Proppant is a solid material, basically known as sand or man made ceramic materials, it is designed in a such a way that it can keep an induced hydraulic fracture open, during or following fracturing treatment. Hence a proppant act as "propping agent"- which is how it got its name. when proppant particles settle out of the fracturing fluid which transported them to fracture, they form a network of wire or thread that allows liberated oil and gas to flow through it on the way to the wellbore. The most common types of proppants are grains of silica and sand (raw or resin coated) and man made ceramic material.
The choice of which proppant to use is depends on many factors. Proppants have to deal with high pressure and temperatures and fluid water, oil and gas. the classical proppant selection factors are size, shape, strength and density.
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Proppant Shapes
Proppants shape impacts the final permeability of the proppant network in fracture. A wide range of particle sizes and shapes results into tight packing arrangement, reducing conductivity. A narrow range of sizes and spherical shape will lead to a greater conductivity.
Proppants Strength and Density
According to the depth of fracture the proppants needs to be strong. Proppants strength is depends on roundness, sphericity, size and density.
Types of Proppants
There are some types of proppants as :
Silica Sand Proppants
Silica sand is composed of weathered quartz, the natural minerals in Earth's continental crust. Unlike common sand which feels grainy to the touch, silica sand feels smoother as a result of the round spherical shape of the individual sand grains and narrow particle-size distribution.
Ceramic Proppants
Ceramic proppants are evolved from either non metallurgical bauxite or kaolin clay to have relative high roundness, sphericity, and size that can with sand and very high levels of downhole pressure.
Resin coated ProppantsCoating a sand and ceramic proppant with resin serves several purposes as:
- To improve the proppant network effective strength by distributing the pressure load more uniformly.
- To trap pieces of proppant broken under the high downhole pressure, thus preventing the proppants from entering the borehole and compromising well productivity.
- To bond individual particles together when under the intense pressure and temperature of the fracture to minimize proppant flowback.
Hydraulic fracturing is used in the oil and gas industries to increase the flow of oil and gas from a well. The producing formation is a fracture open using hydraulic pressure and then proppants are pumped into the oil well with fracturing fluid to hold the fissures so that the natural gas or a crude oil can flow up the well. The proppant size, shape, and mechanical, strength influences the integrity of the newly created fractures, and therefore the flow of oil and gas out of the well.
Market Analysis
As the hydraulic fracturing market is mostly concentrated in North America, hence the demand of proppant is high in North America. Since the hydraulic market in North America is reaching its maturity level, the rest of the World's market is still in its starting phase. Therefore it has a remarkable growth in proppant manufacturing. Many countries like China, Russia, Brazil and India exports proppants to North America. The export from China to North America has significantly greater and it is growing with high speed.
According to Market research report By MarketsandMarkets, the global market for proppants is estimated at 24.4 million tons in 2012, and is expected to grow up to 43.8 million tons by 2017, at a CAGR of 12.4% from 2012 to 2017.
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