Patents Assigned to Sandia Coporation
  • Patent number: 8931553
    Abstract: Electrically conductive proppants and methods for detecting, locating, and characterizing same are provided. The electrically conductive proppant can include a substantially uniform coating of an electrically conductive material having a thickness of at least 500 nm. The method can include injecting a hydraulic fluid into a wellbore extending into a subterranean formation at a rate and pressure sufficient to open a fracture therein, injecting into the fracture a fluid containing the electrically conductive proppant, electrically energizing the earth at or near the fracture, and measuring three dimensional (x, y, and z) components of electric and magnetic field responses at a surface of the earth or in an adjacent wellbore.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 3, 2014
    Date of Patent: January 13, 2015
    Assignees: CARBO Ceramics Inc., Sandia Coporation
    Inventors: Chad Cannan, Lewis Bartel, Terrence Palisch, David Aldridge