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Effective Monitoring of Hydraulic Fracture Stimulations Using Microseismcity: Part 1, Source Scaling Behavior and Stress Release
- Publisher: European Association of Geoscientists & Engineers
- Source: Conference Proceedings, EAGE GeoTech 2021 First EAGE Workshop on Induced Seismicity, Mar 2021, Volume 2021, p.1 - 7
Abstract
To utilize the full potential of microseismic data collected during a hydraulic fracture stimulation, there needs to be an effective approach to determining additional parameters of the rupture process associated with each microsiemic event. The use of ‘penny shaped crack’ models of rupture and variants allows for the determination of estimates of fracture dimensionality and stress release, such as seismic stress drop or apparent stress. Accordingly, global investigations of seismicity over seven orders of magnitude, suggest that seismicity behaves in a self-similar manner, where the ‘penny shaped crack’ dimensions (source radius) scales with seismic moment resulting in a constant stress drop over the size scale range considered. In this paper we examine the scaling relationship of microseismicity for events with M<-0.5, as recorded with downhole array configurations for a hydraulic fracture stimulation. We identify departures from self-similarity and suggest that those are related to issues in data collection and processing, and when, appropriately addressed, the resultant behavior can be considered as self-similar. Utilizing scaling relations can form the basis for quantifying the robustness of data for post-acquisition processing and interpretation and deriving meaningful interpretive results.