Hydraulic fracturing is a well established technique for stimulating low permeability formations and for bypassing damage in moderate permeability formations. It is now being applied to high permeability formations (k > 10 mdl to increase production and control formation fines. Fluid selections for these treatments range from typical gravel pack fluids to typical hydraulic fracturing fluids. To determine guidelines for fluid selection, detailed measurements, of fluid loss, core damage, and fracture conductivity were performed under realistic fracturing conditions on cores with liquid permeabilities ranging from 10 md to 1000 md. The bulk of the data presented is on Berea Sandstone ranging from 200 md to 400 md. Results of these tests indicate the relative effectiveness of these treatment fluids for fracturing high permeability formations based on fluid loss, formation permeability damage, and fracture conductivity.Treatment and production simulations are provided stressing the difference in performance between systems.

No abstract