Maximizing Fracture Conductivity with Proppant Partial Monolayers: Theoretical Curiosity or Highly Productive Reality?

Brannon, Harold; Malone, Mark R.; Rickards, Allan; Wood, W.D.; Edgeman, J. Randall; Bryant, Josh

doi:10.2118/90698-ms

Cited by 83 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…Hassebroek and Waters (1964) address the benefits of creating partial monolayer fractures in hydraulic fracturing. Using low-density proppants to create such partial monolayers has also been addressed previously Parker and Sanchez 2012;Rickards et al 2003;Brannon et al 2004), although such proppants have had very limited application.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Application of Micro-Proppant to Enhance Well Production in Unconventional Reservoirs: Laboratory and Field Results

Dahl

Nguyen

Dusterhoft

et al. 2015

SPE Western Regional Meeting

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As more wells are drilled and completed in tight, brittle formations, operators rely more on small-sized proppants to help ensure the created complex fractures are propped, and to maintain conductive flow paths for production. Most microfractures generated in the far-field away from the primary fracture branches are believed to return to a closed state soon after the release of hydraulic pressure, unless propping agent has been successfully placed inside such fractures. This paper presents the results of laboratory study, numerical modeling, and field trials, to demonstrate and quantify the effectiveness of a new treatment method for enhancing conductivity of microfractures and primary fractures formed in tight formations, thus helping improve well production.The approach involves using a micro-proppant (MP) and an aqueous-based surface modification agent (ASMA) as part of the pad fluid stage to treat fracture faces of microfractures and leakoff induced fractures before placement of larger-sized proppant into the primary fractures. This coating causes the proppant particulates to adhere to the created fracture faces by forming partial monolayer, thus mitigating settling and enhancing vertical distribution in the fractures. During experimental testing, various shale core samples were split along the core length to create artificial fracture faces. These fracture faces were then exposed to MP or proppant slurry treated with an ASMA, and were then reassembled for core flow testing under closure stress. An effective permeability comparison of the fractured cores, with and without ASMA treated MP or proppant, demonstrated a dramatic effective permeability increase in fractures of the treated cores.Field treatments involved injection of pad fluid containing a low concentration of MP, with and without treating with ASMA in offset wells, to treat the microfractures formed in the far-field regions. Proppant slurry of larger size particulates (100-mesh and larger) then followed to prop the primary fractures and their branches. Production from wells treated with MP have shown to provide significant improvement in terms of liquids production compared to the production of control wells. Reservoir simulation performed in this complex retrograde condensate reservoir supports this result, with sensitivity testing showing that increasing the connected fracture area enables the production of more hydrocarbon liquids at higher sustained production rates.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Application of Micro-Proppant to Enhance Well Production in Unconventional Reservoirs: Laboratory and Field Results

Dahl

Nguyen

Dusterhoft

et al. 2015

SPE Western Regional Meeting

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“…Nagel and Gallaire (2015) used a boundary element method (BEM) to solve the Brinkman model for a deformable droplet in a microfluidic flow in a narrow channel. The studied geometry can directly represent hydraulic fractures propped with large proppant grains (Alramahi & Sundberg, 2012;Brannon et al, 2004), or it can be a good approximation to fractures formed by reactive processes (Budek et al, 2017;Detwiler et al, 2003;Szymczak & Ladd, 2009). The Brinkman flow model can be viewed as combining the Stokes model, which governs the flow in pure fluid regions at the microscale, and the Darcy model, which describes the macroscopic flow in porous media.…”

Section: 1002/2017jb014509mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Effective Transmissivity of a Plane‐Walled Fracture With Circular Cylindrical Obstacles

Jasinski

Dąbrowski

2018

JGR Solid Earth

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Stimulated and propped fractures provide the conductive pathways in low matrix permeability rocks. We study the impact of fracture aperture and proppant size and fraction on the effective transmissivity of a stimulated fracture filled with a partial monolayer of proppant grains. The proppant grains are treated as circular cylindrical obstacles, and the fracture walls are planar. The key geometric parameters are the obstacle fraction f and the ratio between the fracture aperture and the obstacle diameter α. We use three‐dimensional Stokes flow numerical simulations to demonstrate that the fracture flow model given by the Reynolds equations may largely overestimate the flow rate. To circumvent the inability of the Reynolds model to fulfill the no‐slip boundary condition at the rims of the obstacles, we use the Brinkman flow model adapted to the case of fracture flow. The relative difference between the effective transmissivities computed with the Stokes and Brinkman models for systems with multiple obstacles is below 10% for fractions up to 0.5. We use the Brinkman model to study the effective transmissivity of a plane‐walled fracture with circular cylindrical obstacles. Systematic numerical simulations show that the normalized effective transmissivity is predominantly dependent on f and α, and the effects of obstacle ordering are minor. The presented numerical results can be used by petroleum engineers for estimating transmissivities of propped fractures under in situ conditions. The model can also be applied to microfluidic systems and for deriving first‐order estimates of the effective transmissivity of rough‐walled, natural fractures with load‐bearing contact areas.

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“…28 What's more, the density of traditional ULW proppant, such as resin coated and impregnated ground walnut hull and porous ceramic particle coated (not impregnated) by resins, 32,33 were 1.25 and 1.75 g/cm 3 , respectively. Thickening agents, such as guar gum were needed in the fracturing fluid by using conventional high-density hydraulic fracturing proppants, 34 which are contaminative and hard to be degraded. Compared with conventional high-density proppants, if the above composite microspheres could be used as ULW proppant in water fracturing, the damage caused by traditional hydraulic fracturing can be avoided and the fracturing cost will be reduced.…”

Section: The Densities Of Pmma/graphite Composite Microspheresmentioning

confidence: 99%

Preparation of heat resisting poly(methyl methacrylate)/graphite composite microspheres used as ultra‐lightweight proppants

Chen

Wang

Yan

et al. 2015

J of Applied Polymer Sci

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Ultra-lightweight heat resisting poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA)/graphite microspheres were successfully prepared via in situ suspension polymerization. The Fourier transform infrared and X-ray powder diffraction results confirmed the successful preparation of the composite microspheres. Field emission scanning electron microscope analysis illustrated that the graphite particles were dispersed in microspheres and the PMMA/graphite composite microspheres had good sphericity and roundness. Furthermore, density analysis indicated that the apparent density of composites microspheres was about 1.055-1.135g/cm 3 which was suitable for the transmission with water carrying. The results from thermodynamic test revealed that the thermal stability of the composite was significantly improved with increasing graphite content, which could be used as ultra-lightweight proppant in deep underground. In addition, the crushing rate decreased to 0.5% with graphite ratio of 3.0% at the pressure of 69 MPa. Therefore, PMMA/Graphite composite microspheres exhibit a promising application in petroleum or gas exploitation as water carrying fracturing proppants.

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Maximizing Fracture Conductivity with Proppant Partial Monolayers: Theoretical Curiosity or Highly Productive Reality?

Abstract: TX 75083-3836, U.S.A., fax 01-972-952-9435.Amongst the principal tenets of hydraulic fracturing design engineering is optimization of the conductive fracture area.

Cited by 83 publications

References 13 publications

Application of Micro-Proppant to Enhance Well Production in Unconventional Reservoirs: Laboratory and Field Results

Application of Micro-Proppant to Enhance Well Production in Unconventional Reservoirs: Laboratory and Field Results

The Effective Transmissivity of a Plane‐Walled Fracture With Circular Cylindrical Obstacles

Preparation of heat resisting poly(methyl methacrylate)/graphite composite microspheres used as ultra‐lightweight proppants

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