagrams to determine installation and retrieval dates for each TTSS across eastern Malaysia.
