Innospec Oilfield Services

Slick-water fracturing is a proven, viable completion process in unconventional reservoirs. The trend is now to build-in more efficiency and reduce recovery costs based on improving completion designs, using inferior proppants and water quality compensated by the frac chemicals. One component of the frac under tremendous scrutiny is the friction reducer, requiring better performance at lower costs. The standard for better performance varies depending on the operator, meaning the product should reduce treating pressure, enable higher treating rates, or carry more proppant. Consequently, the number of different friction reducers has grown exponentially over the last few years to include invert emulsions, suspensions, dry FR powders, and our patented powder- emulsion suspensions, all to improve efficiency and reduce the cost per barrel of treated fluid.

At our core, we are an applications-oriented chemical company primed to bring new innovations to the market. Although we don’t make friction reducers, as leaders in surfactant and polymer chemistries, we make them better, by matching customer completion challenges, regardless of difficulty or complexity, with affordable, “fit-for-purpose”, viable solutions.

As a result, Innospec Oilfield Services focuses on the relationships between polymer chemistry, impact of ionic strength, hydration volume, viscosity, and fluid elasticity to release the newest its innovation to hydraulic fracturing.

AquaBourne is a new High Efficiency Friction Reducer (HEFR) designed with enhanced application robustness to meet the operator’s many objectives. The new water-based slurry is composed of an anionic polyacrylamide and it provides excellent dispersion when added to frac water, providing rapid hydration in fresh as well as moderate to high TDS brine waters. The fast activation in the treating fluid is attributed to the product’s aqueous carrier fluid. So, unlike oil-laden emulsions and suspensions, AquaBourne does not require the shedding of an oil layer prior to hydration. Consequently, the performance reviles the dry FR performance without need of any special handling equipment or personnel on location that can cause loss-time events.

For more information, www.AquaBourneFR.com

Removing damaging and dangerous H₂S during gas production regularly involves the use of triazine scavenging compounds that are deployed via costly and complex bubble towers, amine plants and other standardized technologies. These traditional approaches to removing H₂S normally demand substantial capital investment and long-term planning not to mention costly.

Enjoy significant scavenging improvements and savings vs. such traditional scavenging methods.
Coupled with our H₂S scavenger compounds, the breakthrough technology behind our static mixer means it is not only more effective than such traditional methods of H₂S scavenging such as simple triazine atomization, but it is more compact, safe and cost-efficient as well. With its advanced technology, field-proven capabilities, elevated safety standards and ease of installation, the static mixer is the industry’s answer to the challenge of removing dangerous and damaging H₂S gases quickly and effectively—and all at a fraction of previous costs.

Advantages:

• Low initial set-up investment
• No deposition unlike bubble towers
• Cuts scavenger chemical usage up to 50%
• ASME code-stamped
• No moving parts to maintain
• Compact and lightweight
• Available in a range of pressure ratings (250, 740 or 1440 psi)

Hybrid fracs in unconventional reservoirs are a proven necessity in some formations that require larger sand concentrations than is provided by slickwater, alone. Unfortunately, conventional loadings of guar gum at 15 to 25 ppt cause extensive damage to the formation and the proppant pack. 

In 2014, Innospec Oilfield Services (OFS) introduced the VisLink Fluid System composed of ultra-low loadings of guar gum and crosslinked with a patent pending oil-based borate crosslinker, VisLink™ 200. Our VisLink systems provide approximately a two-minute delay before the fluid thickens. The fluid is designed to carry higher loadings of proppant along the lateral, across the perforations and then thermally thin to continue building fracture complexity rather than generating bi-wing fractures.  

Although several companies offer ultra-low polymer crosslinked gels, they utilize borate surface crosslinkers which tends to shear-out early in the pipe and do not heal, a detriment the VisLink fluids do not suffer.  In 2021, Innospec introduced a second generation VisLink crosslinker which functions as a conventional borate crosslinker for higher loadings of guar when necessary, but its mainstay applications are ultra-low loadings of gel.  Suitable viscosity will occur with FANN 35 base gel viscosities as low as 3.5 cP at 511 sec-1. Typical loadings will range from 0.75 to 2.0 gpt with the buffered alkalinity ranging from pH 9.5 to 10.5. Also, any conventional breaker will work with the VisLink 300 crosslinked fluid.