Paper: Compatibility of Curable Resin-Coated Proppants with Breakers in Crosslinked Fracturing Fluids

Curable resin-coated proppant (RCF") is used in hydraulic fracturing treatments primarily as a means of preventing or reducing proppant flowback during post-frac clean-up and production. The RCP is generally placed in the fracture with water based crosslinked fluids. In order to effectively remove these viscous fluids which are detrimental to fracture conductivity from the proppant pack, it is necessary for a reduction in the fluid's viscosity to occur. This reduction in viscosity, or breaking, may occur either (1) thermally (2) with the addition of enzyme breakers! or (3) with the addition of oxidizing breakers, depending on the fluid used and the bottom hole temperature of the well. Laboratory studies to determine the effects of various commercially available curable RCP's on breaking of commonly used fracturing fluids are presented in this paper. Fluids studied include linear, as well as borate and transition metal crosslinked guar and hydroxypropyl guar. The chemical breakers studied include an enzyme, an oxidizer. and an oxidizer used in conjunction with a free radical initiator. Additionally, the effects of these various chemical breakers on the compressive strength development of the consolidated proppant pack is investigated.