Abstract

Proppant flowback after hydraulic fracturing treatment is quite a serious challenge that causes damage to both downhole and surface equipment, leading to unwanted workovers and production suspension, or other negative outcomes. Some special methods including preventive as well as corrective measures already exist in the industry to overcome the proppant flowback problems. However, there is no clear guidance on how to choose the method for certain conditions, particularly during the hydraulic fracturing design stages. Therefore, the authors conducted a comprehensive review of fourteen preventive technologies to systematize them and to propose an initial decision-making approach. The following methods were considered in this paper: Resin Coated Proppants (RCP), RCP with Activator, RCP with Nanoparticles, Proppant with Liquid Resin Systems (LRS), Proppant with Surface Modification Agents (SMA), Proppant with Proppant Consolidation Aid (PCA), Cylindrical Proppant, Microfibers, Thermoset Resin Fibers, Thermoset Film Strips, Deformable Isometric Particles (DIP), Expandable Proppants, Polymer Surface Modified Proppants, and In-situ Formulated Proppants. The review reveals physical, chemical, and technological properties of each method to select criteria for effective screening. So, the reader could find the appropriate proppant flowback mitigation method corresponding to a particular reservoir and the well conditions during the initial hydraulic fracturing design stages.

Highlights

  • Hydraulic fracturing treatments are widely considered to be a good way to produce hydrocarbons from a majority of fields

  • The reader could find the appropriate proppant flowback mitigation method corresponding to a particular reservoir and the well conditions during the initial hydraulic fracturing design stages

  • A challenging problem which arises in hydraulic fracturing domain is proppant flowback during a well’s life after the treatment

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Summary

Introduction

Hydraulic fracturing treatments are widely considered to be a good way to produce hydrocarbons from a majority of fields. This is especially valid for low and ultra-low permeability reservoirs, tight oil, shale gas, mature fields and other unconventional reservoirs (Bomgardner 2011; Istayev et al, 2019). Sands, ceramics, resin coated sands or ceramics, as well as bauxites are used as proppants. A challenging problem which arises in hydraulic fracturing domain is proppant flowback during a well’s life after the treatment. Proppant flowback results in many field problems, all leading to well production decline, and some of them are listed below (Nguyen et al, 2003; 2013):

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