To continue to treat multiple clusters in longer laterals effectively, even for stages near the toe, a robust friction-reducer (FR) system typically is required to overcome pipe friction. Additionally, using a single FR system throughout the entire treatment that can tolerate various water sources of varying salinity up to 300,000 ppm is imperative. This paper discusses the field trials of a new salt-tolerant FR system in the Marcellus Shale.
Introduction
FRs are used to enable high-rate pumping of water while maintaining lower treating pressures in both slickwater fracturing and coiled-tubing stimulation applications. Typically, the performance of conventional acrylamide/acrylic acid copolymer or partially hydrolyzed polyacrylamide-based FRs diminishes as the dissolved-ion content of the source water increases and can be dependent on both the type and the concentration of ions present in the source water.
