Paper: RELATING THE PHYSICAL PROPERTIES OF FRACTURING SLURRIES TO THE MINIMUM FLOW VELOCITY REQUIRED FOR PROPPANT TRANSPORT

Optimization of effective fracture area is among the principal tenets of fracturing design engineering. It is well understood that effective fracture area is a first order driver for well productivity, and that optimization of effective fracture area is often critical to economic exploitation of reservoir assets. Extensive testing in a large-scale slot apparatus was conducted to evaluate the relative effects of various component and treatment parameters on the proppant transport capability of various slurry compositions. The acquired data were utilized to determine the minimum horizontal slurry velocities necessary for proppant transport using the respective slurry compositions. An