ROC-FRA9: Anionic pure water based dispersion high TDS friction reducer. No surfactants, no mineral oil. Excellent for sensitive or emulsion prone formations/water. Can be pumped with any pump.
ROC-FRA3: Anionic jack of all trades slurried friction reducer, builds 5 cP at 3 gpt in API brine at 511-1 and 26 cP in fresh. Excellent light to medium brine FR and very econonomical.
ROC-FRA4: Anionic HVFR slurried friction reducer, builds 6 cP at 3 gpt in API brine at 511-1 and 38 cP in fresh. Excellent light to medium brine FR.
ROC-FRA7: Anionic HVFR slurried friction reducer, builds 70 cP at 3 gpt in fresh water at 511-1 and is an excellent fresh water friction reducer.
ROC-FRA10: Anionic high TDS dispersion friction reducer, this is the best anionic on the market and can be run in 240 k TDS at 0.4 gpt. Can be pumped with any pump.
ROC-FRA2: Cationic HVFR slurried friction reducer, builds 8 cP at 3 gpt in 240k TDS at 511-1 and 13 cP in fresh. Best in class peak friction reduction.
ROC-FR5.3: Anionic EPAM with great friction reduction and sub $5/gal to the wellhead cost.
In the friction reducer landscape there are EPAMS (Emulsified Polyacrylamides), Slurried Friction Reducers and Dry Friction Reducers. EPAMs are cheap and cheerful but are horribly inefficient in terms of active content. The activity levels for the most common products are in the 20% range. Dry Friction Reducers are the ultimate form of efficiency but are a nightmare to handle and are a poor choice for HVFR applications due the limitations of a hydro. Slurried Friction reducers are a compromise on both products. They are not as high active as dry but are cheap logistically and have a small footprint on lease. They are also naturally suited to HVFR applications as the particles are wetted out already and disperse nicely before hydrating.
EPAMs are the friend of the service company. They are low active, cheap, easy to pump and perform well in low to moderate brines. They are expensive logistically as most of them have low activity. The challenge with EPAMs is you are moving a lot of water and mineral oil and surfactants for a very low polymer loading. So for every 1000 lbs of product you are moving 220 lbs of polymer. This is further reduced by the fact you have to invert the polymer in order for it to work. You will never get 100% inversion and some products are so bad you get maybe 40% inversion in the first 5 minutes. As the price pressure continues in this market the surfactant packages and polymer loadings are all getting dialled down.
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Slurries have a bad name because most people in North America can’t build a good guar slurry let alone friction reducer slurry. We have seen slurries separate in days, have horrible pour points, poor consistency etc. We encourage you to request a sample of any of our products so you can visually see what a proper slurry should look like. We also have the ability to make either a completely surfactant and clay free slurry or a completely oil and surfactant free slurry. If you are experiencing emulsion issues in your flowback this may be a potential solution. Slurries are clearly most efficient at the higher active ranges. We typically run 5 lb./gallon slurries but can go as high as 5.84 lb./gallon. The bulk density of the powders are only 6.26 so we are at 93% volumetric efficiency on our products. For service companies that insist on using circumfrential piston pumps (Waukeshaus) we can make a 3.76 lb. slurry that they can use any pump with. Slurries are also fantastic in HVFR applications as you can use very fast hydrating powders that will not function in dry add units. Yes thats correct, the hydration unit is the limiting factor in how good a powder you can use. We will be happy to supply you with a powder that will completely destroy your average hydro as it will hydrate so quickly that the hydro will turn into a hockey puck. High active slurries need to be pumped with either gear pumps, progressive cavity pumps or air diaphragm pumps to be pumped without issue. They also need clean lines, no 90 degree bends and in an HVFR application a 1” ported Coriolis meter.
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Dry is the most efficient as its the polymer in its highest active form. However, it requires an expensive hydro that is prone to failure, makes a complete mess on location, and does not like cold weather. We get most of our work from people that tried dry and had major issues. We then setup the service companies with the proper equipment to be successful pumping slurries. Advantages:
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