Quantifying regain conductivity in proppant packs using broken Na-CMC fracture fluid

Results from the experiments showed that there was a significant regain in conductivity in the use for broken CMC fracture fluid when compared with HPG. CMC showed a regain fracture conductivity of about 96% while HPG showed a regain fracture conductivity of about 75.6%. The result indicated that HPG produced higher residue which blocked the pore spaces in the proppant pack and thereby causing more damage and reducing fracture conductivity. CMC on the other hand produced less damage and residue in proppant pack, therefore excellent regain fracture conductivity was achieved. The SEM image experiments performed on proppants samples showed evidence of residue from the broken HPG fluid blocking the pores. After flushing with water, there were still significant amount of residue adhering to the proppant particles. However, SEM images containing CMC fluid showed fewer residues and less adhesion of residue fragments to the proppant particles after flushing with water. The result from this research work was found to be very rich because of the way we matched/compare the SEM result with the regain fracture conductivity test. This comparative process was able to validate the reason why there was excellent regain fracture conductivity in use of CMC fracture fluid.