Sea water compatible viscoelastic surfactant gels as an alternative to Linear and Crosslinked fracturing fluids

Summary The possibility of utilizing seawater in hydraulic fracturing operations can help preserve fresh water consumption. To address this challenge, a visco-elastic surfactant (VES) based seawater fracturing fluid has been formulated for a variety of fracturing applications and elevated reservoir temperatures. The rheological behavior of this fluid, the compatibility with reservoir fluids, and the relevance of common fracturing fluid additives were studied and presented. The resulting fluids showed superior fracture cleanup with stable rheology and controllable break profiles, non-scaling when mixed with formation brine, and no other adverse interactions that could potentially affect formation permeability when mixed with hydrocarbon in the reservoir.