Permeability Field Imaging from Microseismic

Sicking, Charles; Vermilye, Jan; Geiser, Péter; Lacazette, Alfred; Thompson, Laird B.

doi:10.1190/segam2012-1383.1

Cited by 18 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 2 publications

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“…It has been well documented that, during multistage horizontal fracturing, a "cloud" of microseismic events surrounding the hydraulic fractures indicate the occurrence of shear slip on preexisting fractures and faults distributed around the induced hydraulic fractures (Rutledge and Phillips, 2003;Warpinski et al, 2004). However, the correlation between the cloud of microseismic event and the stimulated rock volume is still questioned (Sicking et al, 2013). In a case in which the microseismic cloud was fairly planar, Moos et al (2011) showed that the number of microseismic events did not correlate with production from successive hydraulic fracturing stages.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Long-period, long-duration seismic events during hydraulic stimulation of shale and tight-gas reservoirs — Part 1: Waveform characteristics

Das

Zoback

2013

GEOPHYSICS

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Long-period long-duration (LPLD) seismic events are relatively low-amplitude signals that have been observed during hydraulic fracturing in several shale-gas and tight-gas reservoirs. These events are similar in appearance to tectonic tremor sequences observed in subduction zones and transform fault boundaries. LPLD events are predominantly composed of S-waves, but weaker P-waves have also been identified. In some cases, microearthquakes are observed during the events. Based on the similarity with tectonic tremors and our observations of several impulsive S-wave arrivals within the LPLD events, we interpret the LPLD events as resulting from the superposition of slow shear-slip events on relatively large faults. Most large LPLD waveforms appear to start as a relatively slower, low-amplitude precursor, lacking clear impulsive arrivals. We estimate the energy carried by the larger LPLD events to be ∼1000 times greater than a ∼M W − 2 microseismic event that is typical of the events that occur during hydraulic stimulation. Over the course of the entire stimulation activity of five wells in the Barnett formation (each hydraulically fractured ten times), the LPLD events were found to cumulatively release over an order of magnitude higher energy than microearthquakes. The large size of these LPLD events, compared to microearthquakes, suggests that they represent slip on relatively large faults during stimulation of these extremely low-permeability reservoirs. Moreover, they imply that the accompanying slow slip on faults, probably mostly undetected, is a significant deformation process during multistage hydraulic fracturing.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Long-period, long-duration seismic events during hydraulic stimulation of shale and tight-gas reservoirs — Part 1: Waveform characteristics

Das

Zoback

2013

GEOPHYSICS

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“…TFI has been previously described in a number of publications Sicking et al, 2012;Lacazette and Geiser, 2013;Sicking et al, 2014). SET was originally developed for nuclear test ban monitoring and is widely used with data from surface or shallow buried arrays for monitoring tectonic and volcanic tremor and in the oil and gas industry for determining hydrofracture-induced microearthquakes.…”

Section: Methods 1 -Tomographic Fracture Imaging Smmentioning

confidence: 99%

A New Method of Neostress Determination from Passive Seismic Data

Lacazette¹,

Morris²

2015

Unconventional Resources Technology Conference

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This contribution describes an entirely new method for determining the neostress (present-day stress) in reservoirs using passive seismic data from surface arrays. Until now the only stress information available from passive seismic methods has been derived from the focal mechanism solutions of microearthquakes (MEQs). This method has several weaknesses:• The P and T axes of the solution do not correspond to the maximum and minimum compressive stress axes even though they are often used as proxies. • MEQs that are sufficiently strong and clear to determine focal mechanism solutions are relatively rare. • Both surface and downhole microseismic methods are limited in their ability to accurately determine focal mechanism solutions. • The method provides information on the orientations, but not magnitudes, of the three principal stresses. • Focal mechanism solutions yield two potential fault plane solutions which are not determined uniquely.The new method relies on analysis of the orientation, size, and seismic activity of surface segments of Tomographic Fracture Images SM (TFIs). TFIs are direct images of both induced fractures and natural fractures stimulated by fracking (Geiser et al, 2012; Doe et al, Lacazette et al URTeC 2013, Lacazette et al, Sicking et al, URTeC 2014). The method uses passive seismic data acquired with surface arrays.TFIs can be generated as tessellated surfaces. A tessellated surface is a continuous surface composed of triangles with common edges. Slip Tendency Analysis uses the orientations, areas, and cumulative seismic activities of individual triangular facets of tessellated TFIs to find the orientations and relative magnitudes of the principal stresses that best fit the properties of the population of facets. If independent stress magnitude information is available then quantitative estimates of the reservoir stresses can be determined. The method has the advantage of working with large data sets (tens of thousands to millions of facets) that are distributed across the region of the reservoir affected by a hydraulic fracture treatment. The large sample leads to robust solutions. Also, it may be possible to extend the method to map reservoir stress variations. Other important advantages of the method are that it is not dependent on determining first arrivals and is independent of fault plane orientation or MEQ location.

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“…Tomographic Fracture Imaging™ or TFI (Geiser et al, 2006;Geiser et al, 2012;Lacazette and Geiser, 2013;Sicking et al, 2013) is a proprietary, patented and patent-pending technology. In brief, TFI is accomplished as follows.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ambient Fracture Imaging: A New Passive Seismic Method

Lacazette¹,

Vermilye²,

Fereja³

et al. 2013

Unconventional Resources Technology Conference, Denver, Colorado, 12-14 August 2013

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Knowledge of discrete transmissive features such as faults or fracture zones prior to drilling offers substantial benefits for all phases of operations from exploration to development planning and hydraulic fracture design. We describe a new application of a relatively new passive-seismic method. The product is images of seismic activity produced by discrete features such as faults and fractures in the reservoir prior to drilling. We will present data acquired with passive seismic listening arrays in two unconventional reservoirs and a fractured carbonate reservoir.An extensive body of literature shows that fracture/fault zones with high resolved shear stress correlate positively with fracture transmissivity. In many cases, discontinuities with high resolved shear stress will be the most microseismically active. This method therefore allows mapping of many hydraulically transmissive zones prior to drilling or any other activity.The passive seismic method (Tomographic Fracture Imaging™ or TFI) directly images seismically active hydraulic fractures and natural fractures as complex surfaces and networks. Until recently, TFI has been used primarily to image hydraulic fracture treatments. We report a new application: imaging ambient seismic activity both prior to frac monitoring and by quiet-time monitoring using 3D reflection grids, i.e. by recording on a reflection grid or dedicated passive seismic grid when shooting or vibrating is not in progress. The resulting images reveal seismically active fracture and fault zones that correlate well with features illuminated by fracing or that are imaged by 3D reflection seismic attributes. The presence and hydraulic transmissivity of some of these features have been validated by independent measures including chemical tracers and pressure monitoring.This work also considers drivers of ambient seismic activity including earth tides and epeirogenic movements. Earth stress studies have established that the brittle crust is a self-organizing critical system in a state of frictional equilibrium and hence is constantly on the verge of movement. The earth's brittle crust is continually loaded by a variety of forces although tectonic movements, isostacy and isostacy-related flexure appear to dominate. It has been shown that stress or pressure changes of less than 0.01 atmospheres can stimulate seismicity. We present our work to date on quantitative correlations between earth tides and ambient seismic activity imaged on large grids. The results suggest that earth tides help stimulate release of stored elastic strain energy in the brittle crust.

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Permeability Field Imaging from Microseismic

Cited by 18 publications

References 2 publications

Long-period, long-duration seismic events during hydraulic stimulation of shale and tight-gas reservoirs — Part 1: Waveform characteristics

Long-period, long-duration seismic events during hydraulic stimulation of shale and tight-gas reservoirs — Part 1: Waveform characteristics

A New Method of Neostress Determination from Passive Seismic Data

Ambient Fracture Imaging: A New Passive Seismic Method

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