The Backbone of Hydraulic Fracturing

The proppant samples pictured to the right may look simple, but they are the backbone of all hydraulic fracturing treatments. Without proppants to keep the fractures open, the conductive pathways generated during the treatment would simply close. Every engineer, technician, or consultant who has ever designed a fracturing treatment has an opinion on proppant selection and distribution, but all agree that it is necessary. Proppant is classified into several different categories based on material, coating, size, and density.

Once proppant has been chosen, it is mixed into a fluid, usually water thickened with guar or a guar derivative, a crosslinker; and the suspended proppant is pumped downhole and into the newly generated fractures. The proppant laden fluid contains internal breaker that will cause the fluid to "break," or return to the original non-viscose state. Once the fluid breaks and the proppant is deposited, the fluid may be flowed back out of the now-propped fractures without bringing the proppant with it.

A rapidly growing number of fracture treatments today use only water, small proppant and drag reducing chemicals.  Ely and Associates has been on the forefront of design and implementation of this type of treatment which functions radically different from conventional viscous fluids.  Ely’s utilization of the “Waterfrac Sweep” process has found success in both conventional and unconventional reservoirs throughout the world.

Developing New Techniques Every Day

Hydraulic fracturing has come a very long way since the days of pumping war surplus napalm downhole. The oilfield has changed from an industry that borrows technology from other disciplines into one that creates new techniques and tools on nearly a daily basis. Necessity is the mother of invention, and hydraulic fracturing owes its popularity to need rather than fashion. Much of the low hanging fruit has been plucked in the majority of oil reservoirs all over the world. The Source Rock Shale presently being developed are just another example of how technology has allowed for economic production of reserves previously thought non-recoverable.