Description
The industry has trended toward maximizing completion efficiency while attempting to reduce cost as unconventional basins become more mature. One of the most significant levers to pull to accomplish this is the proppant, in particular its size and type. A study of the performance of proppants in four shales basins was performed in 2020 and published in SPE 199751. The study concluded that in all but one basin studied, regional/in-basin sand yielded a higher NPV than premium white sand. Today there is a growing interest in reducing cost even further, which has focused once again on the proppant. This time the reductions come in the form of wet or unwashed sand. Wet sand is partially dried after sieving and washed to remove fines, and unwashed is as its name implies. This trend has introduced the potential for an increase in turbidity, a measure of the amount of fines present in the sand, which could have an impact on conductivity. In this presentation, data will be presented that addresses the effects of an increase in turbidity on conductivity.
