Monitoring of induced seismicity is gaining importance in a broad range of industrial operations from hydrocarbon reservoirs to mining to geothermal fields. Such passive seismic monitoring mainly aims at identifying fractures, which is of special interest for safety and productivity reasons. By analysing shear‐wave splitting it is possible to determine the anisotropy of the rock, which may be caused by sedimentary layering and/or aligned fractures, which in turn offers insight into the state of stress in the reservoir. We present a workflow strategy for automatic and effective processing of passive microseismic data sets, which are ever increasing in size. The automation provides an objective quality control of the shear‐wave splitting measurements and is based on characteristic differences between the two independent eigenvalue and cross‐correlation splitting techniques. These differences are summarized in a quality index for each measurement, allowing identification of an appropriate quality threshold. Measurements above this threshold are considered to be of good quality and are used in further interpretation. We suggest an automated inversion scheme using rock physics theory to test for best correlation of the data with various combinations of fracture density, its strike and the background anisotropy. This fully automatic workflow is then tested on a synthetic and a real microseismic data set.

S U M M A R YThe presence of fractures in hydrocarbon reservoirs can enhance porosity and permeability, and consequently increase production. The use of seismic anisotropy to characterize fracture systems has gained much interest in the last two decades. However, estimating fracture sizes from observations of seismic anisotropy has not been possible. Recent work has shown that frequency-dependent anisotropy (FDA) is very sensitive to the length-scale of the causative mechanism for the anisotropy. In this study, we observe FDA in a microseismic data set acquired from a carbonate gas field in Oman. The frequency-dependent shear wave anisotropy observations are modelled using a poroelastic model, which considers fluid communication between grain size pore spaces and larger scale fractures. A grid search is performed over fracture parameters (radius, density and strike) to find the model that best fits the real data. The results show that fracture size varies from the microscale within the shale cap rocks, to the metre-scale within the gas reservoir, to the centimetre-scale within the non-producing part of the carbonate formation. The lateral variation in fracture density agrees with previous conclusions from ordinary shear wave splitting (SWS) analysis. Cumulatively, the results show the potential for characterizing fracture systems using observations of FDA.

The study of seismic anisotropy in exploration seismology is gaining interest as it provides valuable information about reservoir properties and stress directions. In this study we estimate anisotropy in a petroleum field in Oman using observations of shear‐wave splitting from microseismic data. The data set was recorded by arrays of borehole geophones deployed in five wells. We analyse nearly 3400 microearthquakes, yielding around 8500 shear‐wave splitting measurements. Stringent quality control reduces the number of reliable measurements to 325. Shear‐wave splitting modelling in a range of rock models is then used to guide the interpretation. The difference between the fast and slow shear‐wave velocities along the raypath in the field ranges between 0–10% and it is controlled both by lithology and proximity to the NE‐SW trending graben fault system that cuts the field formations. The anisotropy is interpreted in terms of aligned fractures or cracks superimposed on an intrinsic vertical transversely isotropic (VTI) rock fabric. The highest magnitudes of anisotropy are within the highly fractured uppermost unit of the Natih carbonate reservoir. Anisotropy decreases with depth, with the lowest magnitudes found in the deep part of the Natih carbonate formation. Moderate amounts of anisotropy are found in the shale cap rock. Anisotropy also varies laterally with the highest anisotropy occurring either side of the south‐eastern graben fault. The predominant fracture strikes, inferred from the fast shear‐wave polarizations, are consistent with the trends of the main faults (NE‐SW and NW‐SE). The majority of observations indicate subvertical fracture dip (>70°). Cumulatively, these observations show how studies of shear‐wave splitting using microseismic data can be used to characterize fractures, important information for the exploitation of many reservoirs.

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