Global Proppant Market worth $7 billion by 2017

Man-made ceramic materials, designed to keep an induced hydraulic fracture open,following a fracturing treatment typically treated sand known as proppant .Depending on the type of fracturing used,can be gel, foam or slick water based, proppant is added to a fracking fluid which may vary in composition. In addition, there may be unconventional fracking fluids. Fluids make tradeoffs in such material properties as viscosity, where more viscous fluids can carry more concentrated proppant. 

Hydraulic fracturing is propagation of fractures through layers of rock using pressurized fracturing fluid.To abate the difficult to recover extraction of resources from low permeability reservoirs such as shale gas, tight gas, and unconventional liquids through regular drilling procedures,instead,hydraulic fracturing is used.

Fracturing fluid is used in this process as it consists of water, proppant, chemical additives, and guar gum. Proppant is the most integral constituent of the fracturing fluid after water. Proppant material keeps the generated fractures propped open and helps continued oil and gas recovery.

Proppant Market Share, by Geography, 2012 – 2017

(Source: Secondary Research, Expert Interviews, MarketsandMarkets Analysis)

The global market for proppants is estimated at 24.4 million tons in 2012, and is expected to grow up to 43.8 million tons by 2017, at a CAGR of 12.4% from 2012 to 2017.

 (Source-http://www.carboceramics.com/proppant/)

Other types of proppants like sand or sand-based might be cheaper, but both engineering study and real oil and gas production experiences show that ceramic proppants provide higher and consistent oil and gas production rate due to their higher strength, uniformed sizes and shapes regardless in the shapes of reservoirs and their conditions. Ceramic Proppant grains with uniform size and shape has great advantage of providing maximum porosity for the oil and gas flow channel and allows more oil and gas flow the proppant pack. 

(Source-http://www.imexbb.com/ceramic-proppant-11008662.html)

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