埃克森美孚公司透露，在二叠纪盆地使用强化版石油焦（石油焦）作为轻质支撑剂添加剂，至今已过去大约一年。

埃克森美孚报告称，与基准偏移相比，使用石油焦支撑剂处理的油井原油产量提高了 7% 至 20%，外部分析也支持这一说法。

尽管已公布的结果无疑是积极的，但这项技术发展对整个非常规油气行业发展方向的影响远未可知。这家总部位于休斯顿地区的石油公司明确表示，他们认为仅靠开采盆地内标准砂层不太可能实现致密油开采的下一个阶段。

十多年来，完井工程领域的一些专家一直在提出类似的观点，行业文献中也不乏关于轻质支撑剂（即比沙子轻）或微质支撑剂（即比沙子小）应用的案例研究。但如今，这一论点得到了二叠纪盆地最大运营商的认可，这引起了其他开发相关技术的公司的关注。

听到埃克森美孚取得成功的消息后感到高兴的人中，包括特种支撑剂供应商 Carbo Ceramics 的首席技术官兼 2024 年 SPE 主席 Terry Palisch。

“XXonMobil 将这场讨论从少数几家公司和少数专家提升到了中心位置，”他说。

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.