PolarProp Application Histories

PolarProp is Santrols curable resin coated sand, designed for low temperature/low stress
wells for flow-back control, sand control and conductivity improvement. PolarProp can
be used in wells 16-80 oC, but if the bottom hole temperature is less than 36 oC, activators
is required for best performance. Due to its excellent multi-layer coating technology, it is
compatible with most of the fracturing liquids. PolarProp was widely used worldwide
since it was released in 2000, several case histories is following.

Flow-back Control in Canada

This application was part of a shallow gas development project near Brooks, Alberta,
Canada. The problem with their wells is that in these shallow wells (400-800m), the
closure stress is very low, so after the job there was up to 20% of proppant flowed back
to the wellbore, this dramatically reduce the production rate, wells have to be cleaned out
before put back to production, money has to be spent on the disposal of the flowbacked
proppant. Then the service company Trican Well Service Ltd and the operator Startech
Energy Incorporated were working together on the project to solve the flow back issues.
Eventually, about 130 wells were stimulated in Medicine Hat (MH) and Milk River (MR)
formation by using Resin Coated Proppant, Fiber Element and Surface-Modification
Agent for comparison.
Results showed that PolarProp is the most efficient flow back control technique. It
provide the best average productivity index associate with no wellbore cleaning and
proppant disposal cost. 2. Also, he use of proppant flowback control has the added
benefit of lessening the environmental impact of the project.

Flow-back and Sand Control in Western China

This project started in 2007, which is even before Santrol Yixings start-up. So we
shipped PolarProp from Santrols Mexico Plant to China. In 2008, Santrol Yixing started
to supply western oilfield, included Tuha, Keramay, Qinghai from PetroChina with both
PolarProp on sand and intermediate strength ceramic until today.
The problems with Western Oilfield in China are
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1) Oil production decline due to formation sand producing back and plugging
wellbore.
2) Attempts to remove produced sand and control sand production from wellbore
failed to be effective.
3) Utilized fibers in gravel pack treatment with no positive results.
4) Many pay zones were abandoned. Upper zones were opened and experienced the
same problems..
After communicating with Santrol in 2006, PetroChina Western Oilfield start their first
trial in 2007 by using 30-50% PolarProp to tail-in and it was succeeded to control the
formation sand and proppant flowback, so far the efficiency by using PolarProp is 90%
for the approximately 40 wells that they fractured. However, this is because they only use
30-50% RCP to tail-in, which sometimes is not sufficient for sand control, especially
when you have multi-fractures. We believe if they can 100% use PolarProp, the
efficiency will be better than 90%. The well conditions and performance is below,
Typical Well Data:
Depth
Permeability
Porosity %
Formation Type
Production Type
Oil Saturation
BHT
Closure Pressure
Treatment Design

1500 to 1600 m
75 to 110 md
25%
Unconsolidated Sandstone
Oil
60%
45 50 oC
25 - 40 Mpa
60% Uncoated ZG, tail-in with 40% ZG PolarProp

Production Before,
t
Yudong2-53
0.60
Yance6-4
2.66
Yan6-7
6.12
Yan603
3.62
Wen5-504
0.00
Wen5-512
0.14
Wen2-8c
3.53
Well #

Production After,
t
4.98
23.31
19.77
12.32
19.37
5.28
8.04

Fracturing Effective Time,

day
356
640
287
354
270
270
285

To summarize, PolarProp can effectively help to control proppant flowback and

formation sand. And most important is that it extends the well life by maintaining good
conductivity which is best character of using Resin Coated Proppant. Because the
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fracturing effective time in western China used to be 5-7 months, from the number above
it is found 9-12 months production is normal by using PolarProp.

Flow-back and Sand/Coal Powder Control in CBM, Shanxi, China

20/40 Polarprop has been successfully used by Far East Energy China for its Coal Bed
Methane (CBM) application since 2008. The well condition in the field is as following:

Well Vertical Depth: 500 800m (Declined well)

Bottom Hole Temperature: 30oC
Closure Stress: 2-4 MPa
Fracturing Fluid: Slick Water
Issues: Proppant Flowback and Coal Powder Sandout.
In early 2008, after reviewing the well conditions, Santrol suggested Far East Energy to
apply 20/40 Polarprop with Superset Activators all the way for the fracturing process to
stop proppant flowback and coal powder sandout problem for the first 3 wells trial. But
after considering the cost of the fracturing job, eventually Far East Energy chose to tail-in
20% of 20/40 Polarprop after pumping 80% of 40/70 Sand in the front for the total
proppant volume of 66,000lb. The shut-in time is 24hrs and the job was done in May,
2008. Then it showed big increase on the water production for 2 of the three wells, but
the third one didnt have big increase, inversely, some of the proppant flowed back and
the coal powder keep producing.
In April 2009, we met with the engineers from Far East Energy. We reviewed the past
jobs and focused on the future jobs this year. The resonation was achieved after analyzing
the geometry complexity of the CBM formation. Since the coal seam is full of micro
channels and cleats, the tail-in process can not make sure the raw frac sand stay in the end
of the fracture and the coated stay behind to stop it from flowing back. There is a huge
chance that the raw frac sand and the coated mixed together, or the raw stayed in one
small fracture and the coated stayed in another branch fracture. This is why there was still
flow back problem with the wells being fractured.
Then Santrol strongly recommended them to apply 100% 20/40 Polarprop for their new
jobs in late May. Also, the concentration of the Superset Activator was recommended to
reduce to 0.8% from 1%.
In May 2009, the three wells were fractured with 100% 20/40 Polarprop (858000lb per
well) plus 8% Superset C by the fluid volume. All these three wells were shut in for 24hrs
and huge water production increase was observed after opening the well. The wells are
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producing 1000-2000 m3/day gas now while wells operated by others in this area have
average production rate of 500-700 m3/day.
Overall, Santrols Polarprop is succeeded to be applied in different formations worldwide
for
1.
Stopping proppant flowback
2.
Stopping coal powder sandout
3.
Reducing water production time
4.
Improve proppant strength
5.
Sustaining well life
And Santrols best quality product and insistent technical service are the assurance of
different projects success.

Xintang Wang
Technical Support Manager, Asia
Byron Smith
V.P. of International Operation

2727 FM 521, FRESNO, TX 77545

281- 431- 0670 OFFICE
281- 710- 7934 FAX