Proppant backproduction during hydraulic fracturing -- A new failure mechanism for resin-coated proppants
Journal Article
·
· JPT, Journal of Petroleum Technology; (United States)
- STIM-LAB Inc., Duncan, OK (United States)
Backproduction of proppant from hydraulically fractured wells, particularly those completed in the northern European Rotliegend formation, is a major operational problem, necessitating costly and manpower-intensive surface-handling procedures. Further, the development of unmanned platform operations offshore, required in today's economic climate, is impossible as long as this problem remains unsolved. The most cost-effective potential solution to this problem is provided by curable resin-coated proppant (RCP), which consolidates in the fracture. Early field trials with RCP's, however, were not completely effective in stopping the backproduction of proppant. Typically, some 10% of the total volume of RCP placed in the fracture was backproduced. The authors performed a laboratory study to help clarify the effect of curing temperature, water production rate, proppant size, and stress cycling on the integrity of RCP packs. The experiments confirmed the field experience that stress cycling has a dramatic effect on proppant backproduction of commercial RCP packs. The number of applied stress cycles (i.e., the number of times the well is shut in) and the initial RCP pack strength appear to be the dominant factors that govern proppant backproduction. Dedicated experiments are therefore required to evaluate the use of RCP's to eliminate proppant backproduction for a particular field application.
- OSTI ID:
- 6933923
- Journal Information:
- JPT, Journal of Petroleum Technology; (United States), Journal Name: JPT, Journal of Petroleum Technology; (United States) Vol. 46:10; ISSN 0149-2136; ISSN JPTJAM
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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