Open Access

ARTICLE

Impact of Proppant Embedding on Long-Term Fracture Conductivity and Shale Gas Production Decline

Junchen Liu¹, Feng Zhou¹, Xiaofeng Lu¹, Xiaojin Zhou², Xianjun He¹, Yurou Du³, Fuguo Xia¹, Junfu Zhang⁴, Weiyi Luo^4,*

1 Development Department, PetroChina Southwest Oil & Gasfield Company, Chengdu, 610000, China
2 PetroChina Southwest Oil & Gasfield Company, Chengdu, 610051, China
3 Shale Gas Research Institute, PetroChina Southwest Oil & Gasfield Company, Chengdu, 610056, China
4 State Key Laboratory of Oil and Gas Reservoir Geology and Exploitation, Southwest Petroleum University, Chengdu, 610500, China

* Corresponding Author: Weiyi Luo. Email:

(This article belongs to the Special Issue: Fluid and Thermal Dynamics in the Development of Unconventional Resources III)

Fluid Dynamics & Materials Processing 2025, 21(10), 2613-2628. https://doi.org/10.32604/fdmp.2025.069772

Received 30 June 2025; Accepted 28 September 2025; Issue published 30 October 2025

Abstract

In shale gas reservoir stimulation, proppants are essential for sustaining fracture conductivity. However, increasing closing stress causes proppants to embed into the rock matrix, leading to a progressive decline in fracture permeability and conductivity. Furthermore, rock creep contributes to long-term reductions in fracture performance. To elucidate the combined effects of proppant embedding and rock creep on sustained conductivity, this study conducted controlled experiments examining conductivity decay in propped fractures under varying closing stresses, explicitly accounting for both mechanisms. An embedded discrete fracture model was developed to simulate reservoir production under different conductivity decay scenarios, while evaluating the influence of proppant parameters on fracture performance. The results demonstrate that fracture conductivity diminishes rapidly with increasing stress, yet at 50 MPa, the decline becomes less pronounced. Simulated production profiles show strong agreement with actual gas well data, confirming the model’s accuracy and predictive capability. These findings suggest that employing a high proppant concentration with smaller particle size (5 kg/m², 70/140 mesh) is effective for maintaining long-term fracture conductivity and enhancing shale gas recovery. This study provides a rigorous framework for optimizing proppant selection and designing stimulation strategies that maximize reservoir performance over time.

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Keywords

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