Overview of fracturing proppants

The success of the shale gas revolution in America largely depended on the breakthrough in the key technologies of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing. Because of this, America's energy crisis was greatly relieved. With more and more people focusing on the exploration of shale gas and tight oil, the novel technologies on how to choose, calxy or transport fracturing proppants catch more and more attention. Three common kinds of traditional proppants (sands, ceramics and resin-coated sands) as well as the novel fracturing types (self-suspending, ultra-high-strength, ultra-light-weight and novel rod-shaped proppants) were reviewed. The future potential applications are explored and the analysis could be valuable for researchers and engineers to exploit unconventional oil and gas reservoirs in China. High-property, multi-function, mini-size and smart modification are predicted to be the primary development tread for proppants.