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Electrically conductive proppant and methods for detecting, locating and characterizing the electrically conductive proppant

Patent ·
OSTI ID:1860022

Electrically conductive proppants and methods for detecting, locating, and characterizing same are provided. The electrically conductive proppant can include a substantially uniform coating of an electrically conductive material having a thickness of at least 500 nm. The method can include injecting a hydraulic fluid into a wellbore extending into a subterranean formation at a rate and pressure sufficient to open a fracture therein, injecting into the fracture a fluid containing the electrically conductive proppant, electrically energizing the earth at or near the fracture, and measuring three dimensional (x, y, and z) components of electric and magnetic field responses at a surface of the earth or in an adjacent wellbore.

Research Organization:
Sandia National Laboratories (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Carbo Ceramics Inc., Houston, TX (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
Assignee:
Carbo Ceramics Inc. (Houston, TX); Sandia Corporation (Albuquerque, NM)
Patent Number(s):
11,162,022
Application Number:
16/747,650
OSTI ID:
1860022
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (3)

Use of Potential Gradients in Massive Hydraulic Fracture Mapping and Characterization conference April 2013
Applications of EM holographic methods to borehole vertical electric source data to map a fuel oil spill conference January 1993
Tomographic imaging of electrical conductivity using low‐frequency electromagnetic fields conference January 1992