World Oil: Proppant-sized solid inhibitors improve flow assurance in fraced wells

The economic value of a hydraulically fractured well is highly dependent upon flow assurance—that is, maintaining unimpeded flow of hydrocarbons from the formation to the surface. Flow assurance issues occur in hydraulically fractured wells, as a result of the deposition and buildup of naturally occurring particulates that are present in the system during hydrocarbon production.

Scale is one of several threats to flow assurance in these wells. Other threats include paraffin, asphaltene and gas hydrates. The severity of each threat varies by area, reservoir and system. The most prolific problems, which are seen often in systems producing high volumes of both water and oil, are scale and paraffin deposition. A well that is plagued by production interruptions caused by deposition of any of these substances loses considerable value, because of the cost of both remedial operations and lost or deferred production.