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Prediction of hydraulic fracture azimuth from anelastic strain recovery measurements of oriented core

Conference ·
OSTI ID:5235495

A reliable method of predicting the azimuth of massive hydraulic fractures is of great importance to the gas industry in developing low permeability reservoirs. Knowledge of the fracture azimuth would allow optimum location and spacing of wells in a developing field and thus could increase recoveries an additional 30% of the total reservoir. In order to predict the azimuth of a hydraulic fracture it is necessary to know the direction of the minimum horizontal in-situ stress, because a hydraulic fracture propagates perpendicular to this stress direction. In this study an anelastic strain recovery technique is presented as a method of determining the directions and ratio of the maximum and minimum horizontal in-situ stresses from oriented cores from deep wells and thus enable prediction of the fracture orientation.

Research Organization:
Sandia National Labs., Albuquerque, NM (USA)
DOE Contract Number:
AC04-76DP00789
OSTI ID:
5235495
Report Number(s):
SAND-82-0351C; CONF-820803-1; ON: DE82007762
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English