Mark Gavin Mack

Hydraulic Fracture Monitoring to Reservoir Simulation: Maximizing Value

Hydraulic fracture monitoring with microseismic mapping is now routinely used to measure hydraulic fracture geometry, location, and complexity, providing an abundance of information that can be essential to optimizing stimulation treatments and well completions. Although microseismic mapping has added significant value in many different environments, we have yet to fully utilize microseismic data. Significant details can be extracted from microseismic measurements that, when integrated with other information, can improve the characterization of both the reservoir and the hydraulic fracture. In addition, microseismic data has yet to be quantitatively and routinely utilized in reservoir simulation, which is the key to optimization.

Appraising Unconventional Resource Plays: Separating Reservoir Quality from Completion Effectiveness

Appraisal wells in unconventional, very low permeability, resource plays require large hydraulic fracture treatments to assess economic viability. In many cases, drainage area and hydrocarbon recovery are defined by the areal extent and effectiveness of the hydraulic fracture treatment. To increase the drainage area and recovery per well, multiple hydraulic fracture treatments in horizontal and vertical wells are now common, resulting in more complex and expensive completions. Therefore, appraising the completion and hydraulic fracture treatment are just as important as appraising the reservoir. Unlike conventional reservoirs, the complexity and heterogeneity of unconventional resources can make reliable reservoir characterization difficult, which can result in significant uncertainty when evaluating appraisal well performance. Therefore, applying the appropriate technologies for unconventional reservoirs and a holistic approach are essential to properly separate reservoir quality from completion effectiveness.

Understanding Hydraulic Fracture Variability Through Integrating Microseismicity and Seismic Reservoir Characterization

Microseismic measurements were integrated with seismic reservoir characterization and injection data to investigate variability in the hydraulic fracture response between three horizontal wells in the Montney shale in NE British Columbia, Canada. When wells were close enough, hydraulic fractures were found to interact with pre-existing faults, which acted as a barrier to fracture growth, and resulted in relatively large-magnitude microseismicity.