A brief introduction about the proppant

Concept
Fracturing  stimulation of oil and gas wells in low permeability oil and gas production is an important new technology. Proppant (proppant) is a key material fracturing. Proppant and supported by the fracturing fluid into the formation of cracks in fracturing, thereby effectively imported oil and gas wells, a substantial increase oil and gas production and extend well life.
Structural performance
proppanthaving a certain size and grade distribution of natural sand or synthetic high-strength ceramic particles. Ceramic proppant to bauxite as raw material by powder granulation, sintering, high temperature, high pressure resistance, corrosion resistance, high strength, high conductivity, low density, low broken rate, etc. , the most widely used. In the resin-coated sand or ceramic surfaces, can further improve the strength and diversion proppant properties.

History
Proppant used mainly in the early natural quartz sand, and also experimented with walnut shells, aluminum balls, glass balls and plastic ball. With oil exploration and development technology continues to progress, the development of more and more deep, natural quartz sand at high pressure and high temperature closed, high salinity formation water conditions, the compressive strength and flow capacity can not meet the  fracturing  stimulation needs. In the mid-1970s, developed the strength and hardness than the higher quartz sand artificial ceramic proppant, and formed a series of different strength ceramic proppant products can basically meet the different requirements of formations on the proppant.
At home and abroad mainly use natural and artificial quartz sand are two types of ceramic proppant. How to select and use various types of proppant performance need to be evaluated and matched with the application of reservoir studies and economic analysis, so that the choice of proppant and fracture conductivity optimized to meet the most economical fracturing design needs.