EXPERIMENTAL EVALUATION AND APPLICATION OF NEW SIZE PROPPANT FOR UNCONVENTIONAL RESERVOIR FRACTURING

Due to the development of natural fractures and horizontal beddings in Sichuan Basin unconventional reservoir (such as Changning shale, Qiulin tight sandstone), the wideness of fractures are various, the filtration loss of slickwater is increased, and the sand carrying capacity is reduced. Some wells are faced with the problems of large particle size proppant sand plugging risk and low conductivity of small particle size proppant. Therefore, it is urgent to explore a kind of new size proppant suitable for shale gas and tight gas with classification of different wideness of fractures. Based on the investigation of the present situation of proppant used for shale gas fracturing inner China and worldwide, the 50/100 mesh new size proppant in Changning block is completed by carrying out the experimental research on the physical properties, proppant embedding, proppant transport rule in fracture, long-term conductivity and short-term conductivity of different new size proppant and standard particle size proppant. From 2018 to 2020, 50/100 mesh new size proppant has been applied in more than 120 wells in Changning block. Field construction and later production data show that new size proppant can effectively reduce the construction difficulty and meet the production demand of Changning block. The feasibility evaluation method and research results of new size proppant enrich the particle size types of shale gas volume fracturing proppant, and provide strong experimental support tor the material optimization of shale gas backlogging fracturing well and the demand of complex fracture network classification support.