High molecular weight polyacrylamide-based copolymers are widely used in water-based fluids for fracturing of unconventional wells. This fracturing treatment also called “slickwater fracturing” utilizes large volume of water at high pumping rates to fracture the formation and transport the proppant into the fracture. Slickwater fracturing has gained considerable attention and popularity in the past couple of decades due to a series of benefits it offers, including simple operation, reduced damage to formation due to lower amount of polymer, cost savings, etc.<br/><br/>Friction reducers used in slickwater fluid will suffer high shear when it flows through pipeline at high injection rate. Incorporation of an efficient and robust friction reducer to the base fluid is critical in order to reduce friction losses, which will lead to a significant reduction of horsepower required for the pumping thereby reducing cost. However, most commercially available friction reducer products show dropped performance, in terms of friction reduction rate and viscosity, when salinity of base fluid increases. This reduction in performance of friction reducers in salt water limits the utilization of seawater or produced water as base fluid for fracturing job. Development of a new friction reducer package with better salt tolerance is required in order to reduce freshwater usage and increase use of seawater or water with high salt contents.<br/><br/>This talk will focus on the development of high viscosity friction reducer with improved salt tolerance for slickwater fracturing of unconventional wells. The following aspects will be covered in the talk: 1. Friction reduction mechanism and friction reducer chemistry; 2. Performance evaluation of commercially available high viscosity friction reducer products; 3. Design, synthesis and characterization of new high viscosity friction reducers with improved tolerance to high salinity fracturing fluids. The newly synthesized friction reducer showed well-maintained viscosity in synthetic seawater vs. in fresh water, which would be critical for maintaining the proppant transportation capability of fracturing fluid. Meanwhile, it also led to high friction reduction rate in both fresh water and synthetic seawater.

High viscosity friction reducer for slickwater fracturing

ACS Fall 2020 Virtual Meeting

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