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Understanding Hydraulic Fracture Variability Through Integration of Microseismicity and Reservoir Characterization
- Publisher: European Association of Geoscientists & Engineers
- Source: Conference Proceedings, Third EAGE Passive Seismic Workshop - Actively Passive 2011, Mar 2011, cp-225-00001
- ISBN: 978-90-73834-05-7
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Abstract
Integration of microseismicity and reservoir properties has been used to design better well placement, improved stimulations and enhanced production of wells in the Montney shale in NE British Columbia, Canada. The paper describes investigation of the variability in the geometry of hydraulic fractures by integrating seismic reservoir characterization information with source analysis of microseismicity recorded during the stimulation of three horizontal wells. Surface seismic reflection data was inverted for variation in Poisson’s ratio and an edge detection algorithm was used to identify pre-existing faults. Larger amounts of seismic deformation, anomalous frequency-magnitude relations and focal mechanisms were found when the hydraulic fractures interacted with the pre-existing faults. The faults appear to limit the extents of the hydraulic fracture growth, and also result in lower gas production. The hydraulic fractures were also found to preferentially grow towards regions with low Poisson’s ratio, which will tend to be associated with lower stresses. Understanding the impact of reservoir heterogeneity and structures on the hydraulic fractures is critical to optimizing the production from these wells.