... ( Gillard et al. 2010 , Johnson et al. 2011 ) demonstrated that the proppant pillars can work as bridge piers that prevent the fracture face from closing and create highly conductive flow channels between the proppant pillars. As a result, the proppant pack's intrinsic conductivity no longer dominates...

... Similarly, to conventional treatments, a pumping schedule for a proppant pillar type of fracture comprises a pad stage to create the fracture followed by proppant-laden stages. Therefore, the key difference between pumping schedules for the pillar-propped fracturing and conventional fracturing...