New International Standards for Proppant Testing
Authors: Penny Glenn S. 
Published: February 2015

Over the past several years, the Intl. Standards Organization (ISO) and the American Petroleum Inst. (API) have been working to revise inter-national standards for proppant testing. The two ISO committees drafting standards for the petroleum industry are Technical Committee 28—Petroleum Products and Lubricants and Technical Committee 67—Materials, Equipment, and Offshore Structures for the Petroleum and Natural Gas Industry. Subcommittees are examining standards in drilling fluids, cementing, and completion fluids and materials.

The first task of the fluids group was to rewrite API Recommended Practice 39, which was published in 2000 as ISO 13503-1 and API 13 M and titled Procedures for Measuring the Viscosity of Completion Fluids. The group, chaired by Mahmoud Asadi of Core Laboratories, is also writing standards for fluid-leakoff measurements, regained permeability tests, and friction tests. The second task has been to review API recommended practices for proppant materials. Three proppant subgroups have been set up to work on specific areas including quality-control testing procedures for proppants, proppant specifications, and proppant-conductivity testing. The work groups are well represented internationally, with participation from Brazil, China, France, Indonesia, Italy, Norway, The Netherlands, Poland, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Membership includes oil and gas producers, service companies, and proppant suppliers.

Updating Recommended Practices

API recommended practices for testing proppants were last published in 1995. A subgroup, chaired by Sara Joyce of Badger Mining, began reviewing the practices in 1998, and a committee draft was approved in 2000 that combined the API recommended practice documents into a single standard for testing proppant agents and gravel-pack materials. The work now has progressed to the draft international standard stage. The final draft will be circulated for voting in early 2006 with publication later in the year. Another subgroup, chaired by Mark Ziegler of Unimin Corp., is preparing a draft and conducting tests to set specifications for propping agents and gravel-pack materials. This draft will be circulated for voting as a draft international standard in 2006, with publication scheduled for 2007.

In 2003, a third subgroup was formed to write procedures for measuring the long-term conductivity of proppant packs, chaired by Phil Kaufman of BJ Services. A committee draft was submitted in 2004 and is intended to replace RP 61, Recommended Practices for Evaluating Short-Term Proppant Pack Conductivity, published in 1989. A dozen facilities worldwide currently are running long-term conductivity tests without a standard procedure. The subgroup decided not to review and rewrite short-term conductivity procedures but instead to standardize procedures for measuring long-term conductivity. Recent advances in technology have been incorporated into these procedures to increase the accuracy of results and to standardize equipment. The conductivity document has progressed to draft international standard voting. After the comments are considered, the document will be submitted as a final draft for voting by early 2006, and it is scheduled for publication in 2007.