Effects of Viscous Fingering on Fracture Conductivity

Abstract

Summary Understanding the causes of damage to fracture conductivity is vital in design of fracture treatments for maximum economic value and to analyze the actual well performance. High-viscosity fluids, resulting from retention of polymer within the proppant pack during closure, play a major role in proppant-pack damage. Viscous fluids are not effectively displaced during flowback and production of hydrocarbon unless the viscosities of the phases are similar. The consequences of viscous fingering in the fracture are discussed, and a method is presented for predicting the retained permeability of proppant packs in which guar-based hydraulic fracturing fluids have been broken. Data required for the method are temperature, polymer molecular weight, and final polymer concentration.