Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
Abstract
Since the earliest fracturing treatments over 50 years ago, many
different materials have been used including sand, glass beads,
walnut hulls, and metal shot. Todays commonly used proppants
include various sands, resin-coated sands, intermediate strength
ceramics, and sintered bauxite, each employed for their ability to cost
effectively withstand the respective reservoir closure stress
environment. As the relative strength of the various materials
increases, so too have the respective particle densities, ranging from
2.65 g/cc for sands to 3.4 g/cc for the sintered bauxite. Unfortunately,
increasing particle density leads directly to increasing degree of
difficulty with proppant transport and a reduced propped fracture
volume for equal amounts of the respective proppant, reducing
fracture conductivity. Intuitively, one expects a lesser density
proppant would be easier to transport, allowing for reduced demands
on the fracturing fluids, and if it had sufficient strength, would
provide increased width, hence, enhanced fracture conductivity.
Previous efforts undertaken to employ lower density materials as
proppant have generally resulted in failure due to insufficient strength
to maintain fracture conductivity at even the lowest of closure
stresses (1,000 psi). Recent research on material properties has at last
led to the development of an ultra-lightweight material with particle
strength more than sufficient for most hydraulic fracturing
applications. The current ultra-lightweight proppants have apparent
specific gravitys of 1.25 and 1.75 g/cc. Laboratory tests will
demonstrate exceptional fracture conductivity at stresses to 8,000 psi.
This paper will present data illustrating the performance of the new
ultra-lightweight proppant over a broad range of conditions and a
discussion of relative performance in field applications.
Introduction
SPE 84308
Microphotography
Microphotographs of the ULW-1.25 are presented to illustrate the
porous structure of the walnut hull. As shown in Figure 3, there is a
high amount of pore space in the uncoated hull and the porosity is not
highly interconnected. A microphotograph of the coated hull is
shown in Figure 4. The resin can be seen to penetrate the pore space
and the crosslinked resin entangles within the structure of the hull to
increase overall particle strength2. Adhesion of the resin to the
cellulosic substrate depends on surface wetability, penetration,
reaction, polymerization, porosity, pH, moisture content, extractives,
chemical interactions, surface free energy and the surface area that
comes into contact with the resin2.
The ULW-1.75 relies upon air encapsulated within the porosity of
a ceramic substrate to achieve the desired ultra-lightweight
properties. The microphotograph, shown in Figure 5, demonstrates
the nominal penetration of the resin. The arrow identifies a particle
that has been completely penetrated by resin (note, the dye
penetration to the core). Once fluid penetration occurs, the specific
gravity increases to approximately 2.3 g/cc. The strength of the
ULW-1.75 rivals that seen in conventional ceramic proppants.
Figure 6 shows the ULW1.75 particle with a non-penetrating resin
coat. The resin chemistry and process are designed to remain on the
outer diameter of the particle with little to no penetration.
Sp.Gr.
3.65
3.15
2.73
2.65
2.55
1.75
1.25
SPE 84308
= [sec1 ] =
1.925q[ gpm]
(w[in.]) 2 ( H [ ft ]
v[m / sec] =
0.00815q[ gpm]
( w[in.])( H [ ft ])
Time,
minute
0
1
12
14
18
19
28
30
42
43
45
Fluid Rate
Prop Bed
Slot Shear Above
Gpm
Height (ft)
Sec-1
bed, sec-1
90
0.0
378
378
90
0.08
379
396
80
0.17
337
371
80
0.38
337
425
60.2
0.4
253
324
50
0.42
210
273
40
0.50
168
232
30.5
0.60
128
191
15
0.79
63
111
10
0.92
42
85
5
1.31
21
74
10.3
1.6
43
345
20.3
1.54
85
539
29.1
1.33
122
448
90.2
1.0
380
837
Table 3. Tabular results of the ULW1.25 slot Flow Test in
1 gpt slickwater.
All three of the tested materials (Ottawa sand, ULW1.25 and
ULW1.75) settle progressively more as the velocity decreases. Due to
the decreased density, the ULWs are easily placed back in flow as
the rate is increased. The reduced density materials require less shear
increase to fluidize the proppant bed. Ottawa sand was observed to
SPE 84308
Time,
minute
0
7
8
11
12
15
17
18
20
22
23
28
29
33
34
35
37
38
40
45
Fluid Rate
Prop Bed
Slot Shear
Gpm
Height
Sec-1
90
0.0
378
90
0.33
378
80
0.38
337
80
0.54
337
70
0.58
295
60
0.71
252
60
0.79
252
50
0.83
210
50.4
0.92
212
39
0.96
164
30
1
126
31
1.29
130
20
1.33
81
8
1.44
34
5.1
1.46
21
20
1.54
84
20.5
1.58
86
40.4
1.52
170
50.6
1.46
213
60.2
1.33
253
Tabular results of the ULW1.75 slot
Above
bed, sec-1
378
463
423
478
432
412
445
386
425
345
278
443
299
159
106
534
640
1006
1048
933
Flow Test
Conductivity
Md-ft
Permeability
Darcies
Width
Mm
1,000
6,257
385
4.95
2,000
3,337
249
4.06
4,000
1,492
125
3.63
6,000
528
59
2.74
Table 5. Conductivity and Permeability of 14/30 1.25 sp.gr. Ultralightweight Proppant at 150F and 1 pound per ft2.
Effective
Stress
Conductivity
Md-ft
Permeability
Darcies
Width
Mm
in slickwater.
1,000
5388
330
4.16
2,000
1926
143
3.55
4,000
994
99
2.79
6,000
445
50
2.5
Table 4.
SPE 84308
Effective
Stress
Conductivity
md-ft
Permeability
Darcies
Width
Mm
2,000
4,523
325
4.24
4,000
2926
249
3.58
6,000
1146
125
2.79
8,000
487
59
2.51
Well Performance
A field evaluation treatment incorporating 69,500 lbs of ULW-1.25
proppant in 195,000 Mgal of slickwater was executed. All aspects of
the operation were scrutinized to identify any operational issues such
as problems with conveyance, metering, blending, or monitoring. No
problematic issues were identified, and the treatment was
successfully placed as designed.
Case History
Well Data
Conclusions
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank BJ Services Company for permission
to publish this work. The authors would also like to express their
appreciation to Fritz Industries, Inc. and Carbo Ceramics Inc. for
their contributions to the successful development of these new
technologies.
Nomenclature
Lbf x 4.448
Kgf x 9.8
In x 2.54
F(F-32/1.8)
=N
=N
=cm
=C
SPE 84308
References
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
SPE 84308
Permeability, Darcies
1000
100
10
1
0
1000
2000
3000
4000
5000
6000
7000
8000
9000
Figure 1
Ottawa
Econoprop
A comparison of the permeability of the 1.75 specific gravity ultra-lightweight proppant vesus Econo prop and Ottawa.
Data at 1 lb/sqft.
Figure 2. Photograph showing the angularity of the 1.25 specific gravity ultra-lightweight proppant.
SPE 84308
Figure 3. Microphotograph of an uncoated ULW1.25 particle exhibiting the porous nature of the particle.
SPE 84308
Figure 5. Ceramic ULW1.75 particles after resin has penetrated the particle. Both density and strength are increased with the
resin penetration.
Figure 6.
Microphotograph of the Ceramic ULW1.75 particles. Resin is maitained on the surface with little to no penetration.
10
SPE 84308
SPE 84308
11
300
Break Point 29787 gf
Load (N)
250
200
150
100
Break Point 17298 gf
50
Break Point 11192 gf
0
0.00
0.10
0.20
0.30
0.40
0.50
0.60
0.70
0.80
0.90
1.00
Extention, (mm)
ULP1.25
Unreacted Hull
Resin 2
Figure 10. Results of Particle Strength Analysis of the base hull and the effects of two different resins on particle strength.
12
SPE 84308
25
Velocity, ft/minute
20
15
10
0
Bauxite
ISP
Carbolite
Ottawa
Sand
RCS
ULW1.75
ULW1.25
Proppant
14
12
10
0
0
10
11
12
Time, minutes
Ottawa
ULP 1.25
ULP 1.75
Figure 12. Graphic representation of the results of the first 12 minutes of the slot flow tests normalized for comparison.
SPE 84308
13
Figure 13. Mfrac graph of the propped width profiles for Ottawa sand placed in a slick water fracture stimulation at 80BPM.
Figure 14. Mfrac Graph of the propped width profile for ULW1.25 placed in a slickwater fracture stimulation at 80 BPM.. The lighter
density yeilds extra length. While the width is less the area covered is much greater.
14
SPE 84308
Figure 15. Mfrac Graph of the vertical width profile of the Ottawa slickwater fracture stimulation. Only the lower part of the zone has
any coverage.
Figure 16. Mfrac Graph of the vertical width profile of the ULW1.25 slickwater fracture stimulation. The entire zone is covered more
evenly with the ultralightweight particle.