Reliable Proppant Flowback Control for Low-Stress, Low-Temperature Reservoirs

Abstract

Abstract Proppant flowback within shallow wells, as with all wells, can be a significant problem in the oil and gas industry. Under the typical low stress and low temperature conditions found in shallow formations, many of the current products and processes to control flowback often fail or have only limited success. As such, improved or alternative technology and procedures are constantly being sought. One such technology is the development of a deformable proppant for use under low closure stress conditions. Numerous materials, having typically low Young's Moduli, have been screened and tested under laboratory conditions to evaluate their relative flowback control performance. As a result of this development process, reliable proppant flowback control under low closure stress and low temperature conditions has been obtained. Testing of this new ‘low stress’ (LS) deformable proppant, blended with typical fracturing sand, has shown 20 fold increases in flowrate and 10 fold increases in pressure drop are attainable without proppant pack failure, while still maintaining or in some cases increasing fracture conductivity. Furthermore, this ‘low stress’ (LS) deformable proppant has been applied in wells where other technology has previously been used with limited success. In a number of shallow reservoirs, the addition of this deformable proppant to proppant packs placed during fracturing treatments, has been observed to very effectively control proppant flowback under the conditions of low closure stress and low bottom hole temperature. In order to facilitate field application, new addition and monitoring procedures were developed to accomplish these successful fracturing operations.