Everything You Always Wanted to Know

About Microseismic Monitoring

Peter M. Duncan, Ph.D.

2016 MicroSeismic, Inc. | All Rights Reserved

Agenda

Part 1 - Getting Started: history and some fundamentals

Part 2 - Data Acquisition: downhole, surface, buried array

Part 3 - Imaging the Events: location, location, location

Part 4 - Descriptive Analysis: beyond dots-in-the-box

Part 5 - Predictive Analysis: all the way to EUR

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 Part 1
Getting Started:
history and some fundamentals

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US Gas Shale Basins (2011)

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US Gas Shale Basins (2008)

Source: USGS

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First - Horizontal Drilling

Source: Whiting Petroleum

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 Second - Fracing

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Hydraulic Fracture Well Stimulation

Fracturing 60 years ago!

Interpretation
Interpretation System
System
Fluids
Blender

Pump

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Hydraulic Fracturing
Net pressure
Pressure difference between closure pressure and pressure that
keeps the fracture open
Fracture Gradient
The pressure to fracture the formation at a particular depth divided by
the depth. A fracture gradient of 18 kPa/m (0.8 psi/foot) implies that at
a depth of 3 km (10,000 feet) a pressure of 54 MPa (8,000 psi) will
extend a hydraulic fracture.
ISIP - Instantaneous Shut In Pressure p = hg
The pressure measured immediately after injection stops. The ISIP
provides a measure of the pressure in the fracture at the wellbore by
removing contributions from fluid friction.
pc p

p ISIP (frac closure)

Leak off
pc
Net pressure = p - pc time
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Mohr-Coulomb Failure

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Pumping the Frac

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Simple Frac Model

after B. Meyer, 2009

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Attempting More Complex Models

after B. Meyer, 2009

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Attempting More Complex Models

after B. Meyer, 2009

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Third - Microseismic Monitoring

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 In the Beginning..

132 AD Zhang Hengs Houfeng didong yi

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Rocky Mountain Arsenal - 1962

Well Depth: 12,045 feet (3671 m)

First Injection: April 62 to Sept 63

~700 earthquakes <8 km from well

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Rocky Mountain Arsenal

Colorado Geological Survey

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Senturian Sciences Patent on Frac Monitoring - 1973

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What is Monitoring Telling Us?
Simple models are wrong

Fracs often not symmetric

Fracs not single fissures

Pre-existing natural fractures play a significant role

Local stress direction highly variable

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Pennsylvania Example

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Watching Fractures Grow

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 Part 1
Getting Started:
history and some fundamentals

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Everything You Always Wanted to Know
About Microseismic Monitoring
Peter M. Duncan, Ph.D.

2016 MicroSeismic, Inc. | All Rights Reserved