Guar gum— a white powder derived from guar beans—is widely used to recover oil and gas rom geological formations. Hydraulic fracturing is also known as fracture stimulation, is a technique used to enhance the extraction of oil and natural gas trapped deep within the earth’s crust, especially in shale rock formations.

Grown and harvested primarily in India and Pakistan, the guar plant’s beans are de-husked, milled and screened into a powder that quickly converts water into a thickening gel. It has been cultivated for centuries in these countries and surrounding regions as an agent to thicken sauces in various recipes. It is also used in processed foods such as ice cream and ketchup.

In the Oil and Gas Industry, guar gum has been adopted for use by Petrochemical companies for its thickening properties. These properties are used in drilling applications where high viscosity water is needed to extract oil and natural gas from shale rock formations. A large amount of guar slurry is needed by drilling companies for each stage of the hydraulic fracturing process.

The demand for guar gum has now shifted the agriculture of guar. Although 80% of the world’s guar supply has been historically grown in India and Pakistan, farmers in Oklahoma, Texas, and a number of other states have now begun planting guar crops to meet the high demand.

Guar gum is used o thicken water that is pumped down to subsurface rock formations that are impermeable to fluids. Adding guar gum increases the fluids’ viscosity and greatly increases the efficiency of high pressure pumping and the fracturing process.

Guar gum is one of the important substances used during the oil extraction process in an oilfield. Normally two types of guar gum or guar gum powder are available for use – food grade or edible form of guar gum which is used as a food additive and the industrial grade guar gum powder which is widely employed in various industrial applications like paper, textiles, batteries, explosives, mining and many more. The industrial grade guar gum and its derivatives find the best applications in oilfield processes.