The Propellant Stimulation and Hydraulic Fracturing

Abstract

The Propellant Stimulation is applied to increase the permeability of rocks; a certain quantity of explosive material is donated at the bottom of the well opposite the producing layer, which causes many cracks in the near well area. A good Propellant Stimulation process must consider the explosive material quality and quantity, and the explosion should be prevented from vertically spread so all its energy will be used to crack the rocks. The first part of this chapter explains all the above in addition to the directed explosions and its calculation in an easy way.
In the second part, I explained the Hydraulic Fracturing of the reservoir rocks in details, from principal elements of the process passing through cracking fluids, proppants, preparing the wells and ending with evaluating the effectiveness and discussing the methods of hydraulic fracturing. Hydraulic fracturing is the process of pumping fluid into a wellbore at an injection rate that is too high for the formation to accept without breaking. During injection the resistance to flow in the formation increases, the pressure in the wellbore increases to a value called the break-down pressure, that is the sum of the in-situ compressive stress and the strength of the formation. Once the formation “breaks down,” a fracture is formed, and the injected fluid flows through it.