Description
The science of hydraulic fracturing (HF) has long understood the impact of fracture conductivity on well success. As HF was applied to unconventional reservoir development, increasing contact area was deemed a first-order priority. While conductivity was still considered important, the downturn in the industry led many operators to replace premium (high conductivity) designs with large volume designs employing low quality (conductivity) proppant. These high contact area designs have now seen 2-3 years of production results that can now be analyzed and compared to higher conductivity designs.