Abstract As more wells are drilled and completed in tight formations, operators rely more on small-sized proppants to help ensure the created complex fractures are propped and to maintain conductive flow paths for production. Most microfractures generated in the far-field away from the main fracture branches are believed to return to a closed state soon after the release of hydraulic pressure, unless propping agent has been successfully placed inside such fractures. This paper presents the results of a laboratory study and field trials to demonstrate and quantify the effectiveness of a new treatment method for enhancing conductivity of microfractures and primary fractures formed in tight formations, and thus helping to improve well production. The approach involves using a microproppant and an aqueous-based surface modification agent (ASMA) as part of the pad fluid stage to treat the fracture faces of microfractures and leak off induced fractures before placement of larger-sized proppant into the primary fractures. This coating causes the proppant particulates to adhere to the created fracture faces by forming partial monolayer, thus mitigating their settling and enhancing their vertical distribution in the fractures. In experimental testing, various shale core samples were split along the core length to create artificial fracture faces. These fracture faces were then exposed to microproppant or proppant slurry that has been treated with an ASMA, and were then reassembled for core flow testing under closure stress. A permeability comparison of the fractured cores, with and without ASMA-treated microproppant or proppant, demonstrated a dramatic increase of permeability in the treated cores. Field treatments involved injection of pad fluid containing a low concentration of microproppant, with and without treating with ASMA in offset wells, to treat the microfractures formed in the far-field regions. Proppant slurry of larger size particulates (100-mesh and larger) then followed to prop the primary fractures and their branches. Production of wells treated with microproppant has shown to provide significant improvement in liquids production over the production of control wells. Reservoir simulation performed in this complex retrograde condensate reservoir supports this result with sensitivity testing showing that increasing the connected fracture area enables the production of more hydrocarbon liquids at higher sustained production rates.