Hydraulic fracturing is a commonly used practice in the oil industry for well stimulation and production enhancement. With the general theme of the oil and gas industry moving toward systems with nano-sized pores, nanoparticles have gained a significant amount of attention especially in the field of hydraulic fracturing. Several groups have developed different nanoparticle systems that improve hydraulic fracture conductivity. This paper is a review of the highlighted work published in the area of application of nanoparticles to improve fracture conductivity. Nanotechnology can be used to improve the efficiency of hydraulic fracturing process. Four major production challenges faced by the oil and gas industry including incomplete filter cake cleanup, proppant pack damage, formation damage, and having micro-fractures that are not packed with proppants and will close under closure stress are introduced in this work. Solutions have also been reported using the advances in nanotechnology to address some of these challenges.
Part of the book: Advances in Natural Gas Emerging Technologies