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fracture conductivity. The inclusion of the effects of all Statistical variation in proppant data
identifiable damage mechanisms is necessary to economically The choice of one proppant over another should be based on
optimize any stimulation design. an expectation of measurable difference in their performance
or cost. To quantify the difference in performance among
A short note on permeability materials it is necessary to understand the expected variations
The permeability of a porous medium, specifically a proppant in performance of one material under as close to identical
pack, is of critical importance in optimizing fracture packing and stress history conditions as possible. Data used in
performance. To understand proppant pack conductivity it is this study were obtained in cells packed according to
first necessary to understand the nature of permeability. procedures set forth in API-RP61.4 The recommended
Darcy’s original work was conducted on unconsolidated procedure states that the pack should be leveled with a blade
sand packs. His experiments showed that, at least over the and not vibrated or tamped. Stim-Lab has amassed a large
range of conditions he studied, there was a linear relationship amount of data on many proppant types and sizes, under these
between imposed potential gradient and volumetric flow rate.3 standardized test conditions, that can be used to estimate the
Details of local velocity distribution within the pack, actual statistical variation in both width and permeability.
flow-path length, and path geometry were not considered.
Instead “superficial” velocity and overall sample area and Variation in pack width
length were used to describe the flow. Numerous measurements of pack width versus stress have
Darcy designated the linear constant of proportionality (k) been conducted on many proppant types and sizes with the
as the system permeability. Since that time many people have same proppant loading (pounds of proppant per square foot)
stated that permeability is an intrinsic material property, when and stress ramp. Data from a representative series of tests is
it is actually an experimental proportionality constant that shown in Figure 1 for 2#/ft2 16/30 white sand.
describes the overall (statistical) performance of a particular
experiment where the porous medium, fluid, and flow White Sand (16/30) 2#/ft2
conditions are fixed. The description of the porous medium
includes its grain size distribution, packing arrangement, and 0.250
other factors. 0.240
An examination of Darcy’s contrived units of permeability 0.230
(cp-cm2/atm-sec) shows that the constant, k, is used to
Pack Width, inches
0.220
the tests shown above is presented in Table 1. These data proppant pack consisting of 5 #/ft2 intermediate-strength
indicate that a variation in expected pack width of less than ceramic.
2% is expected under ideal packing conditions. Loss of width to embedment is difficult to quantify and
Data for 20/40 mesh white sand is presented in Figure 2 cannot be observed without disassembly of the proppant pack.
and Table 2. Similar data sets have been analyzed for many It affects both available flow width, hence internal fluid
other proppant types and sizes. When the tests are conducted velocity in the pack, and conductivity. Its effects are
under ideal conditions by the same laboratory using the same sometimes accounted for as a decrease in permeability and
packing techniques the typical standard deviation is less than sometimes as a change in pack width. The way internal width
2% of the mean value for a set of measurements. Including losses are handled can significantly affect velocity-dependent
data from other laboratories increases the maximum expected (non-Darcy) conductivity estimates.
standard deviation to 5% of mean. In general proppant pack The figure also illustrates a second source of effective
width should be predictable to within 5% for any specified pack-width loss that is less readily apparent from outside
concentration as long as the pack is relatively consolidated. measurements: the width loss from spalling of the formation
into the proppant pack. Spalling is essentially the extrusion of
White Sand (20/40) 2#/ft2
formation material into the proppant pack. The formation
material is usually crushed formation grains or fines generated
0.250 by the embedment process as the harder proppant grains are
0.240 forced into the fracture wall.
0.230
Pack Width, inches
0.220
0.210
0.200
0.190
0.180
0.170
0.160
0.150
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000 8000 9000
Closure Stress, psi
mm) in the pack. The concentrated gel can extrude to a depth 100
of more than 4 grain diameters into the pack from each wall. 90
Under the worst-case conditions the concentrated gel cake can
fill a 2 lb/ft2 proppant pack.
80
% Regained Permeability
once it has come to rest, and may develop a substantial yield- 60
4#/ft2 Pack
point that resists flow. This makes displacement of the gel by 50
section. This results in decreased conductivity and increased 0.01 0.1 1 10 100
flow velocity in the available pore channels. Effective Reynold's Number, rho*v/mu
As with formation spalling, width losses to gel filer-cake Figure 6: Variation in cleanup in different concentration packs
extrusion are internal losses and cannot be easily quantified caused by filter-cake
from external pack-width measurements. The impact on
conductivity damage and the manner in which it is One problem with the interpretation of these results is that
apportioned between pack width and permeability damage is the actual flow velocity, hence the effective pseudo-Reynolds
not reported in any standardized way. Specific measurements number is not known since the open channel width is
have been made to determine the effects of gel filter-cake on indeterminate. During clean-up the actual flow width changes
cleanup and proppant pack conductivity. These tests show that as filter-cake is eroded or displaced. The lab data can only be
the presence of a filter-cake has a much more significant based on an apparent (external) pack width and superficial
impact on the conductivity of a narrow (low concentration) velocity. Note that the combined effects of filter-cake and gel
pack than on a thicker (high concentration) pack. Given the residue can account for conductivity damage ranging from
same overall regained permeability in the portion of the pack about 20% up to a factor of 10 or more. In extreme cases,
actually available for flow, this observation is consistent with where the entire pack is filled with filter-cake material, the
a decrease in effective flow width inside the pack. conductivity can be completely eliminated.
Data from a series of cleanup tests in 1, 2, and 4# lb/ft2
proppant packs using the same fluid and proppant is shown in Non-Darcy flow effects
Figure 6. In these tests a dynamic filer-cake was first The same difficulty in accounting for superficial versus
deposited in a fixed-width cell. The proppant slurry was then interstitial velocity occurs when dealing with non-Darcy flow
placed in the conditioned cell and the closure stress increased effects in a fracture containing gel residue, filter-cake, and
with continuous leakoff until the cell was closed on the possibly multiple flowing phases. Non-Darcy flow is usually
proppant pack. The closure stress was then ramped at represented by the Forchheimer equation.
consistent rate to the test conditions. Regained pack
permeability to 2% KCl brine was then measured at a series of dP µv
= + βρ v 2 ……………………………………(1)
increasing flow rates. In general the removal of gel damage
and filter-cake can be correlated to the pack effective, or dL k
pseudo-Reynolds number (Rep) established during clean-up.
The correlating parameter is termed a pseudo-Reynolds Darcy’s Law predicts a linear relation between pressure
number because the term ρv/µ is not a dimensionless group. A gradient and flow rate. At high flow rates a deviation from
true Reynolds number requires the inclusion of a characteristic linearity is commonly observed and a second-order term is
length in the numerator. invoked to account for the non-linearity. In Forchheimer’s
The data points on the plot show the actual measured equation, the first term represents the Darcy linear pressure
regained permeability compared to a clean pack with no gel gradient in terms of superficial velocity (v), fluid viscosity (µ),
residue. The lines are generated by a model of the cleanup and the inverse of permeability (k). The second term
process that accounts for the presence of gel filter-cake represents the deviation from linearity caused by inertial
through a reduction of pack width that is independent of the losses as flowing fluid expands and contracts while moving
reduction in bulk permeability. Both the filter-cake and the from pore throats to pore bodies and back again. The non-
dispersed bulk gel residue are assumed to clean-up as a linear pressure gradient is expressed as a function of fluid
function of increasing Rep. Clean-up rates for the two damage density (ρ), the square of the superficial velocity, and a
mechanisms are different. The amount of damage from the constant (β). As with the Darcy permeability, the constant β is
two mechanisms is a strong function of pack width, given the a contrived proportionality constant with units of atm-sec2/g.
same filter-cake and gel residue in the same proppant. The Note that, as with the definition of permeability, the constant
conductivity multiplier resulting from regained permeability is contains the gravitational acceleration and accounts for
given by Frp and the factor for filter-cake loss is Ffc. conversion of mass to force, among other things.
The primary difficulty in estimating the effect of non-
Darcy flow is that only the superficial velocity, as defined by
6 SPE 84306
the external pack width, can be estimated from the volumetric 0.005
flow rate. The impact on interstitial velocity of internal pack- 0.0045
width changes caused by gel filter-cake and spalling, along
0.004
with areal variations in flow, caused by gel residue and
0.0035
saturation profiles, cannot be readily determined. Instead, the
0.07
0.06 (Fnd) which is the ratio of the total pressure gradient to the
0.05
Darcy pressure gradient. Detailed numerical modeling of the
fg=0.988 flow profile along the length of the fracture shows that the
0.04
fg=0.994
appropriate superficial velocity for use in equation (2) is about
0.03 2/3 of the velocity at the fracture-wellbore interface. This
0.02 adjustment accounts for the decrease in velocity toward the tip
0.01 of the fracture as overall volumetric rate decreases.
0
fg=1.0
It is interesting to note that the non-Darcy pressure-drop
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 multiplier, Fnd, is 1+Re where the term βk serves as the
Pseudo Reynold's Number, ρ v / µ apparent characteristic length in the dimensionless group, as
Figure 7: Forchheimer plot for various gas fractional flows suggested by Jones.8,9 Application of typical values for the
terms in Fnd shows that the ratio of the total pressure drop to
The data clearly shows decreasing effective gas the Darcy pressure drop can range from 1.0 to as high as 15 or
permeability and increasing β as gas fractional flow decreases. more under normal field conditions.
The first result is the expected impact of two-phase relative
permeability. The second result implies that the presence of Multiphase flow and relative permeability
the water in the pore system changes both the velocity Under virtually all realistic field conditions, the proppant
distribution and the interconnected pore system in which the pack contains more than one fluid phase, whether there is only
phases flow. one mobile phase or several. The proppant is placed in a
Plotting the slopes of each curve against their respective fracturing fluid that may be aqueous or oil-based. This fluid
gas fractional flow values generates an empirical correlation always leaves a residual saturation behind, determined by the
of β with fg. Because of the limited data available, it is not relative-permeability and capillary pressure curves for the
clear whether this correlation is general, but it provides insight specific proppant pack. Additional liquids may be produced
into one possible impact of saturation on the internal flow from the reservoir as mobile phases or through condensation
dynamics of a proppant pack. in the proppant pack, or even in the wellbore. Wellbore fluids
can be introduced into the proppant pack during shut-in
periods or when the well rate falls below the loading rate for
the tubular configuration.
SPE 84306 7
from 0.9 to 1.0. The data in the plot show that a 10%
0.6 volumetric liquid flow can cut proppant pack conductivity by
0.5 a factor of 20.
0.4
krw
0.3 1
krg
0.2
Effective Conductivity Multiplier
0.1
0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
Gas Saturation 0.1
caused by a change in the average pore size of the medium. saturation). The bulk of the fracture height retains a water
This causes a discontinuity in the pressure gradient of the saturation of about 55% while the bottom few feet of the
wetting phase that must be dissipated by a buildup of fracture remain almost completely water saturated. Super-
saturation at the boundary. The increased wetting phase imposing the gas-water relative permeability relationship on
saturation, and associated gradient away from the boundary, is this saturation distribution clearly shows that the gas flow
called the capillary end-effect. The impact of the high wetting distribution will be non-uniform across the height of the
phase saturation and its generation is described by several fracture. The expected gas relative permeability may approach
authors.11-13 While these end-effects are usually only 75% in the top few feet of the fracture, yet stay as low as 25%
considered important in laboratory systems, they are important over 80% of the fracture height. The saturation and resulting
in any cases where capillary forces are large and pressure velocity profile will lead to a distribution of non-Darcy effects
gradients are small. Holditch noted that the combination of across the fracture height and can make any accurate estimate
relative permeability and capillary forces in a low of overall effective conductivity difficult.
permeability reservoir system, with small pore-size The behavior of the water saturation distribution along the
distribution, can result in a severe reduction in post-frac fracture face during this clean-up period is also interesting to
deliverability.14 The tendency for tight, water-wet reservoirs to observe. During the first week of gas flow the water saturation
hold high water saturation along the fracture face, resulting in along the face of the fracture drops from nearly 100% to about
zero effective gas permeability over a large part of the created 70%. The saturation distribution along the height of the
fracture surface area, may be a noteworthy source of damage fracture is effectively constant. Some of the water contained in
to post-frac production in some cases. this invaded zone around the fracture is produced. A
A similar study to that presented by Holditch was significant amount of the water is imbibed further back into
conducted for this paper using a multiphase 3-D numerical the reservoir, although this water flow direction is counter-
reservoir simulator, including the effects of gravity and current to production. The spontaneous imbibition of water
capillary forces with a discontinuity at the fracture-formation results in an increase in water saturation from about 40% to
face. Representative relative permeability and capillary more than 50% in the reservoir 2-5 feet from the fracture face.
pressure curves were used for the reservoir and proppant pack. This counter-current imbibition can only occur when the
The model was used to predict gas and water saturation capillary forces pulling water into the matrix exceed the
distributions in and around the fracture during cleanup. The viscous forces driving the water into the fracture.
model was initialized by injecting water into the fracture and
surrounding reservoir, then putting the well on production. Impact of reservoir deliverability
In many cases the conductivity of a proppant pack has been
70 described in the absence of the effect of reservoir behavior.
The preceding review of the impact of various mechanisms on
60 proppant pack conductivity shows clearly that it is not possible
to fully separate reservoir deliverability from proppant
50 Initial performance. It is the reservoir deliverability, including
Fracture Height, feet
Day 1
40
Day 2 transmissibility (kh/µ), available drawdown and saturation
Day 3
Day 4 state that determines the rate of flow of each phase in the
30
Day 5
Day 6
fracture, hence the velocity and density of the fluid stream.
This sets the value of the pseudo-Reynolds number at any time
20 during fracture cleanup and production, and controls the
relationship of viscous to gravity and capillary gradients.
10
The available pseudo-Reynolds number controls the
0
degree of fracture clean-up, both for bulk gel residue
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 displacement and filer-cake removal. For these mechanisms a
Water Saturation, fraction large value of Rep improves clean-up and conductivity. At the
Figure 11: Vertical water saturation distribution in a fracture same time a large value of Rep causes an increase in non-Darcy
during clean-up pressure drop, resulting in a drop in effective conductivity.
Balancing these competing factors requires knowledge of the
Figure 11 shows the computed water saturation
dominant fracture damage mechanism. In some cases the
distribution for a point approximately mid-way along the
composition and characteristics of the fracturing fluid impact
length of the fracture from the wellbore to the frac tip. The
the stimulation efficiency as much (or more) than the choice
various curves show the progression of desaturation as a
of proppant.
function of producing time. In this case the fracture was filled
The impact of reservoir deliverability and clean-up rate
with water (1 cp) assuming no polymer residue, filter-cake, or
makes establishment of high conductivity very difficult in a
residual gel viscosity. The saturation profile curves reach a
low permeability or depleted reservoir. It also points out why
near-equilibrium state after about one week of production and
the same fluid and proppant combination can perform very
the saturation distribution becomes static.
differently in different wells.
The model results show a tendency for some gravity
segregation within the fracture. The water saturation in the top
15 feet of the fracture decreases to 40-50% (50-60% gas
SPE 84306 9
Gel yield-point and critical FCD the gel mass. If the available pressure differential at some
The combined effect of all the damage mechanisms discussed point along the fracture length is too small, the gel mass
up to this point results in an adjusted proppant pack remains as a solid plug and cannot be displaced. The
permeability and effective pack width. Together these remaining fracture length, from that point to the propped
parameters determine the effective proppant pack fracture tip, remains gel-plugged and unavailable for flow.
conductivity, kfwf. To characterize the performance of the The pseudo yield-point, or minimum pressure gradient to
fracture in a specific reservoir, the relative flow capacity of the initiate flow, is difficult to measure in the laboratory. Ideally
fracture must be compared to the flow capacity of the the test should be done under slowly varying shear stress, until
formation. The relative conductivity of the fracture and flow begins. Current procedures give a maximum observed
formation can be described by the dimensionless fracture flow pressure drop at a constant low flow rate. The values obtained
capacity, FCD, given by equation (5). by these two measurements are different, but the initiation
pressure obtained from the constant-rate test can be correlated
k f wf to gel “stiffness” and can be used to describe yield-point
FCD = ………………………………………(5) behavior.
kXf This effect can be empirically represented using a fluid-
dependent model input parameter, FCDcrit. The input value
specifies the minimum dimensionless flow capacity (FCD)
In general, an FCD of 30 and above is taken to represent that will effectively clean-up and contribute to production. The
an infinite conductivity fracture, where the effective length is smaller FCDcrit becomes the more fracture length will
equal to the physically propped length. For any value of FCD contribute to flow and the longer the effective half-length will
the infinite conductivity half-length can be determined from be.
equation (6) or the plot in Figure 12. The equation presented This concept is illustrated in Figure 13. With increasing
here is based on data originally published by Prats and Cinco- distance from the wellbore the fracture conductivity, kfwf,
Ley.15,16 It has been adapted to give a consistent representation decreases as the fluid velocity in the fracture drops. The
of effective fracture half-length compared to created or decrease in velocity also causes a decrease in the local
propped half-length. pressure gradient available to displace gel. The computed
incremental value of FCD depends on both the conductivity
X eff 1 and the overall flow length, which also increases with distance
= …………......…....(6)
X created
(
1 + FCD
1 .7
)
−1.01 from the well. These combined factors cause a rapid decline in
apparent FCD with length, as shown in the figure. When FCD
drops below the critical FCD for clean-up, the remaining
fracture length remains gel-plugged.
1
Effective Length Ratio,
0.1
Xfeff /Xfcreated
0.01
0.001
0.01 0.1 1 10 100 1000
Fracture Conductivity, FCD
WHP
forecasting for an arbitrary shape, rectangular, bounded 5000
Rate-3000 WHP
reservoir with a damaged hydraulic fracture. The effects of
4000
closure stress, embedment, spalling, filter-cake deposition and
erosion, bulk gel damage, multiphase flow, and non-Darcy 3000
flow are accounted for.
Because of the impact of fracture conductivity on well 2000
material costs and generated discounted cash-flow Figure 15: Observed and modeled post-frac production rates
from production.
The correlations used to drive predictions of conductivity The model was run for two cases of WHP, 3000 psi and
versus stress, multiphase flow, non-Darcy flow, and clean-up 1000 psi, while the actual well produced for the first 70 days
are based on more than 15 years of laboratory measurements with a variable wellhead pressure. In Figure 15 the red line is
conducted by the Stim-Lab proppant consortium. The model is the actual WHP over the producing time and the magenta
available to members of the consortium. squares are the actual well flow rate. The dark blue line is the
model predicted flow rate assuming a constant WHP of 1000
Field application: Predicted post-frac performance psi and the dashed light-blue line is the calculated well rate for
An example of predicting post-frac production by accounting 3000 psi WHP. In general the model accurately matches the
for all damage mechanisms is shown in the following field observed flow rate.
example. The well is a tight-gas producer with an initial Even with a created fracture half length of almost 1500
reservoir pressure of 10,700 psi. Production analysis indicates feet, using an average concentration of 1.3 lb/ft2, the model
an average reservoir permeability of 0.069 md for a net pay matches the performance with an effective infinite-
thickness of 18 feet. The zone was hydraulically fractured conductivity fracture half-length of 140 feet. While the
with 300,000 lbs of high-strength 20/40-mesh ceramic undamaged “baseline” conductivity of this proppant was
proppant and a zirconate crosslinked premium-grade calculated to be almost 2000 md-ft, the effective conductivity
fracturing fluid. A post-frac history match of the job using a after accounting for all damage mechanisms in this simulation
planar 3-dimensional fracture geometry model showed good was less than 60 md-ft, giving an FCD of 0.578. The overall
height containment and a very long created length (about 1500 final conductivity is computed from equation (8), where the
SPE 84306 11
values of kf and wf are first adjusted for the effects of closure consortium for their support in the development of this
stress, embedment, and spalling. Equation (6) gives an technology. We would also like to acknowledge Marathon Oil
infinite-conductivity effective length of 377 feet, ignoring the Company for the contribution to the numerical simulation of
impact of gel tip-plugging. The correction for gel plugging, multiphase flow. Many model cases were run to provide
from equation (7) further reduces the apparent length to insight into gravity and capillary effects which could not be
140 feet. included here.