They'll work out a sustained flowrate (10-20 mmcfd??) once the...

They'll work out a sustained flowrate (10-20 mmcfd??) once the gas is bypassed thro' the Desander unit, so a choked back flow is what I think should transpire once they get a better grip on the situation. Just look up the spec sheet for a 62020 Desander (ie known nozzle inlet, pressure rating, outflw etc).

Also a lot of data on the sand grain size distribution, pressure differential & best choke size etc will b collated to get a better picture going fwd.
Key thing is to suss out the threshold limit of lbs of sands that r coming up per mmcf of gas (eg: 0.1 lbs/mmcf etc etc).

Ultra-high gas flowrate wells worldwide (and some big bore's in the NWshlf) have had to deal with this issue, so as to establish minimal damage to surface equipment & downtime with Sand control etc. The JV r better off in knowing about the issues that may crop up later during Development including mitigation etc. Isn't the first time 'fines' have been produced and it wont b the last, unknown of course is how much sand comes up during flow, enough to build a sand castle for l'l johnny??