Study of novel self-initiated aggregating proppant for channel fracturing

Abstract

Channel fracturing is a promising technique for unconventional reservoir stimulations. Fibers bonded proppants and resin coated proppants are the two common technologies used for heterogeneous proppant placement. This paper discusses a new kind of surface modified proppant with the unique performance of self-initiated aggregating property in distilled water and guar gum fracturing fluid, which is suitable for keeping proppant cluster together during transportation in the wellbore and fracture. The changes of the zeta potential of the proppant grains and the intertwining effect of the polymer coating account for the self-initiated aggregating property. An evaluation method for measuring the self-initiated aggregating strength of the proppant column was introduced, with which the aggregating speed and the aggregating perdurability were evaluated. Due to the re-aggregating property, the fracture conductivity was significantly improved, and the higher the closure stress, the more obvious the advantages. The findings of this study provide a new alternative for channel fracturing. [Received: November 4, 2016; Accepted: April 3, 2017]