It’s been about a year since ExxonMobil revealed that it was using an enhanced version of petroleum coke (petcoke) as a lightweight proppant additive in the Permian Basin.
ExxonMobil reports between 7 and 20% uplift in crude production from wells treated with petcoke proppant compared with baseline offsets, and outside analyses support the claims.
Though the reported results have been undeniably positive, the impact that this technological development will have on the direction of the wider unconventional business is far from certain. What the Houston-area-based oil company has made clear is that it believes reaching the next rung of tight-oil recovery is unlikely to come from pumping standard in-basin sand alone.
Some in the completions engineering space have been making a similar case for more than a decade, and there’s no shortage of case studies on either lightweight proppant (i.e., lighter than sand) or microproppant (i.e., smaller than sand) deployments to be found in industry literature. But the argument now carries the weight of an endorsement from the largest operator in the Permian—and this has not gone unnoticed among the companies developing competing technologies.
Among those pleased to hear of ExxonMobil’s success is Terry Palisch, chief technology officer of specialty proppant supplier Carbo Ceramics and the 2024 SPE President.
“ExxonMobil has elevated this discussion from a few companies and a few experts to the front and center,” he said.
