At just about any time during the course of recent history, in the "oil patch," there have been processes or "technologies" which for one reason or another did not fit the paradigm of the time, and in many cases were branded as radical, extreme, unwarranted or even dangerous, as they had not either been sufficiently developed or tested to everyone's satisfaction. In many cases, some were even considered "snake oil," as they seemed to work, but no one could say why, and in many cases the results were short-term or not at all. And so it goes, in the ever present struggle by producers to increase field productivity. So many possibilities, all of which would take a part of the profits from current production, while promising future increases. For many of these technologies, success and acceptability came from the acceptance of the process by some forward thinking, established service company which decided to invest in the process, and even to improve or develop it through genuine research projects, lack of such acceptance resulted in failure and obscurity. Such is the case even today, with many applications which can and in many cases do, improve productivity substantially, using unconventional or even unorthodox methodology. In all of the problems faced daily by producers, two of the major ones in the current market are: formation/perforation damage, and waxing and scaling. Formation/perforation damage which occurs to the formation from initial drilling and fluid invasion thereby reducing effective porosities and permeabilities, or damage which occurs from perforating, such as reduced core flow efficiencies, have always been problems, which have required many different approaches in as many situations. However there now appears to be a consistent application which can help. Historically, explosive stimulation has always been treated as one of those "snake oil" methods which worked in many cases, and not in just as many, with no real way of telling where it would or would not. In too many cases, not only did it not, but many times it also caused significant and irreversible damage in the process. Little Wonder in the Lack of Faith by the Industry In recent years, however, significant scientific investigation, and improvements both in the method and materials (low detonation velocity epoxies) have significantly increased the efficiency of propellant stimulation technology. More important still, the ability to model and simulate the stimulation technique have been developed and refined, and high speed impact resistant data recorders have been developed which can measure and record the event. By simulating the event and using precisely calculated amounts of propellant, and by analysing the data recorded, an effective, repeatable stimulation can be obtained. With this sort of control and predictability, many companies have decided to use propellant stimulation, in a variety of applications, rom heavy oil perf clean up and sand-arch collapse, to prefrac treatments of sandstones and carbonates, all with a good deal of success.