lightweight proppant, in particular, embed deeply into soft shale formations.

Uncoated proppants and precured resin coated silica sand often deeply embed into softer formations due to the increased single point loading between the proppant grain and the soft fracture face. This leads to reduced fracture width and lower fracture flow capacity.
lightweight proppant, in particular, embed deeply into soft shale formations. An additional issue with proppant embedment is the spalling of formation fines which can migrate and cause additional loss of fracture conductivity. With curable resin coated proppants, instead of just single grain point loading, there are multiple grains bonded together. This lattice network of deformable surfaces provided by the curable resin coating has shown to reduce embedment by redistributing stresses on the proppant pack within the fracture.