Surface Seismic Monitoring of Hydraulic Fracturing Test Site (HFTS) in the Midland Basin, Texas

Conference · Wed Jul 25 04:00:00 EDT 2018

DOI:https://doi.org/10.15530/urtec-2018-2902789· OSTI ID:1477770

Kumar, Abhash ^[1]; Hammack, Richard ^[2]; Harbert, William ^[2]; Chao, Kevin ^[3]

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1. National Energy Technology Laboratory, Department of Energy, Pittsburgh, PA; GTI
2. National Energy Technology Laboratory, Department of Energy, Pittsburgh, PA
3. 3Northwestern Institute on complex systems

Low-frequency seismic events of long duration were recorded by a surface array of 48, 3-component geophones during the fracture stimulation of two offset horizontal wells in the Middle Wolfcamp Formation (8000-8100 ft. below the geophone array) at the Hydraulic Fracturing Test Site (HFTS) in Reagan County, TX. Each recorded event was approximately 5-10 seconds long, with no clear first wave arrival; the seismic energy was largely visible on the vertical component suggesting that the events are dominated by P waves. A finite temporal moveout was observed across the seismic network in event arrival times indicating a causal relationship with the local source of deformation. The low-frequency seismic events observed in this study can be distinguished from the more commonly known microseismic events by their: 1) emergent waveform, 2) lack of clear P wave and S wave arrivals, 3) longer duration (few seconds), and 4) lower-frequency energy content (10-60 Hz). Previous researchers have observed similar low-frequency, long duration events in conjunction with the hydraulic fracturing of hydrocarbon reservoirs and have referred to them as long-period, long-duration (LPLD) events in the literature. LPLD events may be important to a comprehensive understanding of fracture stimulation because these events are thought to represent: 1) movement along pre-existing discontinuities such as bedding planes and fractures/faults, 2) deformation of ductile rocks with high clay content, and 3) the jerky tensile opening of hydraulic fractures. LPLD events resulting from slow shear-slip on faults and fractures of relatively larger dimension or rupture in the clay rich rock are collectively referred to as slow-slip seismicity, which was first observed in tectonic and volcanic settings, areas with high pore pressure like hydraulically fractured reservoirs. Because LPLDs are thought to represent deformation mechanisms not captured by microseismic analysis (which dominantly indicate shear failure of brittle rock), we believe that incorporating LPLD events into a new methodology for delimiting stimulated reservoir volume might improve predictions of well production.

• Research Organization: Gas Technology Institute
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Fossil Energy (FE)
• DOE Contract Number: FE0024292
• OSTI ID: 1477770
• Report Number(s): URTeC: 2902789
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English