Back to results
US 10,241,225 B2Granted
Plastic frack tracer
AssigneeConocoPhillips Company
InventorsPeter M. Eick, Joel D. Brewer
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Novel proppants, proppant mixes and proppant slurries comprising a diamagnetic polymeric proppant that exhibits induced paramagnetism in an AC field is used to prop hydraulic fractures, and the paramagnetism used to assess fracture width, depth, connectivity, branching and the like. Fracturing methods are also provided, together with fracture assessment and imaging methods.
Claims9
A method of assessing hydraulic fracturing in a reservoir, said method comprising:
- a) injecting a fracturing fluid into a reservoir at a pressure sufficient to fracture said reservoir producing fractures;
- b) injecting a proppant into said fractures, said proppant comprising a polymeric material that becomes paramagnetic when exposed to an alternating current (AC) field;
- c) applying an AC magnetic field to said fractures to induce paramagnetism in said proppants, wherein the power and frequency of the AC field is varied;
- d) detecting said induced paramagnetism to assess said fractures;
- and
- e) generating a 3D map of said fractures is prepared based on said detected paramagnetism;
- wherein a core sample of said reservoir is obtained after step b, and wherein applying step c and detecting step d are performed on said core sample.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.